Case Study
DOWNEND SCHOOL AND KINGSWOOD PARTNERSHIP PIONEER XOOLON AND STUDYWIZ LINKS
PE departments are not generally known for their pioneering use of ICT but Downend School in Bristol is an exception to the rule. The school is using Xoolon in combination with e-learning experts StudyWiz to form the virtual learning environment’s Sport and Fitness module. The school has collected data on Years 7 to 11 and for the first stage of the programme is using the results in-depth with Year 7 as an intrinsic part of the sport curriculum. Senior management is firmly behind the initiative, led by headteacher Tamryn Savage who was formerly heading-up Ivybridge Community College, one of the first sports colleges in the country.
Dave Beesley, Active for Life co-ordinator at Downend School explains, “We were seeking a technology application to support our sports faculty and became aware that StudyWiz were seeking someone to develop their software. I suggested linking StudyWiz and Xoolon Academy’s performance software so that now children can enter their height, weight and participation levels online. The two separate entities, StudyWiz and Xoolon now work together seamlessly. This enables us to develop cross-curricular links with other faculties to develop a whole school initiative. The ICT department uses the data we gather from pupils’ sporting tests for developing graphs, pie charts and databases. Maths uses the data for statistical work and food technology when considering elements such as diet, and science for links to respiratory and circulatory needs.”
The Kingswood Partnership, where six schools in the area work together, also uses StudyWiz where the schools are linked on a virtual learning environment. Each subject places its resources such as assignments, tests, educational games and emails on StudyWiz and all the schools can access the shared resources.
Children can add their own fitness profile to include height, weight, participation level and the sports that they play – this will extend to diet for health-related fitness programmes. The profiles are not static, pupils can add their results online on an ongoing basis and can identify where they’ve improved or which areas they which to focus on improving. This now forms a core part of the PE programme.
The programme is also used to match its pupils’ athletic abilities to a range of sports from athletics to rugby and volleyball, to identify at which they will be naturally most proficient and is helping to identify some exceptionally gifted and talented pupils, such as a student in Year 7 whose throw is in the 96th percentile in the country. The PE department would have been unaware of how exceptional this is but for Xoolon Academy’s ability to compare individual results against country-wide results.
The school and Kingswood Partnership are also fostering links with local clubs and teams who can approach the school for new talent as well as pupils being able to more easily approach clubs that they are interested in.
The programme is also helping to foster links with parents who receive a log-in for StudyWiz which enables them to see their children’s results for subjects including English, Maths and Science as well as sport. They can view individual learning plans and selected homework to view improvements in pupils’ results over time.
The PE department sees this element as particularly important for students who may not continue with sport as a GCSE. StudyWiz and Xoolon allows them to gain a permanent record of their achievements in sport including photos and videos taken during PE lessons, and to burn these onto a CD to take home or to sporting associations—but of course the ongoing lessons about the importance of fitness and healthy eating can be taken with them for life.