Dorin Park Specialist SEN College ICT Project 5th March 2015 Mission Statement: Learning together, growing together

Dorin Park is school which caters for children with a statement for complex special needs. The children are aged between 2-19 years old. We worked with children in class Pine (aged 11-13). With reference to the changes in National Curriculum on computing the class teacher explained the curriculum is quite complex for the needs of the children within the school. She plans topics in computing which are appropriate to the needs of the children for example when looking at algorithms she used direction as a focus so the children could learn left, right, forward and back. The overview of computing for this class for the year; The learner’s will undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using, and combining multiple applications (preferably across a range of devices) to achieve challenging goals.  The learner’s will have a set routine which they will follow and the lesson material will be highly repetitious to support their ability to remember, understand and aid progress.  The learner’s will engage in a range of ways to use technology safely.  They will be shown responsible ways of protecting their online identity and privacy and reporting inappropriate conduct.

What we did? We supported the children using Movie Maker. The children had previously made a storyboard of a topic of their choice; favourite pets, football teams, families or favourite television programmes. They used the internet to collect images, information and uploaded pictures from the iPad to create their movies. Here is a sample of one child’s work who loved Everton Football Club.

Proloquo2go On the ICT Project we got the opportunity to meet with a child who uses Proloquo2go software as means of communication. Proloquo2go is a software for iPads which is a symbol-supported communication app providing a voice to over 100,000 individuals around the world who are unable to speak. You can add your own images of family members, favourite foods to the app so the child presses symbols such as; I want a drink of water please and the app verbalises the symbols for a child. Also, eye gaze mouse.

Thank you for listening! What we learned? Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) within the school had directed time with the computing teacher during the week looking at different skills. The children all learn at different rates and loved the activities provided by the teacher. Not only is computing used in the school as a form to develop skills for life for example; setting up usernames, passwords, emails, using a mouse appropriately, creating CVs but computing is used as a form of communication for lots of children in the school. Thank you for listening!