News & events

July 2010

£1 million ICT investment at Manchester Communication Academy

Over £1m has been invested in the Academy’s ICT and specialist equipment, which includes:

• Interactive whiteboards for teachers to bring lessons to life and for pupils to take part
• Plamsa screens to demonstrate skills and concepts to smaller groups
• Four screens in each base that can be switched to output the same image sound to all four screens for larger groups
• Macbooks for creative learning including podcasting, video editing and web page creation
• Laptops and netbooks for browsing the web and creating documents
• Desktop PCs for image manipulation – Adobe Creative Studio 5: PhotoShop, Illustrator and InDesign
• A wide range of data collections devices including digital cameras, mp3 recorders and digital camcorders
• A fully-equipped Post 16 resources centre with dual-boot iMacs and a range of professional software titles for community and adult use.

The Academy has also invested significantly in ICT to support learning across a range of specialist sectors including Art, Music, Design Technology and Science with professional standard equipment including a fully equipped recording studio, laser cutters and top of the range photographic equipment.

John Sibbald, Head of Specialism and Post 16 Learning at the Academy, comments: “The children and the community who will be using the Academy deserve exactly this kind of world class equipment.  The fantastic suite of new facilities means that we are able to tailor learning to meet the needs of all of our students, so no-one is left behind and talented pupils are able to explore and set their own pace.

The ICT network and equipment are now being installed by Ramesys and Andrew Taylor, Ramesys Project Manager, comments: “We are all looking forward to welcoming the first students and staff to the Communication Academy and are really proud to be working on such an exciting ICT project.”

And it’s not only students at the Academy that will be able to use the new facilities. Parents and carers will be able to log on to the Realsmart online system which tracks their children’s progress and enables them to view for themselves just what their child is learning and how they are progressing.