Douay Martyrs Catholic Secondary School Enhances Learning with Avocor Interactive Displays

Douay Martyrs Catholic Secondary School is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status in the London Borough of Hillingdon, UK. It serves over 1,500 students from a range of social backgrounds. The school was founded in 1962 by the Diocese of Westminster and is named after the Douay Martyrs, a group of English priests who were executed for their faith in the 16th and 17th centuries. The school has a strong academic record and has been consistently rated as one of the top performing schools in its area. In 2018, the school was awarded an Ofsted rating of “Good”. The school has used technology for learning in a variety of ways and has a well-equipped IT department that gives students and staff access to a wide range of technology resources.

"The school had been struggling with an outdated, noninteractive audio-visual technology system that had, to an extent, hindered the implementation of interactive teaching and learning programs. To address this issue, the school undertook a two-phase audio-visual technology upgrade. The first phase of the project funded by a grant from the Department of Education focused on upgrading the audio-visual infrastructure of the school’s smaller campus. Following the success of this phase, the school decided to self-fund the second phase of the project in the summer of 2023.

This phase involved the installing of 72 new Avocor interactive displays in classrooms across both campuses. The project was completed by MSC IT Solutions of Hartlepool in just 16 weeks, well ahead of the original proposed schedule. Despite being based in the North East the company has a trusted team of IT experts who have built long-lasting strong and strategic relationships with schools across the country through its support and installation services.

“We had previously worked with the school so were already familiar with the layout, architecture and any particular challenges that might arise.” said Mark Cronin, Managing Director of MSC IT Solutions. “We had used Avocor displays before, so we already had experience of how they were the ideal solution for an education project of this size. The project went extremely smoothly and both us and the school are delighted with the installation.”

The introduction of Avocor interactive displays has had a transformative impact on the school,” commented Bryan Magee, Deputy Headteacher at Douay Catholic School. “Following the installation, our staff are now able to deliver more engaging and interactive lessons that cater to a wider range of learning styles and led to a significant improvement in pupil engagement. In addition, the Avocor displays have also helped to improve communication and collaboration between staff and students will continue to play a vital role in the success of our school for many years to come.” “The screens along with the new IT infrastructure has now unlocked the Teaching and Learning potential to implement the best pedagogy and therefore impacting the student’s daily activity; opening up their future opportunities.”

Avocor interactive displays offer a wide range of features that are specifically designed for educational use.

These features include:

• A high-resolution screen for clear and crisp images
• An extensive range of connectivity options
• A sleek and modern design
• Easy-to-use software
• Integration with all video apps and hardware devices
• Collaboration solutions that allow for real-time interaction between students and teachers

Overall, the installation of Avocor interactive displays has been a success for The Douay Martyrs Catholic School. The displays have helped improve the teaching and learning experience for staff and students alike. The school, in partnership with MSC IT, is also looking at ways to further embed interactive displays into the life of the school.