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ICT Facility Award

Awarded to the educational establishment in the UK that has made outstanding progress in the provision of a first class environment for the teaching of ICT and related subjects.

2023 Winner: Mary Astell Academy, Newcastle

Last year, Mary Astell Academy’s ICT resources and infrastructure had a major upgrade following significant investment. Both ICT suites had a complete refurbishment of all PCs in both teaching and non-teaching areas. The additional purchase of 20 laptops allowed for more online learning to be delivered across the curriculum. The Academy has also benefited from the integration of dark fibre. Led by Newcastle City Council, dark fibre is being introduced throughout all of Prosper Learning Trust’s schools.

Commended
City of London Freemens School
Kettering Buccleuch Academy
Bath and Wells Multi Academy Trust


2022 Winner
Tauheedul Islam Boys' High School, Blackburn

Commended
King Edwards School, Bath
Monkerton Community Primary School, Devon
The Howard School, Kent


2021 Winner
Smithdon High School, Norfolk 

The latest phase of a £1m facelift at Smithdon High, a member of the 11-school West Norfolk Academies Trust, has seen students return from lockdown top a complete library redesign which includes capacity for one-to-one learning, a quiet reading area and the school’s fifth computer suite, with room for an entire class of students. Originally planned for the summer, the school saw closure as an opportunity to accelerate improvements and prepare for a growing number of pupils.

Commended
The Hart School, Staffordshire
St. Mary's Catholic Primary School. Middlesex
Stoke-by-Nayland Primary School, Suffolk
Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys, Kent


2020 Winner
Blessed William Howard Catholic High School, Staffordshire

With Digital Information Technology, Creative Media and Computer Science offered on the curriculum at Blessed William Howard, facilities to enhance learning are essential. The school has a ratio of roughly 3 computers per child and features ‘pods’ of computers in all subject sector areas as well as 4 dedicated ICT Suites. To aid programming skills, The Raspberry Pi is available as well as Apple Macs for art, design and music. The KS3 curriculum includes programming using Scratch and Python, Excel, databases, presentations (using Prezi), creating comic books and videos for e-safety and website design using Serif Webplus. Year 8 studies include Computer Crime and Cyber Security.

Commended

Saint Paul's Catholic High School, Manchester
Co-op Academy, Stoke-on-Trent
Hallbrook Primary School, Leicestershire


2019 Winner
Minehead Middle School, Somerset

All teachers at Minehead have an iPad that can be connected to interactive whiteboards to develop skills and understanding. There are three ICT suites, one of which was refurbished with new computers in September 2018. A set of Lego Mindstorms robots are used to learn about programming and robotics. The school has been involved in many national and international competitions including the Bebras Challenge, a competition sponsored by Google and the University of Oxford that involves solving problems using computational thinking skills in a fun and engaging way.

Commended

Knights Templar School, Hertfordshire
The Knights Templar School in Hertfordshire, a secondary school and sixth form with a history dating back to the 1930s, utilised a respected IT forum to seek advice and expert knowledge on ICT equipment specifically for the school environment. Over the past two years, the school has purchased around 150 refurbished computers, 25 Monitors, an Apple iMac, plus several accessories which has saved around £30,000. The business grade machines are covered by a two year warranty and are a higher specification than standard machines that schools normally use.

Lee Chapel Primary School, Essex
Lee Chapel Primary School has invested in two new state-of-the-art ICT suites to support delivery of ICT lessons. New front of class displays were needed for the ICT suites in addition to the classrooms across the school. The aim was to partner with a brand across the Multi-Academy Trust to standardise the technology offering and streamline processes. By standardising the technology, a culture could then be created where teachers could actively support each other with teaching best practice and gain confidence in using the technology.

St Mary Magdalene CE Primary School, London
St Mary Magdalene CE Primary School is a one form entry school located in the diverse area of Peckham. It has recently invested in 23 new computers and state of the art IT equipment, along with latest software to embrace the new computing curriculum. Desks conceal the computers when not in use, and the spacious room allows children to enjoy a variety of enrichment activities such as drama, gospel choir and African drumming. A video guide to cyber bullying has been produced which helps children deal with situations which they may encounter online.


2018 Winner
Leighton Park School

Leighton Park School has been awarded as a Centre of Excellence for Computer Science. It has been able to disseminate support and guidance through its vast and varied experiences that it provides young people, both within the school and the wider Thames Valley Community through its whole school iSTEM+ initiative. This has included trips to leading IT organisations such as Google, Microsoft and Cisco, empirical academic research all of which has been shared with many primary and secondary schools across the UK and Europe.

Commended

Royal Alexandra and Albert School, Surrey
de Ferrers Academy, Staffordshire
Ecclesfield School, Sheffield


2017 Winner
Rendcomb College

Five years ago, ICT lacked support and interest at Rendcombe, with the number of pupils taking the subject in decline. New courses and staff were introduced to reinvigorate STEM education at secondary level. Now, pupil engagement with technology-enhanced learning is at an all-time high. A recently introduced Digital Leaders scheme lets pupils become the teachers and coach their peers and staff in better use of technology.

Commended

Rotherithe Primary School, London
Blenheim Primary, Wales
All Saints Church in Wales Primary School
The Royal Alexandra and Albert School, Surrey


2016 Winner
Westmorland Primary School, Lancashire

Westmorland School has a track record of succeeding with children with some of the most complex learning needs under the ethos ‘we learn to live together, together we live to learn’. The school recognised that computing and technology needed to be developed in order to engage pupils using their areas of interest and strengths, which was predominantly ICT. This led to the school investing in an iPad per child, which has allowed students to develop a new interest in specific learning. The use of iPads has seen individual academic progress in literacy, removed the threat of ‘pen and paper’, challenged traditional teaching methods, and resulting in a shared passion and enthusiasm for the ICT across the whole school, which feeds into all learning.

Commended

Portway Junior School, Hampshire
Clevedon School, North Somerset


2015 Winner
King’s Ely School, Cambridgeshire

King’s Ely is quickly gaining a reputation as a trailblazer when it comes to the use of ICT. Despite its medieval buildings, the school is making advancements in ICT provision including four computing rooms, Bring-Your-Own-Device initiatives and taking part in a Europe-wide Erasmus project to build digital resources.

Commended

Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Lancaster
The Wallace High School, Co Antrim
Hillside Community First School, Dorset
Slinfold CE Primary School, West Sussex