ICT Staff
There are five full time members of staff in the department. Most of the teachers are trained to teach Business Studies and Information Technology. The department has a Cluster Manager; Mrs Tyrrell and she has been teaching at the school for almost twenty five years. Mrs Tyrrell taught at the school when it got the very first computer and she is very proud now that the school has almost five hundred computers.
Mr Rigby is the coordinator for Vocational ICT and he teachers both GNVQ and the new DIDA. He enjoys teaching the new courses because they allow him to develop his own knowledge and skills. He likes to create web sites and uses the internet to share his resources with pupils.
Mrs Lightfoot is the coordinator for Business Studies. She teaches GCSE and Applied courses in Business Studies and ICT to pupils at GCSE level and Key stage 3. She enjoys teaching Business Studies very much and likes to encourage pupils to work independently so that one day they will have the business skills to work in industry.
Mr Palmer joined the school two years ago and took part in a scheme called the Graduate Teacher programme. He was an instant success in the school. His teaching is welcomed by pupils at the school who say that he always stays calm and is very helpful. He teaches mainly Vocational ICT and enjoys using the interactive whiteboard in his lessons. He thinks he is very lucky to have a newly equipped room when he is so new to the profession.
Mr Aird joined the school last year and teaches GCSE IT and Vocational IT. He thinks that the school has excellent resources and likes how the pupils are so committed to their work. He was very impressed with the number of students who stayed after school to work on projects and coursework.
In addition to these staff, some of the lessons are taught by teachers from Maths, Languages and PE. All these staff are enjoying the subject and say that they think the pupils are very motivated by using ICT equipment. They find that pupils enjoy coming to the IT classes and use the equipment with high skill levels.