Wallace leading the way in ICT education

Accompanied by Rory Bonnar (Specialist Consultant Technical and Engineering MCSGROUP Intelligent Recruitment Solutions) the Permanent Secretary met with Principal Deborah O’Hare, who outlined Wallace’s ICT strategy.

The trio then visited the Computing Department to meet the staff, including Head of Department Ruth Foster, teaching colleague Maggie Hunter and student teacher Michelle Heron.

The visitors were shown a wide range of activities at both Key Stage Three and Key Stage Five and engaged with pupils from Years Eight and Nine, who builtLego Mindstorm robots to demonstrate the use of sensors in interacting with the environment. Other activities included Raspberry PI - used to teach programming ; Gamemaker and Scratch - which facilitate writing computer games, and Minecraft.

The Year 13 students who are participants in the new Computing A level impressed with the quizzes they had created using C# and showcased their website coursework, which employs html code.

In recent years Wallace has moved to develop strong links with industry.

Staff members have completed placements, the school has much-valued contacts with Allstate, Liberty IT, Kainos and Tascomi, and two students - Tanya Matthews and Adam Murray - have won student scholarships.

Principal, Mrs O’Hare, said: “This visit, in common with that of distinguished Norwegian academic Ann Sørum Michaelsen, highlights how Wallace’s reputation as a centre of excellence continues to grow.

“It was a privilege to host our visitors and to contribute to the debate about creating digital citizens.”