About The Digital Excellence Strategy
In January 2018, we applied to become part of an innovative project in teaching and learning using digital technologies as part of the Department of Education Digital Excellence Strategy. Over 120 applications were submitted and only 35 were selected, so we were delighted to be one of the clusters selected. We are the co-ordinating school in the cluster of Lacken N.S., Bruskey N.S., Ballynarry N.S., Breffni College, Cavan and Cavan Institute. The project will take place over the next 3 years and will involve all classes from Infants –6th class. The focus will be on computational thinking and digital literacy. It is an exciting project which we have titled ‘Dreams to Reality– Harnessing the Potential of the Digital World.’
December 2021
This is the final year of the Digital Excellence Project. A national show case day is planned for 28th of April 2022 in Croke Park but will depend on what restrictions are in place at that time.
On Tuesday 7th of December Ms Sheridan and Ms Boyle attended a meeting with the other participating schools in The Cavan Digital Hub to discuss how the project is going. The school acquired two Raspberry Pi Starter Kits along with a brief outline of what can be achieved with these computers. Pupils in the senior room will explore the potential of these later next term.
Third to sixth class are currently engaging with Microsoft Dream Space and Minecraft in a project called "Ireland's Future is Mine". Microsoft have provided free Minecraft Education accounts to each pupil so that they can work individually on the skills taught over six episodes coming from the Microsoft Dream Space team. The pupils will look at what is needed for a more sustainable future and what our local area would look like with those designs in place. Over the next few weeks the pupils will be recreating in Minecraft what a more sustainable Gowna may look like in the future.
On Tuesday 7th of December Ms Sheridan and Ms Boyle attended a meeting with the other participating schools in The Cavan Digital Hub to discuss how the project is going. The school acquired two Raspberry Pi Starter Kits along with a brief outline of what can be achieved with these computers. Pupils in the senior room will explore the potential of these later next term.
Third to sixth class are currently engaging with Microsoft Dream Space and Minecraft in a project called "Ireland's Future is Mine". Microsoft have provided free Minecraft Education accounts to each pupil so that they can work individually on the skills taught over six episodes coming from the Microsoft Dream Space team. The pupils will look at what is needed for a more sustainable future and what our local area would look like with those designs in place. Over the next few weeks the pupils will be recreating in Minecraft what a more sustainable Gowna may look like in the future.
Our Visit to Combilift
One of the targets of this year’s Digital Learning Plan and as part of the Digital Excellence Project, was to provide pupils with an opportunity to see digital technology being used in industry. A visit to Combilift, Co. Monaghan, for the schools involved in our cluster group, provided this wonderful insight. Our only regret was that we were limited to bringing 8 pupils, but the following is a report they gave to their peers of what they learned on their visit.
On the 28th of January 8 pupils from our school got the opportunity to go to Combilift Lifting Innovation, in Monaghan as part of the Digital Excellence Program. Combilift is the largest global manufacturer of multi-directional forklifts. They have customers in 102 different countries with 25% sales in the UK. Only 2% of Combilift forklifts are sold to people in Ireland. Their first ever forklift made was sold to an Irish man, just in case there was a problem with it, they could fix it easily.
People wear different coloured hi-vis in Combilift. Once we got there, everyone got an orange high-vis vest. The reason that the vests were orange were so we could be told apart from the workers there, who wore yellow high-vis. We also got safety goggles to make sure that nothing got into our eyes and we also got ear plugs so we didn’t damage out ears with the loud noises from the machinery.
Then we split up and each group got their own tour guide, ours was Dominic. We all went into a cinema room where we watched a short power point presented by Catherine Fox, and we got the opportunity to ask some questions. Then we went off on the tour. We started in the computer offices were we saw lots of busy workers on computers. Then Dominic went on to show us into the design area were we got to see a worker on his computer designing a 3D format of one of the forklifts which he would then show to a customer before they purchased it. We were amazed by this use of technology, to see how they design their forklifts so that every customer gets exactly what they want. Then we were shown the safety exits before going into the actual manufacturing part of the factory. The transition between a quiet working office and a busy working factory was really cool. We were guided through the different rooms which had different productions stages. Each room in the production area was very high.
One of the last rooms we went into, we could see all the different Combilift products in action. We saw people putting pallets with parts on them, up onto very high shelves with the help of cameras on the front of the forklifts. These people were extremely skillful and could reverse into tiny spaces thanks to the Aisle Master. We went on to see a Straddle Carrier being dismantled and put into a shipping container. Then we went on a sky walk over one of the manufacturing areas of the building which looked tremendous!
Martin McVicar, one of the founders of Combilift, never went to college. When he was in his early 20’s, he won young entrepreneur of the year. This year, Combilift celebrates its 21st year in business. Combilift now employs over 650 people in their Monaghan head-quarters. Combilft are now working on a fully automatic, coded forklift.
This once in a lifetime opportunity was amazing. It has really helped us consider our future. We are very grateful for this extraordinary day. We hope we will be able to see Combilift again one day.
Written by: Kilian, Kyla, Hannah, Skye, Raymond, Cormac, Francesca and Ella.
On the 28th of January 8 pupils from our school got the opportunity to go to Combilift Lifting Innovation, in Monaghan as part of the Digital Excellence Program. Combilift is the largest global manufacturer of multi-directional forklifts. They have customers in 102 different countries with 25% sales in the UK. Only 2% of Combilift forklifts are sold to people in Ireland. Their first ever forklift made was sold to an Irish man, just in case there was a problem with it, they could fix it easily.
People wear different coloured hi-vis in Combilift. Once we got there, everyone got an orange high-vis vest. The reason that the vests were orange were so we could be told apart from the workers there, who wore yellow high-vis. We also got safety goggles to make sure that nothing got into our eyes and we also got ear plugs so we didn’t damage out ears with the loud noises from the machinery.
Then we split up and each group got their own tour guide, ours was Dominic. We all went into a cinema room where we watched a short power point presented by Catherine Fox, and we got the opportunity to ask some questions. Then we went off on the tour. We started in the computer offices were we saw lots of busy workers on computers. Then Dominic went on to show us into the design area were we got to see a worker on his computer designing a 3D format of one of the forklifts which he would then show to a customer before they purchased it. We were amazed by this use of technology, to see how they design their forklifts so that every customer gets exactly what they want. Then we were shown the safety exits before going into the actual manufacturing part of the factory. The transition between a quiet working office and a busy working factory was really cool. We were guided through the different rooms which had different productions stages. Each room in the production area was very high.
One of the last rooms we went into, we could see all the different Combilift products in action. We saw people putting pallets with parts on them, up onto very high shelves with the help of cameras on the front of the forklifts. These people were extremely skillful and could reverse into tiny spaces thanks to the Aisle Master. We went on to see a Straddle Carrier being dismantled and put into a shipping container. Then we went on a sky walk over one of the manufacturing areas of the building which looked tremendous!
Martin McVicar, one of the founders of Combilift, never went to college. When he was in his early 20’s, he won young entrepreneur of the year. This year, Combilift celebrates its 21st year in business. Combilift now employs over 650 people in their Monaghan head-quarters. Combilft are now working on a fully automatic, coded forklift.
This once in a lifetime opportunity was amazing. It has really helped us consider our future. We are very grateful for this extraordinary day. We hope we will be able to see Combilift again one day.
Written by: Kilian, Kyla, Hannah, Skye, Raymond, Cormac, Francesca and Ella.
2019 Update
Our schools continued to build on the work already carried out with BeeBots, BlueBots, Light bot, Scratch, Adobe Spark/ PowerPoint presentations, Unplugged activities, Kahoot, Lego WeDo 2.0 and SeeSaw. This term the senior pupils got the opportunity to work with Lego-We-Do and Adobe Spark. Ten pupils from our school participated in a showcase day held in Breffni College on 8th May, to give the pupils from each participating school the opportunity to show the digital activities they had engaged with during the year. This was a really exciting time for the pupils, as they prepared to present to students at secondary level. The children also had the opportunity to visit Cavan Institute and were given a tour of the campus.
Our pupils also had great fun participating the the Great Escape Challenge
The Great Escape
To introduce a different aspect of digital literacy to the pupils we gave 5th & 6th class “The Great Escape” Challenge. The flyer on the following page was sent to all schools in the cluster. This activity involved a lot of different curricular areas, Maths (problem solving, time, measure, money & computation), English, Geography. Word processing skills were used to track and document their progress. Google maps was used to establish the distance as the crow flies. (Measure distance feature.) The pupil who travelled the furthest, with the correct documentation to verify the journey, won a prize.
Our pupils also had great fun participating the the Great Escape Challenge
The Great Escape
To introduce a different aspect of digital literacy to the pupils we gave 5th & 6th class “The Great Escape” Challenge. The flyer on the following page was sent to all schools in the cluster. This activity involved a lot of different curricular areas, Maths (problem solving, time, measure, money & computation), English, Geography. Word processing skills were used to track and document their progress. Google maps was used to establish the distance as the crow flies. (Measure distance feature.) The pupil who travelled the furthest, with the correct documentation to verify the journey, won a prize.
December 2018 Update
BeeBot / BlueBot
The Junior and Senior Infant pupils have started their digital journey with BeeBots. They have planned how to programme the Beebots using pictorial representations.
They wrote simple code for the BeeBot to follow, and using an app on the iPad, they were able to programme the Bluebot.
Lightbot
Lightbot is an educational game for children that introduces several principles of programming, including sequential thinking, designing procedures and problem solving. Pupils from first class to sixth class engaged with this app on the iPads. There are 5 levels in Lightbot Junior: Basics, Jumping, overloading (introducing the concept of one instruction having different functions depending on where it is applied), procedures (which introduces a repeated procedure), and Loops. The pupil cannot progress to the next level until each subsequent level has been mastered. The pupils are all working at their own pace with this app.
Scratch
Classes from 1st to 6th have been introduced to Scratch and will continue to work on developing skills through online tutorials and peer tutoring.
Adobe Spark
Fifth and sixth class are exploring Adobe Spark as a means of presenting research and information in a fun and innovative way. They have been asked to design presentations to explain Lightbot, Beebots PowerPoint presentations, Adobe Spark, and other curriculum topics that the pupils are covering throughout the year eg. Topics from the maths and SESE curriculum. This form of peer tutoring will be a fundamental part of our digital excellence project over the three years.
Unplugged activities
Pupils in the senior half of the school ( 4th to 6th class) took part in unplugged activities. Writing code for everyday activities eg. Making a cup of tea, how to brush your teeth.
Third and fourth class split the class into programmers and robots. They loved this activity and had great fun trying out their code – especially when it didn’t work!
Mindcraft
While not used in school yet, one pupil created the titanic on Minecraft and then gave us a virtual tour.
The Junior and Senior Infant pupils have started their digital journey with BeeBots. They have planned how to programme the Beebots using pictorial representations.
They wrote simple code for the BeeBot to follow, and using an app on the iPad, they were able to programme the Bluebot.
Lightbot
Lightbot is an educational game for children that introduces several principles of programming, including sequential thinking, designing procedures and problem solving. Pupils from first class to sixth class engaged with this app on the iPads. There are 5 levels in Lightbot Junior: Basics, Jumping, overloading (introducing the concept of one instruction having different functions depending on where it is applied), procedures (which introduces a repeated procedure), and Loops. The pupil cannot progress to the next level until each subsequent level has been mastered. The pupils are all working at their own pace with this app.
Scratch
Classes from 1st to 6th have been introduced to Scratch and will continue to work on developing skills through online tutorials and peer tutoring.
Adobe Spark
Fifth and sixth class are exploring Adobe Spark as a means of presenting research and information in a fun and innovative way. They have been asked to design presentations to explain Lightbot, Beebots PowerPoint presentations, Adobe Spark, and other curriculum topics that the pupils are covering throughout the year eg. Topics from the maths and SESE curriculum. This form of peer tutoring will be a fundamental part of our digital excellence project over the three years.
Unplugged activities
Pupils in the senior half of the school ( 4th to 6th class) took part in unplugged activities. Writing code for everyday activities eg. Making a cup of tea, how to brush your teeth.
Third and fourth class split the class into programmers and robots. They loved this activity and had great fun trying out their code – especially when it didn’t work!
Mindcraft
While not used in school yet, one pupil created the titanic on Minecraft and then gave us a virtual tour.
