Welcome  News  Our schools  FactFiles      St Mary's      Giffard Park      Walker      Grange      Castletown      Bidborough      Castlehead  Join  Contact	FactFile It's Child's Play - St Mary's CE School, Folkestone Year 5 Students Study the School Website Teachers and pupils at St Mary's CE Primary School in Folkestone are enjoying making full use of their school website to enhance their educational experience. Together they have created a rich, engaging site using the Millennium Schools web building kit. Much of the site has been created by the pupils, under the guidance of ICT Co-ordinator, Colette Cotton. "Once a week, as part of their ICT experience, different groups of children work together to create new content for the website. The children report on daily activities or special events taking place in the school. They plan how they want the page to look, take digital photographs, choose their layout, scan in the pictures and enhance them using Photo Editor. They then upload images and text to their new pages." Colette says, "Developing the school website encourages the children to push the limits of their ICT experience. There is so much that the children can do themselves without referring to a teacher. I then check what they have done and publish the page when it's ready." A Great Equaliser Children in the ICT Suite Each child spends between one and two hours a week on the computers. "At least once a term, children look at the school website and list their likes, dislikes and development ideas. Teachers also add pages on class visits and events, and in this way, Millennium Schools is stimulating collaborative discussion, which enables children to make a valuable contribution to the completed site." Colette says, "The children often choose to communicate their ideas in a different way than I would as an adult. Their approach is usually more visual and is often more effective." The Millennium Schools website is proving to be a wonderful resource to encourage children's creativity online. "Millennium Schools technology is so simple to use, that children can input text and images easily. Using the website is a great equaliser; for example, children who have difficulty producing written work are succeeding because they can create material that is just as good as their peers'." At School - At Home Welcome to St Mary's School The site is also helping to build links between school and home. Colette says, "We have an after school club where children and their parents can use the ICT suite. Many parents are amazed by the school website, and children take great pride in showing off their work." One parent comments, "It's really colourful, I love looking at all the pictures, it helps me see what is happening in the school." Visit St Mary's CE School Download the FactFile