Lancashire school wins £5,000 in BT national technology competition
Brownedge St Mary’s Catholic High School, in Bamber Bridge, is a runner up in BT’s annual Tech Factor competition. The competition invited schools to provide a wish list of equipment and to demonstrate how they could make smart use of technology to enhance learning and ensure students are armed with the digital skills for a tech-savvy future.Brownedge St Mary’s beat around 50 schools nationally to win the runners up prize of £5,000 to spend with Business Direct, BT’s IT hardware and software reseller. It will use the award to invest in Apple Mac computers to teach their pupils music and creative arts.
The school was awarded the prize due to its innovative video entry, which showed that you don’t need to involve lots of teachers and students to create a fantastic video which clearly illustrates your message.
Henry Perkins, head of music at the school, said: “The current PCs we’re using in school don’t give us access to the apps and tools needed for creative media. The new Apple Macs we’re going to buy with the prize money will enable us to give the children in our school an earlier start in learning about media, creative media and design. We’ll use them not just for music production but all sorts of creative arts.”
This year, BT was also able to award additional prizes donated by partners. Microsoft, HP, Kyocera, Epson, Fujitsu, Kensington and Brother all sponsored a prize, which gave more schools the chance to win technology.
The Tech Factor competition is part of BT’s wider Tech Literacy initiative to inspire young people in the UK to embrace the role technology plays in their lives. Also, with its Barefoot Computing Project, BT is currently offering free teaching-resources and volunteer-led training workshops, designed to help primary school teachers become more confident when teaching computer science and computing skills.
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About BT
BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services.BT consists of six customer-facing lines of business: Consumer, EE, Business and Public Sector, Global Services, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.
For the year ended 31 March 2017, BT Group’s reported revenue was £24,062m with reported profit before taxation of £2,354m.
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For more information, visit www.btplc.com
About the Barefoot Computing Project
The Barefoot Computing Project was created in 2014 by a coalition of partners, including the Department for Education, the British Computer Society, BT and Raspberry Pi. It gives primary school teachers free resources and training workshops on using the key concepts that underpin tech literacy.
To find out more, access the resources or book a workshop visit www.barefootcas.org.uk
About Tech Literacy
Young people today grow up surrounded by tech. But too few know how it actually works, or the role it plays in their lives. They are often passive consumers rather than active creators. That matters in a digital world where personal and professional prospects are shaped by technology. So we need to build a culture of tech literacy starting with the next generation, setting young people up with the understanding and abilities needed to shape their futures.
Find out more at www.techliteracy.co.uk
Notes to editors
Part of the BT Group, Business Direct is an IT hardware and software reseller based in Bolton. We support education establishments, the public sector and large organisations across the UK with all their computing, networking and IT needs. We work with other parts of BT and the world’s leading brands to provide our customers with end-to-end IT solutions to improve their organisation. https://www.businessdirect.bt.com/other-pages/education/education-portal/
