Rutland Times, ‘Making learning fun’

29th June by Lucie Scott

Brooke Hill Primary School has become an ambassador for its use of ICT

On Friday the Oakham school was accredited as an Espresso Ambassador School, which means it has been recognised for its use of Information Communications Technology and, in particular, the Espresso service.

ICT Co-ordinator at the school, Naomi Coleman, said “Espresso is a cross-curricular, digital resource which makes news accessible to children and can be used in all our teaching from the foundation class to year six.”

At Brooke Hill Primary School, Oakham, Leanne Coleman works at one of the machines in the ICT suite watched by fellow pupils Lewis Fitches, Caitlyn Palmer and Sammer Alkhayat, Carol Chambers (RCC), Naomi Coleman, Lewis Bronze (CEO of Espresso) and Sue Goodsell (Headteacher of Brooke Hill)

Brooke Hill has been using Espresso for nearly two years and it’s the first school in the East of England to have earned the Ambassador status. Mrs Coleman added: “There are 6,000 school in the east of England, 900 of which have Espresso and we are the only Ambassador school.”

With its new status, Brooke Hill will show other schools how to make the best use of and help to develop the system.

Mrs Coleman added: “Espresso has had such a positive impact on teaching and learning. The children love it because it makes learning fun!”

Two children from each year group meet once a week to learn how they can help their classmates and teacher with technical task, such as downloading digital photographs. The Techno Buddies, as they are known, have helped the school earn the accreditation and they gave a presentation about the Espresso system to the school and Espresso representatives on Friday [23rd June].

Jane Nash from Espresso Education said "From head teacher to the “Techno Buddies”, Brooke Hill has fully embraced our resources into daily lessons. We are thrilled to have such an outstanding school full of enormous energy as an Ambassador school.”