Bursar’s Review

Summer 2022 www.theisba.org.uk 6 News The new media suite will also be home to the school’s flourishing co-curricular esports programme, and will serve as a digital hub for wider use by young people in the local community as well. Head at KES, Martin Boden, said: “We are proud of our history of providing an engaging, enriching and well-rounded education; this includes equipping our pupils with the skills and knowledge required for an ever-evolving technological landscape. “The importance of STEM subjects alongside technology and digital skills is critical to our pupils’ future educational and career success and led us to invest in these new facilities. “In partnership with Lenovo and Microsoft, we designed this state-of-the- art creative media suite to be a modern and exciting learning space, which is set to advance our pupils’ engagement with STEM and digital activities”. David Gray, gaming product manager, Lenovo, said: “Lenovo has a long history of working within education and gaming is no longer a niche hobby; it is a viable career option with opportunities in traditional technology business roles through to branding, managing, or competing in an esports team for example. Having the right hardware is key to enabling the pupils and we’re very excited see the systems used to their full potential”. Creative ambitions David Middlebrough, deputy head: curriculum and digital strategy at KES, said: “This new facility will be used for curriculum activities and as part of our co-curricular programme. We have seen that pupils want to bring more digital media work into their studies, and there are obvious benefits to being able to work with better quality photo and video editing facilities in subjects such as ICT, drama, art, and photography. However, we have also seen that pupils want to use these skills in all subjects – whether it is filming a video for a history assignment, putting together a news report in English or creating an animation of a geographical process. This new facility will allow pupils to fully realise these creative ambitions. “In addition, it won’t just be KES pupils who will benefit from this new facility, as we plan to offer the space as a hub for wider use by young people across the local community”. Laura James, head of computing and ICT at KES, said: “Using these powerful computers will allow our pupils to more easily explore avenues such as video editing and games development. The latter is a hugely viable career path these days and having a classroom set of powerful computers will mean we can now give pupils a taste of the processes behind making a realistic 3D game. “With the powerful graphics cards installed, we will also be able to use software to allow pupils to explore the possibilities of three-dimensional design and animation, as well as the Adobe Creative Suite, which allows us to teach video editing, special effects and character animation. “We are always looking for ways to enhance the curriculum with topics such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence and having the latest technology will help us explore these areas. Having this new facility will encourage more pupils to be interested in a career in digital technology, whether it be as a digital creative, for example, or a computer scientist”. King Edward’s School (KES), Bath, has a new creative media suite, which will provide pupils with some of the key technology and creative digital skills they will need in the future. Digital learning and co-curricular opportunities at King Edward’s School, Bath An ICT lesson, KES style