Innovative Teaching to Feature on BBC Radio 4

The BBC Radio 4 ‘Educators’ documentary series came to the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy, IPACA, today to record an innovative maths lesson and interview the students taking part. The series, which sees presenter Sarah Montague interview the people whose ideas are challenging the future of education, will feature an episode focused on Salman Khan founder of the Khan Academy.

Khan Academy is used extensively at IPACA as part of our unique learning mix to help raise student progress and attainment. The Khan Academy, a not-for profit-organisation, was created in 2006 by Salman Khan to provide "a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere."

It's website features thousands of educational resources, including a personalised learning dashboard, over 100,000 practice problems, and over 6,000 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube. The Khan Academy covers a wide range of subjects including; mathematics, history, healthcare, medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, cosmology, art history, economics and computer science.

IPACA’s rich digital environment and innovative 1:1 deployment of Chromebooks to all secondary phase and Sixth Form students, the first of its kind in the UK, has made effective online learning possible both at school and at home. Director of Digital Learning and Innovation, Gary Spracklen said, “Being able add a mix of superb online resources into a live lesson has a real impact on learning. Our teachers are effectively team teaching with experts in their field from across the globe” he added, “This extra dimension to our teaching and learning improves attainment and it also shows our students and staff that we are truly part of a global learning community.”

Year 8 student, Finley Brown said, ‘Being able to access Khan Academy at home means I can get a head start with my maths’. Rosie Blake, also in Year 8, added, ‘It was great fun having the BBC recording here today to share how exciting our learning is.’ BBC reporter, Natalie Donovan said, “It’s been great meeting Year 8 students at IPACA and to find out how they use digital resources such as Khan Academy to help them understand difficult mathematical concepts.”