Technology
Intranet Climate Change Project 
- Climate change is considered to be the most serious environmental challenge facing our planet. Our way of life, our wildlife and our environment are threatened. Kenton will create a series of online climate change activities for KS2 pupils to enhance their primary science curriculum. The imaginative online projects will foster the essential scientific concepts of comparables, variation and data analysis. Students submit their own observations and measurements and use the online toolkit to compare these with schools' data from the region, nationally and around the world.
- The online projects will be available to all pupils and have differentiated activities covering the following themes: Basics of Climate Change; Climate Change Calculator; Global Warming and Disease; Solar Homes – an Exciting Future; Hypercars; Eco-houses; Future Forests?; Rethinking the Car; Global Warming Quiz. Pupils will be given a unique code number to log-on to Kenton’s Intranet and they will be able to leave questions in the Ask the Science Teacher area.
| Art On Your Doorstep |  |
- The Arts are central to our vision of Kenton in the future. Their presence will help define the character of the school, just as pieces like the Angel of the North, Blue Carpet and the Baltic have helped define the cultural characteristics of the wider North East. We will turn the school into a living Art environment where pupils are encouraged to express themselves in music, art, drama, dance, literature and all the arts.
- The Kenton Learning Community will have the opportunity to experience and take part in the arts. During the 2008 Artsweek parents, stakeholders, staff, pupils and members of the local community will work with a team of artists to create new artwork which will be sited in and around the campus.
- The Specialist school funding will be used to commission artists to work with children and the community to enhance the building and environment through artwork. It's about being inspirational and invitational so people get the feeling of what the building is about.
- This will be a two-year project so it will continue to enhance the look and feel of the building through different artist projects and the pupils will be able to contribute more and more.
- The Art on Your Doorstep project will engage artists to work with primary children, students, teachers, stakeholders and the community to involve them in the creation and develop a sense of ownership and identity. A centre at the heart of the community that provides for Lifelong Learning.
| Family Science Day |  |
- The Family Science Days will work extensively in the community promoting literacy through science and technology. These family days will be designed for children and parents to work together to complement the interactive exhibits to explore the fun and fascinating side of science. Through collaboration with the Literacy Trust, Kenton will develop inspirational ways of working with parents and children to improve their literacy skills and foster an enjoyment in learning. Kenton’s joined-up approach means that in partner schools, libraries and in community settings, parents' learning is supported through its coordinators for family learning (basic skills).
- The Family Science Day will begin with a live show, “Don’t try this at Home - Newton’s Revenge.” The interactive stage show will explore the zany side of science and demystifies Newton’s fundamental Laws of Motion. With a little help from Sir Isaac Newton, members of Kenton’s Science department will perform wacky experiments to investigate the principles of inertia, acceleration, actions and reactions, followed by an array of hands-on experiments the entire family will enjoy. The workshops/experiments will be designed to show children and parents that science is fun. The activities will demonstrate a variety of scientific principles and focus on small group and individual participation. The goal is to give hard to reach parents the confidence to engage in learning experiences with their children through science and want to engage in improving their own literacy skills in the future. This initiative should also strengthen the relationship between school and home and reduce barriers to learning.
- Hard-to-reach parents are often initially reluctant to come along to a course. Therefore, if exciting family days are developed with interesting activities this will hopefully encourage less confident parents to join up for subsequent courses.
- Kenton understands that parents can get the support they need to boost their skills while the school will benefit from having more confident, supportive parents. In this way, a circle of involvement and support is created at local level which will directly impact on the literacy skills of both children and adults.
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