Pamela Oakley

The Church of England Primary School where these activities are based is on the Isle of Wight, catering for children from Reception to Year 4.

Clicker 4 has been used by the school for all ability groups within reading and writing, for some time. In January the ICT Coordinator and ICT Governor attended BETT where they discovered Clicker 5. Impressed with the demonstration, they purchased it for school use on a trial basis.

At the time I was looking into the role of Multimedia within reading and writing as part of a small activity-based dissertation for my final work in my ‘Foundation Degree in Early Years Care and Education.’ I used Clicker 5 to assess its effectiveness for raising achievement within these key skills.

The activity was based around ‘talking books’, using digital photography and the book-making templates provided in Clicker 5. The use of word banks helped with differentiation. I found it to be a very flexible tool and it enabled me to see first-hand how effective Clicker 5 was. Children who were unenthusiastic about these skills became motivated, challenged and engaged. They were able to discuss and plan together within a shared reading and writing task.

Since then we have, as a school, taken Clicker 5 on board and used it throughout the curriculum, especially in supporting and extending reading and writing. The children have enjoyed the use of the Oxford Reading Tree stories that has further stimulated their group reading, helped by the use of the interactive whiteboard.

Talking books have become the main use of Clicker 5 with all children. They have helped to reinforce teaching. Books have been made in Science, Geography, Literacy and PSHE. A book has just been completed for use in a parents evening, informing them of the art project that has been carried out throughout this term. At present we are working on a book to help children understand the five points in ‘Every Child Matters’.

Talking books became so popular in a short time that an after-school club was organised. Although this is only available to small groups, we are able to combine digital photography with Clicker.

Clicker has helped transform worship within the school. Talking books have been made to assist in the telling of Bible Stories. The children often use the recording facility to tell the stories themselves. These books are also being stored as a resource for school assemblies.

During Multi-cultural Week the focus was on Spain. Using the labelling and sentence grids we were able to build on Spanish words (for the non-Spanish speakers amongst us the speech facility was a blessing). A member of staff, fluent in Spanish was also able to record her own voice.

There is so much to use and we are just on the surface. The CPD Coordinator is organising a meeting for the school cluster so that a sharing of ideas and resources will enable us all to gain from each other, thereby sharing good practice.