We recently visited Sneinton St Stephen’s CofE Primary School in Nottingham, part of Transform Trust, and met with Headteacher Mark Lowe and Digital Transformation Lead, Rachel Walker. As a one to one iPad school with digital transformation being one of their key Areas of Excellence, it was fantastic to see first hand some of the innovative ways the school is using technology.
Upon arriving at Sneinton Primary I was struck by the incredibly captivating corridor displays. You could really see the time and effort dedicated to creating a vibrant learning space, but what also inspired me was the brilliant balance that the school found between traditional and digital displays. Mark talked to us about being an Apple Distinguished School , also sharing the need to ensure displays were in keeping with this digital focus,
“As digital is one of our areas of excellence and we are a one to one iPad school, we wanted to really make sure that our displays and environment captured that interest and that excellence in digital technology.”
The use of technology is established early on at Sneinton, from early years children are given the opportunity to use iPads to aid their learning. With ‘Digital Transformation’ being one of their key Areas of Excellence they quickly become creators of technology. Digital Transformation Lead, Rachel introduced TrilbyTV to Sneinton, recognising the potential to showcase the fantastic digital work children were creating and sharing this beyond their devices. Rachel explained,
“We have a whole curriculum where children are producing podcasts, films and digital art with stop motion and we needed a way to display that.”
During our visit to Sneinton St. Stephen’s CofE Primary it was clear to see how the school used their digital signage to showcase how they live out their key Areas of Excellence; Reading for Pleasure, Pupil Leadership, Digital Transformation and Serving the Community. Maximising the use of TrilbyTV’s Unlimited Screen subscription, the school has 8 screens around the site which include the Reception, Staff Room, Meeting Room, Community Room, Studio, Oasis Room, STEM Centre and Pupil Leadership Room.
Within these key areas content is tailored to the location of the screens to ensure it’s relevant, engaging and creating maximum impact. Rachel talked to us about how they have seen the benefits of using TrilbyTV, beyond just sharing pupil’s work,
“I started to think about how we could use it for staff training and key messages. The power in it is so much beyond the initial just displaying digital work. I started to talk to different people about the different ways that it could be used.”
Serving the community
On our tour of the school we visited the community room, a hub for families to access and use vital facilities they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Being a central hub, the school uses digital signage to show specific social media examples relevant to ‘Serving the Community’. Examples such as Celebrating Eid, the ‘Great Big Community Giveaway’ and sharing fruit grown and harvested from the school allotment.
Digital leaders
‘Digital Transformation’ and ‘Pupil Leadership’ are two of the key Areas of Excellence at Sneinton, with children becoming digital leaders in the early years. The high aspirations are clear to see with children creating and publishing their digital work. The use of technology helps the children to collaborate and communicate with their teachers and peers. Digital Leaders support teachers and students to use technology and inspire each other. Within the Pupil Leadership Room, digital signage celebrates the awards and accreditation that is recognised by the school as well as showcasing relevant social media posts and a reminder of the key areas of excellence.
Sneinton ensures that the content on their screens creates the maximum impact for the desired audience. Displaying the school’s mission and vision, selected social media posts, as well as testimonials and quotes from visitors in their meeting room really helps to build a picture of the distinct impact of the school within the local community.
Supporting school inspections
Headteacher, Mark Lowe explained how displaying content with TrilbyTV around the school during their recent Ofsted and SIAMS inspections helped to enrich conversations. With inspections just two weeks apart, pupils and staff were involved in interviews with the inspectors. Students saw pictures of learning experiences which prompted discussion points which they otherwise may not have thought of at that time.
Staff communication
Sneinton St Stephen’s CofE Primary is 1 of 26 primary schools that make up Transform Trust. Collaboratively the school and Trust were looking at ways to enhance communication at school and trust level. Recognising the barrier in communication from the trust to staff in schools, this allows the trust to push out key messages to all staff using TrilbyTV’s Multisite feature. Displaying content such as employee benefits and discounts, save the date for INSET days, staff events, CPD and training. Mark explains, “it’s become a way that our staff can join in a much bigger community and engage in the life of the trust.”
Alongside the schools traditional staff room wall calendar, their digital signage screen is carefully located to ensure it provides accessible content whilst not distracting staff during break time periods. Their use of QR codes linked to newsletters and staff bulletins enables staff to scan and read at their convenience, whilst also helping to reduce printing costs.
Thank you to Mark and Rachel for showing us the digital signage around Sneinton St Stephen’s CofE Primary School. It was fantastic to see how the school lives out its values and key Areas of Excellence and ensures the content shared on TrilbyTV is relevant and tailored to the location and area of the screen. Mark explains that using TrilbyTV has given them a “fantastic opportunity to really holistically showcase what our school’s about in lots of different ways and lots of different subject areas.”
If you are not already using TrilbyTV, why not sign up for a 30 day free trial where you can check out our platform for yourself. You can also learn more about our brilliant resources and why we’re the experts in digital signage with the number one platform made for education, by signing up for a demo today.