Junior Control Insight & Northwood Primary School
A Love Affair
The Response to Junior Control Insight
On recently showing a group of ICT Co-ordinators Logotron's Junior
Control Insight, Gillian Davies (ICT Co-ordinator from Northwood
Primary, Bexley) was met with a fairly conclusive response:
"Oh, we luurve that! When can we have it?"
It is this response from pupils and teachers that is making Junior
Control Insight the most talked about product for Primary ICT Control,
on the market today.
Junior Control Insight
Allowing pupils to fulfil the QCA curriculum requirements for control,
on screen as a simulation (while still allowing the option for real-life
working models), Junior Control Insight has taken the stress out
of teaching control. And put the fun back in to learning it!
Simple control systems - such as traffic lights, a lighthouse,
a pelican crossing - are easy to create in the Junior Control Insight
environment. But it is the interactive projects built in to the
package, which really make control come alive. Pupils can let their
imaginations go, as they work upon their Dream Bedroom; build their
own Funfair; visit a Haunted House; investigate an Inventor's Laboratory;
or create havoc in a Toy Shop.
Pupils can access the facilities at a basic level - and there is
no limit on how far they can take it.
In the Classroom
Along with Sue Dean, from the Centre of ICT Excellence in Bexley,
Gillian recently created a Scheme of Work based around Junior Control
Insight, to be used during a week dedicated to control at Northwood
Primary School.
The Scheme of Work introduced the subject of control though a funfair
scenario. A range of activities, covering the majority of subject
areas, were planned and carried out by the staff from the Reception
class to year 6. Pupils from years 4 to 6 were read Fairground of
Dread by Patrick Burston and Alistair Graham, before being introduced
to the Funfair project in Junior Control Insight. At first, pupils
were able to explore Junior Control Insight's Funfair, through its
fully working interactive examples. As they progressed, they were
able to modify the Funfair. And as they became competent in the
environment, they were able to build their own funfair. On screen.
From scratch!
As Gillian has informed us, once the pupils had been demonstrated
the software on an interactive whiteboard, little encouragement
was needed to get them working on their own. In fact, the rather
blunt response to being shown the software was something along the
lines of, "Shut up, Miss! We want to get on and do this ourselves!"
The speed with which pupils became competent and explorative users
of Junior Control Insight was hugely encouraging. Within two hours,
all kinds of colourful working control projects had been created.
The sense of fun and exploration engendered by Junior Control Insight
was perhaps best expressed by the cries of "How did you do
that?", as pupils ran across the room stealing each other's
imaginative ideas for the development of their own projects.
"The pupils were having so much fun, they really didn't realise
they were learning!"
Needless to say, pupils have their own agendas. By the end of the
Junior Control Insight sessions, a vast array of Funfair mania had
been spawned across the ICT suite. Interlaced with the more sober
examples of laughing clowns and a sedately rolling big wheel, were
some absurdly frenetic achievements, in the shape of "manic
roundabouts and ridiculously fast swing boats". Control has
never been so much fun!
Beyond the Classroom
Gillian also found the software to be well received lower down
the school. Knowing the software to be aimed at Years 5 & 6,
she realised that it would be these older pupils who would best
relay this knowledge to younger pupils. Thus it was, year 6 pupils
who had created their projects in Junior Control Insight, were given
forum space on the interactive whiteboard to present what they had
done - and how they had done it - to younger pupils. Apart from
the presentation skills developed by her year 6 pupils, Gillian
found that pupils from Years 2 & 3 grasped this very tricky
area of the curriculum, quite easily.
Beyond the Limits
Northwood Junior School thoroughly enjoyed its focused time with
Junior Control Insight. Gillian is now looking forward to acquiring
an interface box, so that she can extend control in to D&T and
have some real life working models of her pupils' work.
Her affection - and that of her pupils - for Junior Control Insight
is clear:
"We can't wait until the SATs are over…then we can spend
even more time playing with it!"
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