With technology becoming more and more important in everyday life, it makes sense to start learning about it early. DAN BARNES visited St Julian’s Primary in Newport to find out more about how they’re helping to create the next generation of tech whizzes

TEAMWORK is as important a technology at St Julian’s.

Head teacher Mr Rees explained: “We have a fantastic team.

“The school thrives on having a great team of teachers, teaching assistants, support staff, parents and governors. This is what makes the school work, everybody gives so much.”

The school is a Digital Competence Framework (DCF) pioneer school and has been from the very start.

The school have been working with the Welsh Government to create the DCF which is now being implemented in all of the schools in the country.

“We’re one of 13 schools in Wales to be involved,” said Mr Mansfield, deputy head.

“Since then we’ve been working with other schools around the region to support them in their development of ICT.”

Pupils at St Julian’s are able to use a wide range of technology throughout their curriculum.

This means that they are able to gain experience in using different tools to accomplish a varied array of tasks.

“We try to expose the children to as many different types of technology as possible,” said Mr Mansfield.

“When they go out into the big wide world, they’re going to encounter lots of different types of technology.”

Starting them early seems to be the key as it doesn’t take long for pupils at St Julian’s to be introduced to the world of programming.

In the foundation level we teach the children how to programme a small device such as a small robot to make basic movements. This begins as early as nursery.

“As they progress to the juniors, it becomes more specialised,” said Mr Mansfield.

“So, they might be programming a game that they’ve produced.”

The theme of technology permeates much of what both the staff and the pupils strive for at St Julian’s.

Mr Mansfield added: “We try to teach all subjects through thematic learning.

“We have an overall theme which the children are often instrumental in coming up with.

“For example, one of our themes was green energy.

“From that the children said they wanted to learn about electric cars and now we’ve got them building go-karts to race.

“They designed the karts from kits and built them with the help of their teachers.”

Pupil input is as important a part of school life as the lessons themselves.

There are a number of different pupil leadership groups at the school.

“Mrs Orford [deputy head] and I work to lead two of the groups,” said Mr Mansfield.

There is the pupil voice group, the wellbeing warriors, eco council, digital leaders, school council and Criw Cymraeg.

Each has their own specialist role giving pupils an input during their time at school.

The theme of technology is not just confined to the classroom at St Julian’s.

“We took 15 of our digital leaders to semiconductor firm Orbotech and spent the day there,” said Mr Mansfield.

Following the visit the pupils created a video which was subsequently shown at a global semiconductor convention.

Mr Mansfield added: “We had a message from Orbotech to say, “senior members of nearly 300 of the world’s biggest companies have just watched your video”.”

In a recent report by Estyn, St Julian’s was described as “an outstanding learning community” which Mr Rees says reflects that fact that everyone is a learner at the school - staff, pupils, parents and even himself.

“I remember I was giving an assembly about Florence Nightingale and her work in the Crimean War,” he said.

“I heard a noise behind me. Two of our year 6 pupils had switched the projector on.

“I had no idea what was going on but behind me there were pictures of Florence Nightingale.

“They’d put up all of these pictures by themselves. It was brilliant!”

Events are also organised to help parents engage with the children’s numeracy and literacy.

“Things will obviously have moved on a bit since they were in school,” said Mrs Orford.

“Every parent who attends also gets resources to help their children at home.

“We can also recommend websites or apps so that if the children are using technology at home it can still be linked to their learning.”

This idea of learning while helping others to learn has even been taken overseas.

“Over the past few years we have built up a really strong link with a school in Uganda,” said Mr Mansfield.

“We share stories and photographs. The head has even come over to visit us which was great for the children as they got to ask him questions.”