A WARRINGTON school has been commended in the prestigious national schools ETC award, run by learning charity ContinYou, for its extended services to pupils and the local community.
Evelyn Street Primary was commended for engaging pupils in creative learning through the supply of hand-held computers and the development of an e-learning network.
Theme of the award was “Enjoy and achieve: putting the smile back into the learning community.”
The Evelyn Street was initially set up to help under-achieving boys find a new style of learning.
But it proved so popular it now involves the whole school. The enthusiasm generated has led to community learning within the school as
children share online resources they have found and deliver imaginative homework presentations to their peers.
It has also encouraged the rest of the community, with some parents and even grandparents feeling inspired to enrol for courses at the school and local college.
As a result of this growing ‘e-learning’ community, which includes a blogspot, Evelyn Street pupils out-performed national targets and writing abilities have improved significantly. There have been no exclusions since the programme was introduced and the learning network has now been extended to include five other local schools.
Headteacher Louise Smith, said: “I am absolutely delighted that our school has been ‘Commended’ in this year’s ContinYou Schools Extending to Communities Awards.
“The staff and governors here are all extremely proud of the achievements the pupils and school have made as a result of our commitment to modern technologies. The impact of this has been phenomenal to both our pupils and their families encouraging 24/7 learning for all the family and the wider community.
“We have witnessed a significant boost in our standards of attainment and achievement recently and we are now in the top 25 per cent of highest performing schools in the country.
“These national awards have been running since 2003. Evelyn Street achieved the commendation because we demonstrated the link between enjoyment and achievement. We had to show the spark that inspires children and young people to learn and encourages families and communities to get involved.
“This recognition reinforces our determination to build on our success and share good practice with others.”
