Academies trust staff visit Apple HQ in London after donating 1,600 iPads to five Peterborough schools
The trust invested £75,000 to buy the new iPads.
Peterborough Keys Academies Trust (PKAT) recently provided 1,600 Apple iPads to students and staff across its five schools.
This initiative, which cost £750,000 and was several months in the making, was led by PKAT IT Services to enhance one-to-one learning and teaching efficiency.
As a result of this substantial investment, a team of PKAT staff was invited to visit Apple's Headquarters in London this month to find out more about its technology within the education environment.
PKAT has five schools in the area: Jack Hunt Secondary School, Longthorpe Primary School, NOVA Primary Academy, Ravensthorpe Primary School, and Thorpe Primary School.
Dr Ian Young, CEO of Peterborough Keys Academies Trust said: “Following on from our recent significant investment in renewing iPads for many year groups across our academies, Apple offered us the opportunity to receive an executive briefing at their headquarters in Battersea Power Station.
"As part of this dedicated day for the PKAT leadership team, we were shown, through hands-on demonstrations, how we could unleash the full potential of the devices to support accessibility for learning in particular. Later in the day Apple facilitated strategy sessions to assist us in planning to achieve maximum impact from our iLearn project.
"Our headteachers came away feeling inspired by the day and having enjoyed an invigorating experience, in a new and extremely impressive corporate environment.”
PKAT says it has “invested heavily” with their partners at Apple to “ensure that the best range of staff training can be made available throughout the deployment of the project but also throughout the term of the project moving forward”.
Mr Jordan Smithson, PKAT Trust IT Services Manager said: “PKAT IT Services has worked closely developing stronger partnerships with key system providers to further enhance our trust safeguarding with the iPads being taken home by pupils for independent home learning.
“With the deployment of further 1:1 technology and with the increased use of the Microsoft platform for learning, the Trust is hopeful that this will take us another step forward to reducing paper usage across the schools increasing our sustainability and reducing costs which can then be used to fund other Trust projects.”
Mr Jon Hebblethwaite, Head Teacher of Jack Hunt School added: “It was fantastic to spend the day with the Apple education team at their magnificent London headquarters. It was fascinating to hear how they lead change and keep innovating whilst making sure that they are true to their values, something that across the PKAT schools we try to do too.
"There is no doubt that the iLearn strategy has had a very positive impact at Jack Hunt. For students it means that work is more accessible, digital resources are easily utilised, and tech literacy is enhanced. For teachers, (who all receive an iPad) it means they can roam the classroom whist mirroring to the students’ devices and the main screen, can easily live model, and can create digital banks of work for all their classes.
"We are now teaching a generation of ‘digital natives’ and across PKAT we will continue to innovate in our use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.”