Technology

DIGITAL STRATEGY

Alpha staff are empowered with the tools and expertise to individualise and optimise learning for all in our fully Apple environment. The purposeful and planned integration of current technologies including 1:1 iPads from Foundation Stage, develops our students as confident and curious individuals, empowered with a love and control of their own learning.

INNOVATION

Innovation at Alpha is about so much more than simply using technology. At Alpha, innovation is about thinking in new and creative ways to solve problems. Alpha’s balanced focus on content, skills and attitudes ensures that our students develop into responsible citizens, who work collaboratively with confidence to solve problems for the greater good.

SKILLS FOR FUTURE-READINESS

The Alpha curriculum is designed with the following overarching skills at its core:

Creativity

Students and teachers seek new and innovative ways to perceive and solve problems

Communication

Technology allows our students the choice in how to demonstrate their learning

Critical Thinking

Varying perspectives and approaches are deeply explored and evaluated

Collaboration

iPads and collaborative applications allow our students to work together from anywhere and at any time

Confidence

Ownership and relevance of learning with iPads creates a confidence in our learners to be the leaders of tomorrow

Citizenship

Technology and social media allows our students to take meaningful action towards humanitarian and environmental issues at the core of our curriculum

CODING

At Alpha, basic coding is part of the curriculum from FS2. Alpha School participates annually in worldwide coding initiative “Hour of Code” hosted by Code.org. We use Apple's new Swift Playgrounds in Primary to teach pupils how to code and create apps with the support of the very best hardware including Parrot drones and Sphero devices.

With Swift Playgrounds, our pupils can learn and implement fundamental coding concepts to control these environment devices to startup, shutdown, movement capabilities, custom animations and more. This not only gives our pupils the chance to learn how to put together more complex coding commands but allows each pupil to define completely unique behaviours for their programmable devices.

To learn more logon to https://www.apple.com/ae/swift/playgrounds.

TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED PARENT PARTNERSHIPS

At Alpha, parents are partners and communication is key. State-of-the-art digital platforms avail our parents to comprehensive and customized information about every aspect of school life and provide a deep understanding of their children’s learning.

iSams Parent Portal allows our parents immediate mobile access to school information and alerts.

Multi-media digital monthly Principal newsletters are a celebration of whole school achievement. Weekly year group newsletters likewise, share updates on teaching and learning, homework and celebrations at a class level.

Home-school workflow tools provide a window into their child’s learning real time. Through the use of Seesaw and Class Dojo, parents receive alerts to view their child’s work and peer and teacher feedback. This empowers our parents with the confidence to support and extend the learning at home in mother-tongue.