“If you can’t reach, you can’t teach.”
Cransley is small, and with this, comes a flexible culture of pedagogical and technological innovation.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) now pervades every element of our professional, personal and online life, and, even as a small school, Cransley is close to the cutting edge of development, especially when larger more cumbersome schools struggle to adopt quickly.
Nothing is more important in teaching currently than the development of Gen AI: in the world of work for our pupils, in exploiting tools for teaching, in the independent ability to improve one’s learning, in terms of safeguarding from potential harm, and in our relationships with one another.
Currently there are AI elements in every piece of Educational Technology (Edtech) we utilise - from Maths software that analyses your answers to create more complex questions; read-aloud and voice to text tools to aid writing; lesson planning and assessment tools; research and search machines. Even this article has been checked by AI for grammatical accuracy and succinctness.
…and yet this is only the very bottom rung of the technological ladder which AI provides for learning development.
Cransley’s aim is to create a safe environment to explore the power of Gen AI in constructive, transparent, enabling and positive ways, and to continue that development, without pause or complacency, as education follows the rapid change in technology.
Our new policy is forward thinking, whilst doing all we can to maintain safety and security, data and privacy, transparency and freedom of bias and inaccuracy, as each new tool is explored and developed.
Not easy, but we have the right personnel, and the right objectives, to see this forward. We have history in this…
History of Innovation
Long before the COVID pandemic hit, in May 2019, Cransley had begun ‘Project Chrome’ - the mission to implement a new technology plan across Cransley School that would aid a continuance of learning in School and at home.
Cransley were offered the opportunity to become partners with Google and to become a ‘Chromebook for Education’ School.
Our new upgraded cloud-based server and wireless systems, funded by the Cransley Foundation, facilitated new innovative remote teaching methods at all key stages, using the robust and versatile Google Classroom system.
During Lockdown - Junior Assembly time
Cransley School Online
Nothing is more important than seeing our children face-to-face in the classroom and online, and the integrated Google Meet video conferencing system allows teachers to have that vital frequent connection with their pupils.
The warm, nurturing relationships - such a vital characteristic of a caring School - continued unaffected, with personal contact between pupil and teacher made several times daily to ensure wellbeing and academic and personal growth.
This regular personal interaction, and the interactive variety of assignments and a fundamental quality of feedback and relevance that sets Cransley School Online apart from other schools.
If you can’t reach, you can’t teach.
Pupils are given a broad variety of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic academic tasks - just as they would in our classrooms - fully engaging and entertaining.
“It is never ‘just a worksheet’. The magic of learning can still be there!”
Using Google Suite for Education allows for collaboration, break-out groups, presentations, shared research, discovery and peer interaction.
Once completed, feedback from the teacher is detailed, personalised, and focussed on the pupil’s next stage in learning, allowing the online system to enhance and support excellent practice in the classroom itself.
We even have a Cransley Staffroom wherein we share excellent ideas, techniques and practice.
Therefore regardless of what the future brings, we know that our pupils are being given the very best care and continuity of learning.
“When we did open, our pupils were equipped with a set of skills and character which will benefit them throughout their academic and vocational lives.”
Our aim now is to maximise these skills and our new technology to exemplify blended educational technology in a new and even better way of learning, now and into the future.
In class and online