Specialist Status

This has been a tremendous boost in our efforts to provide the very best resources and facilities available to our pupils. Over eight years, it has meant close to an extra £1 million for the school and has allowed us to implement many exciting projects.

With the help of this additional funding, the school has been able to completely re-equip three IT Suites with the most up-to-date technology; and completely refurbish two Science laboratories. We have sets of wireless linked laptops for student use in almost all curriculum areas and have interactive whiteboards throughout the school which turn a whiteboard into an interactive computer screen. Data projectors are also in use in every curriculum area. In Design Technology, we have been able to buy the latest computer assisted design packages for use in class and this year have totally re-equipped our Textiles classroom. We have also provided laptops for all our teachers, so that every curriculum area can benefit from teachers being able to make the most effective use of the technology available to them.

In the upper school, we now run an AS Level ICT course with outstanding success to date, which has meant that several students moving into the sixth form are able to immediately take A2 in ICT.  Fronter, our virtual learning environment available in school and at home via the Internet, allows pupils to gain remote access to the curriculum and means that all of our teaching resources will eventually be available to any computer with an internet connection.  Pupils can now submit assessments on line and can carry on with work at home, begun at school, without needing to use storage devices to save their work.  This is a very exciting development in providing new and different opportunities for learning, and most of our resources for GCSE and A Level courses will be available on line from September 2010.

Our status has also helped us to strengthen our links with primary schools and with schools and colleges throughout (and beyond) Harrow.  For example, we have run successful Technology, Maths and Science events for pupils from neighbouring primary schools for several years, while this year for the first time we ran a successful careers event aimed at sixth form students which attracted over 100 participants from other schools and colleges. Not only have successful partnerships been established with schools but also with the wider community.  This has ranged from organising Family Learning courses for parents in Maths and Science to gaining the International School Award as recognition of the quality of our curriculum based international work.  At the time of writing we are the only secondary school in Harrow to have gained this award.   Our applied learning specialism has allowed us to introduce a wide variety of work related learning and opportunities for pupils of all abilities from KS3 to KS5.  This is now an integral and essential part of our curriculum.

Overall, being a Specialist school has helped us to make sure that we can provide all of our pupils with the very best resources available, and we are confident that making effective use of those resources will continue to greatly enhance the quality of teaching and learning at Canons.