The best practice of a leading Essex independent school was showcased on Friday at the world’s largest educational technology exhibition, the BETT Show.

Assistant Headteacher at Felsted School, near Great Dunmow, Dr Nick Dennis, gave a talk about how his school use iPads with pupils to boost learning, social and pastoral practices. His speech took place on the stand of Essex based LapSafe® Products, an education specialist in managing mobile ICT, and gave teachers and education professionals the chance to find out how the popular Apple tablet can be utilised across a range of academic subjects.

Felsted School, an independent boarding and day school for children aged four to 18 years of age, is an Apple Regional Training Centre, and offers free advice and workshops to any school using Apple tools to support teaching and learning. Visitors attending the iPad talk discovered how Dr Dennis and his pupils use tablet computers both inside and outside of the classroom, taking them on school trips to use GPS and create video blogs of their experiences. Dr Dennis explained how the iPads provide students with a range of academic staples, such as electronic dictionaries and calculators, and assume an important pastoral role by placing student information, such as commendations and medical details, at staff’s fingertips.

As an SEN teacher ICT plays an important part in our day to day activities. Think how many ICT based solutions are used every day – many of our students arrive by taxi which is all arranged by your School Management System. You may use an electronic attendance register and monitor your premises by CCTV. Your SEN pupils will have behaviour plans and IEPs generated with a click of the mouse. Your pupils will learn Numeracy and Literacy skills, even at P Levels, using a PC adapted with alternate pointing devices and viewing devices. Where does all this stuff come from? Many teachers inherit a classroom with all these things that have quite obviously been in place for years.

Imagine just how much one aspect of IT has developed in the time that your resources have been used. It’s probably fair to say some of that kit entered your classroom when the Internet was in it’s infancy used by a select few whereas now it’s in every home and most of us use it every day for all manner of life's tasks.