ICT

The whole school site is linked by a modern, high speed network that gives access to a wide range of generic and subject-specific software. As far as possible we ensure that the hardware is kept up to date and is capable of supporting the increasing demands of the digital curriculum.  We are engaged in a programme to equip classrooms with Interactive Whiteboards and currently over 30 rooms are equipped with these invaluable teaching aids. A 54Mbs wireless network for laptops is available throughout the main teaching block and plans are in place to create “ hot spots” around the site where students can connect to the Internet using their own laptops.

The ICT Department is open from 8.30am until 5.00pm each day and students are encouraged to use the facilities throughout the day. Each student has his or her own email account that is also accessible from home.

The Director of ICT leads the strategic planning and development of ICT throughout the school and a team of experienced technicians manage the day to day running of the network. A major area of development at the moment is the implementation of a content management system (CMS) for the school’s website.

The philosophy that underpins both the ICT curriculum and the distribution of hardware around the school is that ICT is a skill, rather like reading and writing, which is used in all subjects across the curriculum. Our aim is to teach and use ICT skills in almost all subject areas and to teach the use of packages such as Word or Excel within a real context as part of, for example, the science curriculum. The school is an accredited test centre for the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL).

The core network infrastructure runs at gigabit speeds over copper. The Prep school is connected by both an overhead laser link and an underground fibre optic cable. There are 8 servers running Microsoft Server 2003 to provide file storage, data processing and internet caching. We have over 1 terabyte of storage available within the existing infrastructure.

The school has 350 workstations most of which are running Microsoft Windows XP Professional. The newest workstations have 3.0 GHz Pentium IV processors with 1Gb of RAM. All workstations have Office 2003 installed and many pieces of curriculum-based software are also available. A package called “Websense” is used to filter the Internet connection and emails are scanned for viruses and “spam” at the Internet level.