A SMALL SCHOOL
SUMMARY INSIGHTS INTO “AN INTERIM STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF IMPLEMENTING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
THROUGHOUT KEELHAM PRIMARY SCHOOL”
LEARNING · SUSTAINABILITY · TIME · COSTS · COMMUNITY · MORE
EXPLORE THE RESEARCH FINDINGS...
TRANSFORMATION PARTNER
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH LED BY DR. FIONA AUBREY-SMITH
EDD MA(ED) MMUS PGCE BA(HONS) FCCT FRSA FHEA
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH SUMMARY
A SMALL SCHOOL
AN INTERIM STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF IMPLEMENTING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY THROUGHOUT KEELHAM PRIMARY SCHOOL
Research by Dr. Fiona Aubrey-Smith
“Theimpactwehaveseenhas beentrulytransformational-in allareasofourschool.I’m incrediblyproudof whatwe’reachievi together”
Robert Hunter, Headteacher
DELIVERED AND SUPPORTED BY MEET
RESEARCH SUMMARY CONTENTS
OUR EDTECH ROADMAPVIEW EACH STAGE
SCOPE / CONTEXT / INTENTIONS
Planning
Choosing Buying Using
IIMPACT IMPACT MPACT
MEASURABLE IMPACTS
THE NEW CLASSROOM EDTECH ECOSYSTEM
NEXT STEPS FOR OUR COLLABORATION WITH KEELHAM
ABOUT THE RESEARCH AUTHOR
NURTURING GLOBAL CITIZENS
CONNECTING WITH BOTSWANA
OTHER EDTECH AT KEELHAM
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SUMMARY CONTEXT AND PROJECT INTENTIONS...
The project is a government funded initiative exploring how technology supports resilience, sustainability, and effective education in a school.
Keelham Primary School is a small primary school with 117 children aged 3-11 in 4 mixed year group classes.
The visionary headteacher has been in post since 2021, and the school was last inspected in 2023, with particular praise given to the quality of educational provision, the curriculum, children’s personal development and behaviour and inclusive support.
DfE data indicates that Keelham has a higher than average number of children with SEN (20% v 13%), lower than average number of FSM (8.5% v 29.5%), and broadly average workforce.
The headteacher knows every child by name and holds meaningful personal conversations with each child that draw upon their personal circumstances. This reflects the family-style culture across the school and staffing body.
From a ‘standing start’ of low active utilisation of technology, what follows is the story so far of the digital transformation at Keelham Primary School.
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OUR EDTECH ROADMAP
Planning
Choosing Buying Using IIMPACT IMPACT MPACT
Elementary Technology were chosen to support the project after a public tender exercise. We worked Keelham Primary School through our technology roadmap; a formula we apply to projects to ensure best value.
PLANNING
CHOOSING
PLANNING
Elementary Technology visited the school to undertake our Classroom Healthcheck® to understand the status quo with their technology. We also worked together to define the school’s 3-5 year plans with technology.
CHOOSING
Based on these findings, staff visited the Elementary Technology Experience Centre for a hands-on workshop to scope out the options.
By the end of the session, it was agreed which technology and which services would best enable success on their vision and objectives.
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OUR EDTECH ROADMAP: BUYING
The initial phase of technology installation, setup and te was conducted during half term ready for the teachers’ return.
The report explores the impact of the classroom EdTech ecosystem:
Speak to us at Elementary Technology for independent advice, support and ideas on building an ecosystem fit for your school
SMART BOARD
WIRELESS VISUALISER
AN IPAD PER TWO PUPILS
LOW-ENERGY DESKTOP PC SOFTWARE
TEACHER LAPTOP
TEACHING ASSISTANT IPADS
VOICE REINFORCEMENT
PLAYPANEL (EARLY YEARS)
PLANNED ONBOARDING TRAINING AND COACHING
The school has also implemented other technology to support school management and communications, their school hall, safeguarding and lockdowns, hybrid meetings and similar.
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“A lot of the training has been inclass, during lessons, supporting teachers with ideas before the lesson and then supporting in the lesson itself. It means that we focus exactly on what we need and what the children need, and all the little things that go into making that a success”
OUR EDTECH ROADMAP: USING
With this project, the provision of training is a core part of the role from Elementary Technology planned and delivered by our Head of Education Training in consultation with SLT.
A structured progression of coaching and support was planned and delivered, varying delivery, approach and context to embed new skills and transition these into natural behaviours.
Initial Technology Onboarding including Get Set Go® guides
A full day workshop in the Elementary Technology Experience Centre
One-to-one coaching during teaching time
Group consolidation sessions - live online and in the school
‘Train the Trainer’ sessions
Ad hoc, remote support - on email and on Teams meetings
It may appear that this schedule of training is onerous on staff, and therefore unrealistic for other schools to replicate. Staff however report it is time neutral because of the highly flexible way it is delivered.
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A testimonial letter from the headteacher
IMPACT: SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
How has digital affected the lives and roles of the Headteacher, Deputy and the Business Manager?
Episode 6:
Conversation with Rob Hunter, Headteacher
Elementary Technology: EdTech Perspectives Podcast
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
“You want children going into the classroom with a smile on their face, excited about learning ... about what they’re going to be over the next couple of weeks, feeling able to showcase their individual talents - and being able to have the tools to be able to do that. It’s about the fabric of the school, not just the curriculum offer”.
“Children are now running to get into the classroom because it’s become more interactive - they can’t wait see what they are going to be learning about”.
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LOTS MORE TEACHER VOICE IN THE FULL REPORT
IMPACT: DIGITAL FOR TEACHERS
Professional satisfaction, workload, time management and more - how is digital supporting the worlds of teachers at Keelham Primary School?
of new digital practices increase level of professional satisfaction and enjoyment of activities were contributing to a reduction in their workload of activities were improving sense of wellbeing or lowering anxiety in relation to their role
of activities increasing their capacity to support children’s learning
of activities increasing the quality of their professional knowledge
of activities contributing to improving classroom culture and relationships with children
“When I started teaching there was no technology ... but I expect the children in my class to do new things so why would I not expect the same of myself? I’ve got to learn things too. I think that’s a really good thing for the children to see - that I’m a learner too”
“Having digital tools in the classroom allows learners to make better use of their time. Why would you have 11 year olds cutting and sticking and taking 25 mins to do a sorting task when they could do it digitally in 5 minutes - it’s not a good use of learning time”
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IMPACT: DIGITAL FOR LEARNING
How are pupils juggling digital and physical? And how is it affecting their experience in the classroom?
Data and feedback around pupils’ experience of learning shows it has been transformative, notably the interactivity of the SMART Boards and iPads, and accessibility with use of visualisers.
Alongside this Keelham have been using green screen and video editing tools. Schools can perceive much of technology as being ‘fun’ and ‘game-based’, but with our guidance, pupils are using it to represent their learning in contemporary ways; showcasing their speaking and presentation skills whilst also demonstrating their knowledge.
Pupil iPads - more learning, more quickly
MORE PUPIL EXPERIENCE DATA
IN THE FULL REPORT
Swappingofpaperbasedworksheettasks (takingroughly25minutes)toequivalents usingiPads(takingroughly10minutes) createsapproximately3½daysof learningcapacityperchildperyear; aboutamonthoflearningtimeovera child’sprimaryeducation.
“The technology makes me feel like I want to learn more”
“It makes me competitive with myself. I did the quiz and got 11 [out of 20] and I wanted to do it again so that I got a higher score. I wouldn’t have bothered doing that if it was on a worksheet because it feels like a lot of effort. So it makes me smarter because it makes me want to do it again but better.”
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OPENING A
WINDOW TO THE WORLD®
Connecting classrooms and nurturing global citizens - whilst also enabling hybrid meetings, collaboration, training and more
“I
can’t believe children
in a different continent were doing the same lesson at the same time!”
Year 4 Pupil
Comparing communities and sharing stories - live online with their partner school in Botswana.
Their first live, joined up lesson started late - the teacher was delayed as an elephant was blocking the road!
“Parents tell me about how their children have come home and spoken at length about how excited they are about what they’ve learned - and how they’ve learned it”
Rob
Hunter, Headteacher
Bradford vs Botswana - live Spelling Bee!
Twoschoolsacrosstwocontinentschatting,collaboratingandlearning together,liveinrealtime. ThreecheersforYear6Botswanawho wontheliveSpellingBee!WithYear5 Bradfordwinningthesecondcontest
IMPACT SPOTLIGHT ON... A SMALL SCHOOL
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EARLY YEARS
The school is working hard to balance the benefits of digital play with the essential role of physical play in Early Years.
Whilst doing so, through interviews, survey response and observations, effective use of digital is creating real impacts for Early Years teaching and learning.
Oracy and collaboration in Early Years
EARLY YEARS PLAYPANEL
Use of the PlayPanel interactive table and the SMART Board encouraged oracy, collaboration, and repetition and progression of learning in ways difficult (if possible at all) to achieve through non-digital activities
Research
Observation
Multitouch technology offers instant feedback encouraging social interaction through multi-person access, embedding accessibility and providing adaptive stimulus (e.g. different word pairs for different development stages).
PUPIL ACTIVITY: Visualisers were used to model activities. For example, drawing and cutting around templates, and then modeling specific collage techniques. It saved time and engaged the children, supporting them to successfully complete this task independently.
TEACHER VOICE: Children confidently engaged with the PlayPanel which encouraged curiosity and social interaction. They used software featuring songs and images to sing and identify characters. The table's design allowed multiple children to interact fostering vital social and emotional skills, particularly in speech and language development, which is a national concern.
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IMPACT SPOTLIGHT ON...
COSTS & SUSTAINABILITY
Technology has been shown to bring about a direct measurable reduction in operating costs, and whilst doing so, supporting the school’s aspirations with regard both energy usage and environmental footprint.
Reduced Energy Consumption
Compared to previous displays, use of a new SMART Board equates to power saving 1,035kWh over the 5 year warranty of the technology.
UNDERSTAND THE MATHS
BEHIND THE DATA
A reduction of 4,140kWh across the school saving £1,159.20
Drastic reduction in print costs
Exchanginghalfofpaper worksheetbasedtasksto digitalversionsofthesametask oniPadscreatesapproximate printcostsavingsof£660per classroomperyear (£2,125fortheschool)
Big savings on paper
Environmentally, the reduction in worksheets and exercise books equates to the saving of 730 trees over a pupil’s time at Keelham.
Printing 45,000 fewer sheets of paper per year saves £360 on paper annually
IMPACT SPOTLIGHT ON... A SMALL SCHOOL
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CLASSROOM VISUALISERS
Teachers weave use of visualisers into everything they do; for modelling, live marking, peer-assessment, sharing textbooks, teaching letter formation and lots more.
The research has highlighted the impact visualisers bring to learning, based on observations, teacher voice and also pupil voice.
Some highlights...
Moreteaching, morequickly CLASSROOM VISUALISERS FIND OUT MORE
Use of visualisers results in a much higher volume of teacher modelling, creating less duplication (i.e. the teacher repeating modelling for individual children).
Teachers reported being able to cover more content in a lesson more quickly.
TEACHER VOICE: “I used the visualiser to model handwriting effectively. I was able to use the pencils the children use, lined paper and model correctly in line with phonics scheme that we use. This was effective as it allowed the children to see exactly how the letter should be formed before practising themselves.”
PUPIL VOICE: “We used the visualiser to look really closely at the caterpillars. We could really see them up close through the visualiser on the screen and it helps me to see things that I couldn’t see before. We can see it together and talk about it together”
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OTHER RANGES CREATING IMPACT
A range of other technology has been supplied into Keelham Primary School...
SIGN-IN & SAFEGUARDING
OUTDOOR LEARNING AND MESSAGING
Visit the Elementary Technology website for more information LOCKDOWN ALERT SYSTEM
SCHOOLHALL
DIGITAL SIGNAGE
NEXT STEPS FOR OUR COLLABORATION... A SMALL SCHOOL
Our collaboration with Keelham Primary School continues - and whilst doing so, their success is spreading throughout their cluster...
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PHASE 2 REPORT
To understand our progress together, we continue to work with Dr. Fiona Aubrey Smith gathering evidence of success and impact using technology. Some of many more objectives:
PUBLISHED SUMMER 2025
Understanding how success so far is fully embedded, and the extent it’s enabling improved outcomes
Ongoing coaching and CPD in all areas, including a full day EdTech progression workshop on INSET day
Continued reframing of the curriculum, moving on from substitution phase so technology is transforming learning
Enabling pupils to express learning in creative ways; presentations, green screen, Canva
The next phase of this expanded and detailed report of our findings will be shared during Summer 2025.
The ripple effect of school improvement using technology - a video of an EdTech reset workshop in our Experience Centre with 7 LA primary schools in the Keelham cluster.
Planning
Choosing Buying Using IIMPACT MPACT
Fiona Aubrey-Smith kicking off our EdTech workshop
