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Huddersfield web agency gets top marks for ‘outstanding’ academy website
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Huddersfield-based web design agency has been praised by staff and students at Trinity Academy in Halifax for its work on the academy’s innovative new website. Having achieved ‘Outstanding’ status from Ofsted in 2013, the academy approached Splitpixel Creative Limited for an inspiring re-design of its website that would highlight its achievements and its vision of ‘excellence in all we do.’
Mr Michael Gosling, Principal at Trinity Academy, explained: “It’s important to us that our website reflects the outstanding achievements of the academy and our belief that what we do here is truly unique. We were looking to portray that individuality through an innovative, yet user-friendly website that would enable both students and parents to experience a true insight into life at the academy.”
Splitpixel Creative designed the new website around Trinity’s four core values of Empathy, Honesty, Respect and Responsibility. It was also crucial for the design and content of the site to reflect the academy’s belief that students can achieve their potential whilst also enjoying their time at the academy. A five-minute video was commissioned, alongside professional photography, to provide the basis for the aspirational design.
Mr Gosling added: “We were impressed with Splitpixel’s portfolio and especially liked the fact that they specialise in web design. As well as creating a ‘wow’ design, they have the technical skills in- house to make our website user-friendly and ensure that it works on all devices, including smartphones and tablets.”
Charlie Kemp, Director at Splitpixel, explains: “The website we built for Trinity Academy is fully responsive, which means that it works well on any size screen, from mobile up to desktop. This was a challenge because of the size of the website so our designers and developers had to work together closely throughout the project to create a website that is slick, attractive and user-friendly.” Splitpixel also built a secure and easy to use content management system (CMS) for the website so that the academy can update the site with new content in the future.
Count on Us! T
Technology and learning grow together at Yew Tree School
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ew Tree Primary School in Sandwell is always on the lookout for opportunities to help improve the learning environments of its pupils. As an Apple Regional Training Centre, the school is very keen on utilising technology to enhance the curriculum with all its KS2 pupils having their own iPad 24/7 365 days a year.
For the past few years, the school has been looking for a solution to use, share and securely store the videos staff and pupils have created. Having worked very successfully with education technology specialistsTrilby for several years, they were intrigued to hear about Trilby’s new product TrilbyTV. TrilbyTV is a simple to use video sharing app and online storage service that allows students to share video projects with each other and around their school. It sounded just the sort of thing Yew Tree were looking for.
V personality and mathematics populariser, Johnny Ball, stopped into a South London primary school to get pupils fired up as they prepare to take on the capital's best and brightest in a London-wide maths challenge. Mr Ball was at Sacred Heart RC Primary School in Battersea, for World Maths Day on Wednesday 12th March.
As numeracy ambassador for the charity Mayor’s Fund for London, Mr Ball inspired school children to take part in a new maths challenge using the 24 Game, as part of the Fund’s Count on Us numeracy programme, which aims to provide extra-curricular opportunities for children to increase their engagement in mathematics by making maths fun; and to improve confidence and academic attainment.
The school will enter a team of three of their best maths students in the Count on Us Challenge at City Hall at the end of April. Overall, 52 London schools have entered the challenge with the top 13 to attend the final, which will also be hosted by Johnny Ball, in June.
The 24 Game consists of a pack of cards, with four numbers under ten on each which, in varying degrees of difficulty, add to 24. Students need to use their maths skills to solve as many (or, preferably all) of the cards as possible in the time given.
Head teacher, Jared Brading said the school used the game in class to get children thinking: "The Count on Us Challenge has encouraged our students to see maths in a different way." Mr Ball Ball added: "An understanding that maths is both fun and empowering is one of the most important things we can teach young people today. I am delighted to be working
April 2014
with the Mayor’s Fund for London to support their Count on Us programme."
At a special school assembly, Mr Ball had his young audience of around 200 pupils of all ages both in rapt attention and stitches of laughter in a 35-minute session which relied on their participation to tackle everything from arithmetic to the Fibonacci sequence, stopping off at the mathematics of gravity and astronomy on the way.
Every year, more than 30,000 children leave UK school at the age of 11 with the numeracy skills of a seven-year-old. 17 million people in the UK have numeracy skills below those needed for the lowest grade at GCSE. For literacy the comparable figure is 5 million. According to the National Numeracy Trust, the annual cost to the public purse of children failing to master basic numeracy skills in primary schools is £2.4bn.
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and Patron of The Mayor’s Fund for London, commented: “A good grasp of maths is not just a vital skill for success in the jobs market, it helps us in our daily lives. We’re already investing in raising standards in maths teaching through my London Schools Excellence Fund, so it’s great to see the Mayor’s Fund focusing on this critical subject area. The Count on Us programme is going to help improve youngsters’ chances of getting a decent job and participating in London’s future prosperity.”
Headteacher of Yew Tree, Howard Martin, commented, “After speaking to the team at Trilby, who were as supportive of our needs as ever, we decided to introduce TrilbyTV to our school. We couldn’t believe how simple it was to set up and use, both pupils and teachers were up and running within minutes. It’s a very intuitive and straightforward product. The process is fast and efficient, takes up little teacher time and doesn’t need any technical expertise. Teaching staff moderate and publish the videos within seconds. The children are so thrilled to share their work in this way, it is a fantastic way to celebrate their achievements.”
The school has been using TrilbyTV to share movies across the whole curriculum. It has been utilised by both KS1 and KS2 pupils. Howard added, “The ability to share and celebrate pupils’ movies to such a large audience will create an even greater sense of purpose and pride to their work.”
Howard Martin continued, “One of our greatest challenges was where to show the videos within the school. The Trilby team suggested we use screens in the main reception and the school hall. However, we came up with a far better idea! Since becoming a 1:1 iPad school it has left our ICT suite a little redundant, so we thought, why not use the iMacs from the suite and run screens along the corridors throughout the school? This will enhance the learning environment across the whole school and enable pupils to view the success of others throughout the day.” A key attribute of TrilbyTV which has appealed to the school is the secure storage facility. Videos take up a great deal of storage space and the school is very aware of this fact. However, TrilbyTV stores all the videos securely on a UK cloud based server, taking away any of these concerns whilst at the same time removing the extra cost of any larger storage infrastructure within the school.
Howard concluded, “TrilbyTV is a superb product which will hugely enhance the learning environment for both pupils and staff alike. It will bring the curriculum to life and enable us to showcase our pupils’ creative achievements on a daily basis.”
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