Digital Schools of Distinction is a flagship programme which aims to promote, recognise and encourage excellence in the use of technology in primary school. The award is accredited by the Department of Education and Skills.
We are very proud to be named one of Kilkenny’s Digital Schools of Distinction.
The Digital Schools Awards adjudicator was very complimentary towards the learning environment in St. Joseph’s NS. He noted:
‘There is a very strong ICT presence in the school. The school website/blog is current and displays the work of the pupils. The school has a twitter account and tweet about all school activities. Parents follow school news on twitter. The school in involved in projects outside the school such as Mathletes, the Young Entrepreneur Award, Green Flag and all of these involve ICT. There was a wide range of projects on display in the school and the pupils were proud of their achievements and were very motivated and supported by ICT in their learning. The teachers share resources using Dropbox. The twitter account keeps the website current but there were many other examples of pupils work such as newsletters, videos etc..’
We are lucky here in this school to have such a dynamic, flexible and forward thinking Board of Management, parent body and staff. Everyone has embraced the implementation of ICT in the school. Most of all we are so fortunate to have such fantastic pupils attend our school. The facilities we provide for these wonderful young people are preparing them for the digital world and knowledge based society in which they will one day work
Here are some examples of what we use ipads and the interactive white for:
Senior Room:
– Khan Academy, MATHletes and maths games (Maths)
– Type our stories/poems for publication (English)
– Research and presentation of projects using Apple T.V. (History, Geography, Science)
– Watching historical or scientific videos
Middle Room:
– Maths games
– Handwriting apps
– Spelling apps
– Book reviews
– Research
– Watching historical or scientific videos
– Music
– Exercise tutorials
Junior Room
– Letter formation
– Maths games
– Music/ song singing
– Watching historical or scientific videos
– Online books
– Art images
– Displaying pages of workbooks