Bob Harrison visits an innovative project for community cohesion, using technology to prepare for the visits that will help heal a divided community.

Joelle Hardman introduces her pupils to their buddies in Patricia Stennet's class at Broadfield

St Mary’s Church of England Primary school sits at the foot of the Pennine Hills in Higher Crompton on the outskirts of Oldham and seems a world away from the terraced rows of downtown houses in the town centre. Infamous for all the wrong reasons in the early years of this century, the centre is also home to Broadfield Primary school.

Sparked by the disturbances (that shocked this otherwise friendly north Manchester suburb) of community tensions that spilled on to the streets, the two schools are now linked in a special project to promote community cohesion. After some teacher meetings, ”buddying” and letter-writing activities between the pupils, the schools got their first opportunity to say hello and meet face to face through video-conferencing technology and a local authority commitment to technology-enhanced learning.

“Hello Haroun…. my name is Josh…you are my buddy…how are you feeling Haroun?”

“Happy” replied Haroun.

“What is your favourite game Josh?”

“Doctor Doctor, snakes and ladders and stuck in the mud.”

“What is your favourite food?”

“Sausage and mash and beans”

 “I can see my buddy,” added Libby when she spotted Halima sitting near the middle of Vikki Wood’s Willow class in Broadfield Primary school some six miles away in the centre of Oldham.

These kind of conversations went on for about 30 minutes on a Friday afternoon, connecting more than 40 pupils in preparation for some reciprocal visits later in the year.  St Mary’s headteacher Pam Hartley says: “The Community Cohesion work is only one example of how video-conferencing technology is enhancing the learning for our pupils. The wake-and-shake classes run by the Sports Development Services are a big hit at 8.30 am every day and have raised awareness with the staff about the potential this technology can have for children’s learning.

“The children do not want to stop and it certainly gets them energised and motivated at the beginning of the day. And the X-Factor modern foreign languages inter-school competition has proved very successful with over 30 schools participating. The children love singing in Urdu, Spanish and German on screen.”

Samantha Forster, primary strategy consultant with Oldham Council, who has managed the introduction of video-conferencing into Oldham’s primary schools, is confident the £500,000 investment will pay enormous learning dividends when the teachers’ confidence and competence increases over time. “Teachers are nervous at first but get more confident when they use the equipment. And the more it gets used the more teachers see the potential in all areas of the curriculum, and especially when they hear the children talk about it”, she says.

Teacher confidence did not seem an issue for Joelle Hardman who is the video-conference "champion" at St Mary’s who sensitively and skilfully managed the children during and after the session when she was anxious to get some feedback from the children.

“It were great,” was the first response, from Ben, “and I want to do it again.”  “It was really, really, really, really, really good,” added Josh. ”And I loved meeting my buddy.”  “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said James.  Maya added, “It was really fantastic.”

Oldham intends introducing video-conferencing to all secondary schools this year as part of its three-year ICT strategy. And it recently received a boost by being selected as a pilot authority for the Government’s flagship £300 milion Home Access to Technology initiative. This will provide hardware and connectivity for pupils and their families who currently do not have home access and is predicated on research which demonstrates that strong home –school links have a significant effect on pupil achievement.

The Oldham video-conferencing initiative involves the purchase of "Lifesize HD" units for all primary schools and made a significant effort in researching the appropriate infrastructure. Early scepticism from headteachers is now fading as more and more schools are discovering the cost benefits of this investment in technology.

“There are still some late adopters which have yet to use the kit,“ said Samantha Forster, ”but slowly we are winning them over. It is vitally important that the infrastructure is robust. It is important that it works first time as teachers are very anxious and always ask, ‘What if it goes wrong?’ Training and technical support is very important.”

“The biggest challenge is demonstrating the potential to headteachers,” she adds.  Hassan, Ziyan, Maya, Josh, Ben, Avanti, Alexander, Wesley, Max and James and the rest of the class needed no convincing!

Bob Harrison is a school and college governor and an NCSL consultant facilitating on the BSF Leadership Programme and a coach on the NPQH programme. He runs his own consultancy, Support for Education and Training