Barton Peveril Named FE College of the Year

@BartonPeveril Win @EduFuturists College of the Year Award 

Barton Peveril Sixth Form College have won the FE College of the Year Award in the national Edufuturists Awards 2020, which took place in an online ceremony on Friday 10th July 2020. Barton Peveril received the award because of its digital learning capabilities and continued success delivering teaching and support remotely.

Throughout the current Covid-19 pandemic Barton Peveril have used technology to successfully enable all timetabled lessons, for each of its 3,600 students, to continue online. Using Google Suite, lessons are delivered online by teachers through Google Meets with work set, marked, and discussed through Google Classrooms for each individual class.

Barton Peveril continued this use of technology to facilitate its annual Taster Days, for current Year 11 students joining the College in September. The Taster Days took place online between 6th and 9th July, with future students participating in two live lessons per subject and attending live seminars for the additional opportunities available to them.

Digital technologies are also used by the College to support students and enable learners of all abilities to thrive in their studies. Speech Recognition Software, access to Chromebooks during lessons, and a dedicated Learning Support Google Site are used by Barton Peveril to support students. As a result of this support, students with declared learning support at Barton Peveril are now among the top 10% of all learners nationally.

Edufuturists is an organisation that explores the future of education, recognising and celebrating innovative institutions that support students with forward-thinking methods and practices.

Barton Peveril Principal Jonathan Prest said of the award:

“This is a fantastic recognition for all our staff and particularly the IT support team who have helped the rest of us exploit the potential of IT for learning. Barton Peveril has been leading the way with its use of the Google suite for education and this was one of the reasons why, with the lockdown in March, we were able to successfully transfer our lessons overnight from the classroom to people’s homes. Students have benefited greatly from staff using the technologies: helping to keep their studies going and allowing them to attend classes, find resources, break out into groups and work collaboratively, and even submit essays or answers to questions and have them marked by their teachers online!”

Speaking on the award, Barton Peveril IT Manager, Peter Horner, said:

“I’m delighted that we have won the EduFuturist FE College of the Year Award. This award is testimony to the work of all teachers and support staff across the college.”

“Over the last five years, we launched a new digital strategy and heavily invested in technology to enhance the quality of students’ learning experience. Cloud-based technologies such as Google Classroom have empowered learners, supported independent learning, and meant we could smoothly transition to distance learning.”