Goffs Oak Primary and Nursery School

Overview

Goffs Oak Primary and Nursery School is a mixed pupil community school in Hertfordshire, UK, with an intake of 231 students. Marked as a Good provider by Ofsted, the school’s mission is to provide all children with the opportunity to achieve their potential academically, socially and physically.

The challenge

After joining the school as Headteacher in 2016, Michelle Matthews immediately saw that the estate of projectors and whiteboards across the school were struggling to keep up with the demands of being used all day, with some teachers choosing not to use the technology due to pupil eye strain.
“Our interactive technology was procured to help us improve the standard of teaching and learning at the school, but they were actually hindering it. Upgrading our projectors with new bulbs was becoming an expensive and temporary solution which we financially couldn’t maintain. It was becoming a losing battle.”
Michelle and her team knew they wanted to move away from projector technology to a solution that would work well with the number of windows in the school as well as meet the demands of busy classrooms.

The solution

“Choosing the Avocor F10 series display was an easy decision for us. The glass technology means that they can work in light, bright classroom environments and there is no need to darken the room to get the best visual result.” The inbuilt computer and USB port mean that teachers’ laptops didn’t always need to be connected, giving teachers time back during individual and group work. “The use of interactive display technology is pivotal in our day to day teaching strategies here at Goffs Oak, with the Avocor displays, we can confidently plan for interactive devices to be used daily. Our children also enjoy using the displays, particularly for interactive learning games where, as a result of the 10-point touch, there is no more ‘waiting in turn’, learning has become a fun, more collaborative experience.”

Pre-created content in 3rd party whiteboarding software tools could continue to be used with Avocor Eclipse, the educational software application that enables teachers to convert resources for continued use without losing them.

“The Avocor solution has fitted seamlessly into our school, instantly supporting teaching and learning without causing more work for our staff.” Competitively priced, the school was able to instantly upgrade all their existing whiteboard technology as opposed to a 3-year refresh cycle, meaning all staff and pupils could experience the benefits of the new technology. The upgrade process was simple and easy with Avocor and their preferred partner, Javalin Networks. The team worked closely with the IT technicians at the school to ensure there was a smooth transition for staff, including onboarding training while any technical issues have been easily solved through online support and by the swift response from the technical teams at Avocor and Javalin.

The displays have enhanced teaching at the school, as children can see lesson content, clearly. Michelle has also seen cost savings as there is no longer any need to print out visuals for the children to see. Overall, pupils are more engaged as teachers are using the displays for whole class work including the use of videos. The displays have also saved teachers’ time as they don’t have to re-design their templates and resources to adapt to the new technology.

“Choosing Avocor has ultimately saved Goffs Oak time and money as well as enhancing the learning experience for our pupils.”