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It is with great excitement that we have watched the growth of IT in the Primary School. The second teaching lab has been completed and is in full operation. We now have a SP Lab and a JP lab both equipped with brand new computers with flat screens and interactive whiteboards. The
Creativity Centre mezzanine has 15 computers that can be used for various activities, e.g. Reader are Leaders, research and project work during CC days.
 Of the 300 computers on the whole school network, 124 are in the Primary School. All computers are linked to an ADSL connection and girls are able to access the Internet under the supervision of a teacher.
Teachers are actively involved in IT: they accompany their classes to lessons and many are doing, or have completed, the ICDL course.
Readers are Leaders, the English and Afrikaans reading program, is running well and the girls are thoroughly enjoying working through the exercises at their own pace. We look forward to see the improvement in their reading and comprehension skills.
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The ICT Curriculum
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The ICT curriculum links very closely with work done in other subjects, with the added emphasis on ICT skills. In the Junior Primary Phase, the initial focus is on building confidence and developing keyboarding and mouse skills. Girls are exposed to a variety of applications, depending on the skills required to do the specific tasks. Once in Senior Primary, the girls’ skills base is built on and the complexity of work increases. The Microsoft Office Suite is the application of choice for most tasks, so that the girls are able to practice and apply their knowledge at home as well.
Main areas of curriculum are:
Keyboarding and mouse skills: girls develop their skills using a typing tutor, they draw pictures using MS Paint to illustrate projects and “play games” which reinforce these skills.
Technical knowledge: girls are encouraged to use correct terminology from the onset and in the Senior Phase the girls do research and a presentation on computer terminology.
Projects: girls are able to type documents in MS Word. They very capably create slide shows using MS PowerPoint to enhance their presentations. They are able to manipulate Images using Image Composer and MS Paint. They manipulate numbers and graphs and explore database concepts using MS Excel. Girls use MS Publisher to develop their desktop publishing skills creating cards, brochures, bookmarks and posters. Kidspiration is an amazing versatile program which is used extensively for mind mapping, classification, sorting and investigating.
Research: girls are encouraged to explore all available resources when doing research, including Encarta Resource Library, online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia and they are au fait with accessing resources on the Internet. A strong emphasis is placed on teaching the girls how to search the Internet safely and to reference any information used in their projects.
Communications and social networking: we are very excited to have introduced the girls to blogging in addition to using e-mail to communicate and share ideas with learners from other schools.
Skills development: a variety of educational programs and Internet based applications are used to hone concepts taught in the different learning areas.
Readers are Leaders, an English and Afrikaans reading program, is running well and the girls are thoroughly enjoying working through the exercises at their own pace. We look forward to see the improvement in their reading and comprehension skills.
During World Math Day, the Senior Primary launched into an International online Math competition, playing against children and teachers from all over the world. It was amazing to see the girls so competitively and enthusiastically doing math. Two classes won an annual membership to the web based program, Mathletics, which covers both curriculum based topics and the competitive element.
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Examples of work:
- Grade R Valentines’ Day cards,
- Grade 1 an animated number chart using Ms PowerPoint,
- Grade 2 “Healthy Eating” food pyramids,
- Grade 3 herb slide shows which are presented to the moms during a morning tea,
- Grade 4 likening their character to that of a wild animal and illustrating it by combining a digital photograph of themselves with an animal picture from the Internet and adding adjectives,
- Grade 5 slide shows on “The San” and presenting a poem, bookmarks which were donated to “The Mission to Seafarers” as part of a Christmas outreach,
- Grade 6 data handling and charts using MS Excel,
- Grade 7 mind maps summarising the dependence of animals and plants.
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From a staffing point of view, the structure of the IT department is as follows:
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Mrs Marilynn Isacks
Mrs Sheryl Gordon |
Director of IT for the whole school
IT specialist in the High School |
Mrs Linda Locke
Mrs Margie Hartmann |
Primary School IT Senior Teacher and
Senior Primary IT specialist
Junior Primary IT Specialist |
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