Curious Minds have funded the evaluation as an integral part of the Techno-ABLE project

Introduction Evaluation aims and objectives Research methodology Overview of Project Project Methodology Case Study Tor View Special Community School Case Study Royal Cross Primary School Case Study Lancasterian School Conclusion to Report Common Themes Diagram

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This report summarises the findings of an evaluation of a creative collaborative project across three SEN schools in the North West of England, developed by Curious Minds and DIY Theatre Company. The evaluation aimed to assess the effects of technology on pupil engagement and progress. The technology used in this project was the iPad. This evaluation is timely as the huge global explosion of technology means that the need to equip SEN students of the 21st Century for an independent future in an ever changing world is paramount. The evaluation was commissioned by Curious Minds, the Bridge Organisation in the North West, working with Arts Council England to connect all young people with great art and culture opportunities.

1. To evaluate the effectiveness of using iPads on pupil progress and engagement across three SEN schools 2. To evaluate the sub enquiries in each school which reflected the different needs from the schools. These sub enquiries were looking at: writing, punctuation and parental engagement 3. To identify common themes across the schools

The research conducted was action research and involved a practitioner, class teachers, teaching assistants (TAs) and pupils. The rationale for it being an action research project was so that the findings of the project can be related straight back into the schools to inform future practice and effect positive and relevant change in the schools involved. Methods used for collecting data were a series of observations of the classes working with the practitioner and a series of interviews with the staff and the practitioner involved. Alongside this qualitative data, quantative data was collected through the engagement sheets across two schools and the assessment tool Nearpod was used in the other school (see Royal Cross below).

The Techno-ABLE project grew out of the Developing Different Voices series which is an ongoing network for SEN schools across the North West run by Curious Minds. This group has brokered links between special schools, cultural organisations and research institutes across the region in order to encourage arts, culture and creativity in schools. Three special schools have worked in partnership with each other, Curious Minds and the practitioner Paul Main to develop the Techno-ABLE project to answer the question: How can we improve pupil engagement and progress through the use of creative technology? The technology used was the iPad and the schools were keen to discover how iPads could encourage engagement and learning. This question had come about through recognition that technology can significantly support young disabled people.We were keen to look at ways to help develop new creative skills and a higher visibility for pupils to create a more level playing field between themselves and their mainstream peers. The overall aim of this was to expand the life chances of these young people. Through partnership with DIY Theatre Company, the regional agency for delivery of training and specialist knowledge around Arts Award, this project has incorporated Discover and Explore Arts Awards. The three schools that took part in the project had worked closely with Curious Minds and engaged fully in the Enquiry and Change Creative Partnerships programmes, showing a commitment to the concept of creative learning. One school is based in Manchester and the other two schools are based in Lancashire. The project was awarded funding from Curious Minds of 10,500 with 1,500 from DIY Theatre Company shared equally between the three schools and each school contributed 3,000 as their share making a total budget of 21,000 Participants A total of 53 pupils took part in the project with ten pupils from Tor View School, 24 pupils from Royal Cross, and five pupils from Lancasterian school. One highly experienced technical practitioner, Paul Main was involved across all three schools to lead the project with staff and pupils. 21 members of staff across all three schools made up of teachers and teaching assistants participated. Jude Bird, the Cultural Education Manager from Curious Minds was the Project Manager and Leigh Gardner was the Researcher/Evaluator.

Jude Bird, Paul Main and the lead teachers from each school liaised closely to plan the project. The schools received one session of CPD with Paul Main to familiarise themselves with the iPads and some of the apps that Paul thought would be appropriate. Paul was to work with a designated group in each school for six sessions spread across twelve weeks. In Tor View and Lancasterian schools Paul worked with KS4 groups and in Royal Cross he worked across KS1 and KS2. Tor View and Lancasterian were able to split their groups in half in order to have a control group which did the same work as the iPad group (without using the iPads) .Royal Cross took the opportunity to use the iPads across the whole school as they had a genuine desire for total inclusivity and was possible due to them being a very small school, so had no control group. The engagement sheets were filled out for every pupil in both the iPad groups and the control group. The engagement sheets were not used in Royal Cross (see below). The engagement sheets were an assessment tool developed by Tor View school from research conducted by Professor Barry Carpenter OBE. Each school applied its own sub question to work to, in order to meet the different needs of the separate schools.

Tor View Special Community School Tor View Community Special School is situated on the edge of Rossendale in Lancashire with views out across open countryside. It has 150 pupils ranging from 3-18 and holds Specialist Arts College status. It caters for pupils with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) through to pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) Staff involved: Six. In both groups there was a lead teacher and lead teaching assistant (TA). The lead teachers took on responsibility of planning and the TAs took on the responsibility of filling out the Engagement sheets. The control group lead teacher was the Discover and Explore representative and was responsible for putting together the portfolios for this. Number of iPads: Ten Number of pupils in the iPad group: Ten Sub question: How far and in what ways can we facilitate the development and retention of new skills to improve learning? This sub question came from recognising the need for the retention of writing skills especially in punctuation with use of capital letters. Paul Main informed the staff that he would look for apps to help with this and described this as Firing up the neural pathway through games. Each pupil was identified with a specific learning need and set a target and the lead teacher used the work produced (the eBooks) to assess these targets. Methodology Alongside the lead teacher Paul discussed planning of sessions and the suggestion of making an eBook was taken up enthusiastically. Through this ebook, the pupils would have the freedom to experiment with apps that Paul found for them and the chance to practice writing skills, without realising that they were writing. There was recognition from staff that this would be helpful in the future with the lead teacher saying:

Lead teacher I am hoping it will give me the time to try out the apps properly and have an awareness of all the different programmes this would be useful to take to outreach in secondary schools, make me more aware and give me quick ways to search for things. It will make me use my iPad more for teaching. And hopefully get my assessment results up.

Common themes noted by the lead teacher at the beginning, included a lack of confidence and pupils not being able to check their work they are either reluctant to do it or do not know how to do it. It was hoped that using iPads could promote greater confidence or eliminate some of the self doubt. First observation - First session The first session was used to get a baseline for the engagement sheets so the lead teacher helped the pupils to choose things they knew they enjoyed doing, therefore the class were all involved in separate activities and the TA was able to get results of what engagement looked like for each individual.

2nd Observation Second session At this session the students were more used to seeing Paul and trying out the iPads. There were 8 out of the 10 students present. One student S sits separately during class time from the rest of the students who were all sitting together with their desks all pushed together. Paul showed them an app, Spelling Lite and there was an immediate hush as they started to concentrate. After 10 minutes there was still an interest and a buzz as some were working at different paces and getting onto different levels so others wanted to see and know what they were on. 15 minutes in there was still great interest and this continued until break, when the pupils had to be stopped from working. Example of engagement Student (S) with ASD and behavioural problems S was using her iPad and with her teaching assistant used paper and pad to try to find the correct spelling. S has written swimming clearly on her paper and lasts at this task for 25 mins. Then the TA lets her play for a break on something else.

The teaching assistant working with S remarked: Teaching assistant Its really good because it is helping her with her writing without S realising it as her writing can be problematic.

We were to see examples of this learning without realising it, throughout the whole project. 3rd Observation Final Session During this session it was really apparent how familiar the pupils had become with the iPads and levels of concentration and engagement were again high. There was very little sound in the room as the group worked, heads bent over their iPads and the only talking was the teacher helping one of the pupils. Paul was working on their eBook with them and using photographs of them working to add in. When Paul asked what apps could be used to help with the book one of the boys immediately called out, Poplet, one of the apps they had used previously, showing an interest and a retention of information. The pupil who sits on her own started the session outside of the classroom (this was the first day back after half term and it takes this pupil a while to settle back into class.) She then became interested in what was going on and sat at her place using the iPad for most of the session. When another pupil joined her at her desk S looked over at her photos and recognised herself and Paul on a photo which made her laugh. This was an unexpected engagement and communication from S. The iPads are all numbered and each pupil was able to recognise which number they used with one pupil aware of the numbers for practically every member of the group, again showing an engagement and interest in the iPads and project. One of the TAs remarked that the class was really helping each other with their tasks. One of the other boys went over to help one of the girls and her TA who were trying unsuccessfully to find something and then went straight back to his own task. This young man had been concentrating very hard on his eBook and his TA remarked: Teaching assistant S is now able to ask for help if he gets stuck. He tries things on his own but doesnt mind asking for help on it whereas if he was writing, his pen would be down and he would be looking around the room instead of asking for help.

Through working on the iPad and being able to experiment, this pupils confidence has grown enough to enable him to ask for help if he needs it. This is something that is occurring more across the class. Staff also commented that they are able to see immediately how pupils are getting on as in the case of a partially sighted pupil who was struggling with work that could then be made bigger for her on the screen, but if she had been bent over her paper and pen, they may not have realised she was struggling. Assessment of Targets set The lead teacher drew up targets for the pupils by marking their current target and giving them a target to work towards based on their English and writing e.g.: English writing, (Pupils name ) level NCL -2B Current To produce writing that conveys meaning making appropriate word choice Working towards To order words correctly in writing

Number of pupils who met both targets Number of pupils who met current target Number of pupils who met working towards target Number of pupils who met working towards target but inconsistently Number of pupils who met neither target

4 8 4

The two pupils who met neither target had been set targets which, once the project moved on and acquired its own life, were not relevant to them they however both have surpassed expectation in what they got out of the project, for instance S in the example above being able to join in and concentrate on a task for 25 minutes and the other pupil using ideas of her own to make her eBook.

During the sessions working with the practitioner the pupils demonstrated skills in being able to listen, follow instructions and really experiment with the iPads to find out what they could do for themselves. Behaviour was seen to be very good (at one point in the final session a TA came in to say she was supposed to be in the class to cover, she looked around at all the pupils working and concentrating and said, Well it looks like you dont need me and left. There was an increase in independent learning and the iPads were very useful for personalised learning as apps and games could be set at different levels to suit the pupils needs. Pupils were asking for help much more than they had done before the project and were also much more willing to share and help each other out. The iPads were also making it easier for staff to see what the pupils could and couldnt do and to be able to make adjustments to the iPad instantly (see example of partially sighted pupil above). The pupils looked forward to Paul coming into school and responded to him in a very positive manner.

Royal Cross Primary School Royal Cross is in Preston Lancashire and is Lancashires only school for deaf children. It caters for pupils from ages 4-11.Pupils can travel long distances across Lancashire to access it. There are currently 24 pupils with a high proportion of boys and a higher than average number of pupils with English as an additional language. Staff involved: Three teachers and five TAs Number of iPads in use 6 Number of pupils involved - 24 Sub question: How far can structured ICT workshops and activities develop good communication and social relationships between deaf children and their families? This is an important question for Royal Cross as they really wanted to make better connections with parents, especially fathers. A high proportion of their pupils are from Asian families and for these families the father tends to be the English speaker and the more dominant person in the family. There was also a big issue about finding ways for children to be using technology at home as a tool for communication and not just as a tool for playing. There was the intention that the children could more fully enter into family life and by sharing some of the apps in use at school the hope is that parents may feel more connected to the school. So this project is looking towards the iPad as a tool for communication not isolation. Methodology It took longer than in the other two schools for a clear methodology to be constructed as there was a long wait for the iPads to arrive in school. The engagement sheets were not suitable assessment tools for this school as the pupils are generally highly engaged in learning so Paul helped to develop other methods of assessment and the school is really keen to develop the iPads to help with assessment. In KS2, the project changed from working on literacy skills to developing skills in science and this was then assessed using as assessment programme called Nearpod. In KS1 the time with Paul was spent on developing skills to form and recognise letters and they experimented with different apps to enable this to happen. In the last session the pupils worked on finishing off their eBooks which will form their assessment for Discover and Explore Arts Awards. For the penultimate session Paul worked with KS1 and with KS2 on the last session. These changes and occurrences happened as the school and Paul experimented to find the best methods for working across all four classes as Royal Cross, in order to fulfill their genuine desire for inclusivity and to engage the parents, decided on a whole school project.

Alongside Paul working in school, the parents strand of the project was very important and Royal Cross organised three workshop days to involve parents. These workshops were designated to take place on three Saturdays in May, June and finishing with a social trip in July. The rationale for choosing a weekend was to enable parents who work during the week to attend as the school knows that this is a barrier to attendance at events. One of the other barriers to parental engagement is proximity to school and transport difficulties so transport costs were built into the project budget to overcome this. As our project was about communication I constructed three questions to ask some of the parents: Questions to parents 1. Do you feel you know what your childs day in school is like when they come home? 2. Do you use Moodle at home (Moodle is the online communication tool for sharing information between school and home) 3. Do you think the iPad can help with communication between you and your child?

I spoke to three sets of parents directly and observed others working with their children. Observations First observation using two borrowed iPads. Session 1 Reception 3 pupils. The teacher felt it was important to find new ways to deliver literacy so that the children did not get bored. From this class my main observation was that the children were engaged when they were in control of the iPad (we were sharing two iPads) but not interested if someone else had it. Y1 and Y2, 4 pupils. This class were working on the story of The Hungry Caterpillar in a very visual way. The children broke at the end and played in the classroom demonstrating excellent learning through play skills one girl was making sounds down a cardboard tube and the teacher explained that she is just learning that she can make her own sounds. After free time Paul introduced the dragon through augmented reality and showed the pictures up on the whiteboard. Only two pupils were here by this time. The pupil who had been playing with her voice looked around the classroom for the dragon and hid behind Paul and the other pupil looked very excited by it. There was a very immediate trust shown towards the practitioner from these children when the pupil wanted to hide from the dragon, she chose Paul to hide behind and not her more familiar teacher. This trust in Paul was an important part of the project and something that was apparent across all three schools.

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2nd observation Third session Y1 and Y2 - From this visit I could see independent learning, sharing and the teacher found it very useful to be able to observe her two new pupils and see what they are capable of doing as they were working independently and making their own choices. Teacher Ive not had a chance to be able to watch them like this before

Paul had set up some apps for the pupils to use and they enjoyed experimenting as shown below: From researchers field notes:

The level of concentration is high this is over an hour they have been occupied on one task. They have absolute control over what they are doing no-one is telling them they cant go on things, they are just finding stuff for themselves.

One boy who had not shown any interest in the iPads in the first session (when there were only two) sat with his support worker for over an hour looking at the iPad, and with help, he used his finger to draw letters. This pupil normally moves around a lot and finds it hard to concentrate due to his needs. One of the new girls dropped her iPad (the covers for them had not yet arrived) so she was given another one but was ignoring her instructions to leave it on the desk. She had it taken from her and then when got it back she played with it until she found a way to take a photo while keeping it on the desk thus demonstrating a way to problem solve! This child wanted to know Why? they had to stop at home time, as she was, in the words of her teacher so engrossed.

3rd observation KS2 Final Session There are two classes in KS2 and I observed them both on this day. The first class below I had observed on my first visit prior to the iPads being in school and the second class had not been observed by me before. First class The pupils were immediately showing an excitement that Paul was there and greeted him with a very enthusiastic Good Morning Paul. There were six pupils present but Paul only dealt with five of them as one of them was not having a good day and was outside for most of the session. Paul explained that they were going to add labels to the photographs taken

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by the photographer and the pupils remembered how to add text, talking Paul through it as he demonstrated on the whiteboard. Paul asked them to download three photos and put their labels on. During this activity they needed a lot of help but there were no signs of frustration, the concentration was high and there was an air of excitement and willingness. As the pupils filled in labels they showed them to Paul very proudly. When they came to make their second pages, they were working with more confidence and the HLTA in charge of the group remarked: HLTA Its amazing how quickly they get it and they will remember it. As the children worked at this activity there was a buzz and chatter this was the opposite of what had been happening in Tor View when the pupils were silent in their concentration and an example of how engagement can be shown in different ways. This noise of working was demonstrating high levels of engagement, excitement and involvement in their activity and the pupils were very relaxed in this learning. In the second KS2 group the pupils were more able to work on the task (this is a higher level class) and Paul realised that they were getting through the photos and labels very easily so he chose some different activities for a couple of the boys to stretch them further. This was a demonstration of how the iPads can be used for differentiation instantly. The class teacher told me of the last lesson Paul was with them when they had been looking at telling the time: KS2 teacher on working on the iPads to tell the time They could all work at their own rate which is what I like about technology, not the same pressure to keep up with the rest of the world.

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Parent Engagement Workshop First Workshop The first workshop was attended by ten families and one of the fathers had never been in the school before. One of the new pupils parents attended, they are both deaf and are known as having a history of non engagement with schools. This was a very good start to the workshops and the feedback at the end of the session was that it had been worthwhile and the parents would like to do similar sessions. Parents felt they could find out how their childs day had gone through the Homework book and through Moodle, which they were all aware of and had started to use it. Parent comments about Moodle D (child) controls it all I find it useful as it links to games and the curriculum.

This comment is an example of how important technology is as a means of communication between school and home. When asked if they thought that the iPad could improve communication at home with their children all the parents agreed that they thought it could. One of the dads plays games on the home iPad with his son and during these games his son will talk to him via the online chat room even though they are sitting next to each other. It is a clear and quick form of communication for them and accessible via technology: Parent comment If it wasnt for digital technology, D would really struggle.

During this workshop parents got the chance to try out some of the apps that the pupils had been using in school. The iPads were out on a large table in the conference room and parents and children came in to play on them with the reception teacher, helping and guiding them on apps. One of the parents was very impressed with some of the work her son had done using Story Creator and she wanted to know how to get it on her iPad at home. This parent had accessed funding from the Birkdale Trust to purchase an iPad and the workshop was an ideal place for her to pass this information on to other parents to encourage them to apply. Parents swapped information about other apps they had seen or were using and the feedback at the end of the session was that this opportunity for mixing and meeting had been very useful. They were also able to make suggestions as to what would be useful to them and their children with the iPads and one of the suggestions was that the teacher could film herself doing some signs for new words as the pictures of signing were often hard to interpret.

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Conclusion This project became a whole school project as they were so keen to share the iPads across everyone. Therefore without a control group there can be no comparison to how pupils progressed doing similar activities without the iPads. However, the enthusiasm across the school from both staff and pupils has made this a very successful pilot scheme with a higher level of engagement and involvement from the parents than was expected. KS2 looked at the ways that the iPads were being used in KS1 (as this is a small school, sharing and best practice is very easily distributed) and KS2 staff decided that they wished to focus on science and assessment more, rather than stay with KS1 on a focus for letter formation, writing and literacy. Across both key stages differentiated learning was really important and the instant access that the iPads can give for this was very apparent.

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Lancasterian School Lancasterian is based in south Manchester in a highly residential area and is a Special School for Communication and Interaction. The ages range from two to sixteen and the school caters for pupils with physical difficulties, severe medical conditions and communication needs. Staff involved Two lead teachers for both groups, five TAs Number of iPads Six Number of pupils in the iPad group: Five Number of pupils in Control group: Six

Sub question: How far and in what ways can we facilitate the development of literacy skills in an enjoyable and transferable way? The lead teacher felt strongly that iPads could be used for finding different ways of working and had been using her own iPad with the class to make and tell stories. This teacher wanted her pupils to be able to explore the iPads and see them as something fun and not necessarily something that was for learning, so she wanted to find ways for the learning to be hidden in the fun. This teacher works very creatively to encourage the pup ils to experience different ways of learning for instance just before this project, the pupils had been experiencing what it may have been like for Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel by lying under the tables and painting onto paper pinned to the underside of the desks. Methodology The iPads that some of the pupils had at home were very much used for playing games on so Pauls aim was to find apps that would help with literacy while ensuring that the pupils were enjoying using the iPads. Paul and the lead teacher planned sessions together and decided that one of the ways to develop the literacy skills was to find different ways to present a story (this reflects one of the needs in Royal Cross at KS1 where the teacher wanted to find different ways to present literacy.) This class had a lesson with the lead teacher two days before Paul was due so Paul and the lead teacher decided to use the lesson on the Monday to present a story with Paul following it up on the Wednesday with the iPads. The class looked at the Easter story in the first session with the iPads (which was the second session working with Paul) then moved on to Gullivers Travels and then

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they worked on their e books. The control group was following the same lesson plan and the lead teacher was teaching the control group. First Observation First session The class were learning about Italy and working on a book that was going into a bigger book of Italy. We did not use the iPads in this session and Paul and I used the session to get to know the pupils. One of the pupils was excited that he was going to be able to find out about Italian football and later in the session he brought his work over to show Paul and me. His teacher explained that this pupil has fantastic verbal skills but cant transfer them to his writing so working on the iPad on letter formation would be useful for him. Second Observation Third session The group were working on Gullivers Travels and had read the story two days before with the lead teacher. Pauls plan was to recap the story and then check their own retelling by making it into a comic. We started work in one room but soon had to move to another room for another class and lost some time doing this. However this disruption did not hinder the engagement nor the enjoyment which was surprising. The pupils settled back to their work as soon as we were in the other room. Using augmented reality in order to make the pictures small to the pupils, Paul showed pictures of the story and the pupils took it in turns to look: Student responses to Gullivers Travels Augmented Reality Pupil male 1: Oh my God! Pupil male 2: I couldnt believe my eyes!

The pupils eagerly swapped the pictures around to try them out and Paul let them know that they would be making comics next. (We had to move again at this point but as before, the move did not disrupt the concentration) Now working in the studio everyone settled on the floor apart from Pupil male 1 (above) who chose a chair and Paul started them all with the app, Comic Life. J called me over to help and at this point we were all struggling to put the title in and needed Paul to help us. One boy said it was hard to do and Pupils male 1 and I found our writing went into the title not the speech bubble. There were no signs of frustration at this though, each student waited very patiently for Paul to come and help . The photos I took show concentration and engagement.

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Teaching assistant and student during Comic Life building Do you like the iPads (Name)? Yes Do you like writing on them? Yes

The TA told us that it is hard for the students to associate the iPad with anything but games so using it as a tool for writing was unusual. Paul finished the session with them doing some games of their choice. This was a session with very high levels of concentration. There was also a huge amount of trust and acceptance from the pupils as they looked to Paul for help and encouragement and were also asking me for help. After this session the pupils were very keen to take their teacher back to the room to show her the little people they had seen on the augmented reality and the teacher then built on this idea and brought in Little People toys which they used to photograph and make Gulliver books on the iPad. These books were done alongside the control group as one big group and the lead teacher observed the iPad group sharing their new found skills with their peers and helping them. This was unexpected behaviour as the pupils do not normally share their work or expertise with each other. Third Observation final session During this session the pupils continued using Comic Life and used the images that the photographer had taken to make ebooks. One of the boys was having a slightly difficult day and lost one of his rewards from his TA. Paul changed his activity for him immediately as he wanted to Do it myself and the boy was delighted to be on an app where he could record his voice (Story Robe) over his pictures and be more in control of what he was doing. One of the other boys opened Tellegami (one of the apps they had been using) and started to write a story with the sentence: Example of pupils sentence writing I am writing on the iPad.

By choosing his app and way of writing his story, this pupil was showing his independence and his ability to choose his own way of learning. Again, as in the session I had previously been in, we had to move rooms but the pupils coped with this in a very mature and sensible manner and as soon as we settled in our new area, they got straight back to their eBooks. One of the pupils in the iPad group is regularly

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removed from lessons for behaviour problems. Of the six sessions with Paul he only had to be removed once which was a strong sign from him that he was engaging well. The lead teacher has been able to encourage fine motor skills through the use of the iPads they are much more accessible to her students than the computers and one pupil loves to do jigsaws which he cant manage with his motor skills so is really enjoying being able to do them on the iPad.

Conclusion The lead teacher had been keen to ensure that the iPads would be seen as something to be enjoyed and the pupils had no problems seeing them as that. They did see them as something for games and through the apps that Paul choose for them and the activities he planned for them, these games continued, while also encouraging the pupils to write and experiment with words. As with Tor View, we were seeing the pupils learning without realising it. During morning sessions with their teacher, if the students saw the iPads out on the tables they would go straight to the tables to do their spellings so that they could then go on the iPads. This was a big change but the iPads acted as an incentive fro the pupils to get their spellings done. The lead teacher was in charge of the Control group and when she worked with them on making books on the iPads, the iPad group were very helpful in sharing their skills and encouraging their peers. The iPads have had an effect on behaviour as concentration is high and the pupils are really enjoying using them and gaining independence with their work. This has also helped their motivation (see spelling example above) Confidence has grown as the results of what the pupils are doing are so visual and immediate that they can see their work and then show it very proudly to others, as well as being able to help others find ways to access the iPads. In terms of future work in Lancasterian the lead teacher feels that the school will probably buy more iPads and is looking at them across the whole school, with a project currently taking place with iPads in Nursery.

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The Messiness of Research This report, as detailed above, has been developed in order to put together the findings from the Techno - ABLE project and as it has been collected and edited by the author, it becomes a subjective piece of work which is one of the many criticisms of qualitative social research. In writing and collecting the data I have tried to remain unbiased and open to what I have been observing. I have copious field notes I have studied at great length to look for themes across all the schools, themes in each school and answers to the questions we asked and in this search for answers have often found myself and the data asking more questions! Research is messy I may be expecting to find something out and I am led in a completely different direction by my subject it is this messiness that brings the research to life for me. I am looking at real people, children, teachers, parents, practitioners, a moment in someones life and not looking at a neat row of figures that I expect to give me neat answers at the Total column at the bottom. It is this realness and congruence from the participants that makes research alive for me but also what makes it difficult sometimes to piece succinctly together. All three schools are very different and in each school there are a multitude of differences of needs in the pupils so this research is in many ways about three separate projects, with, in Royal Cross, another three separate projects, all under the banner of our one question: How can we improve pupil engagement and progress through the use of creative technology? The two factors that remained constant across the schools were: 1. The iPads 2. Paul Main, the practitioner The iPads caused an excitement and engagement from the start they had the Novelty Factor to start with so engagement was quite high from the beginning, what became apparent though, was that this engagement was something real and not something that occurred just because the activities were new. This is an important finding as it is the engagement that will help to sustain this work and carry this project forward. Through being engaged pupils have been able to show progression not only in terms of literacy skills (for instance the letter formation, forming sentences, writing with capital letters) but in terms of personal skills and behaviours.

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Concentration has been very high throughout the project and pupils have demonstrated clearly that they have been learning through the fun and enjoyment of the iPads. Pupils are able to remember the names of apps, to choose appropriate apps for specific pieces of work, to be able to share their work with staff and peers and to take great pride in that sharing. There has been far more independent learning occurring and pupils have been able to correct their work without their peers knowing what they are doing which has produced a surge of confidence this confidence is being seen through pupils actually asking for help when they need it. To aid this independence the iPads have been used to help with differentiated learning and this has been done quickly and with minimal disruption as pupils are working apps can be changed, levels set differently to accommodate various needs, all to benefit the pupil and empower them at their level. None of this could have happened though without Paul who had the technical capacity to be able to experiment and find apps suitable for the users. Paul was an essential part of the process, instilling enthusiasm and understanding of the iPads across staff and students and making the learning accessible for everyone. Several staff members have purchased iPads for themselves and their families at home after working with Paul. Many of these outcomes have reached across all three schools and figure 1 on the following page shows this clearly.

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Figure 1
Willingness to help each other Improvements in behaviour Increased confidence

Independent learning

Ability to correct own work

Differentiated learning

Common Themes Across all 3 Schools

Tools for assessment

Instant access to the two above

Accessibility for motor skills

Instant ability to capture / log/ evidence things

Working at their own rate

The project has changed in many ways from its beginning concept as each school used it to shape to the needs of their learners and this adaptability will ensure that there is no end to this project. The possibilities with the iPads or the next revolution of software is infinite and our learners on the Techno-ABLE project will benefit from these possibilities immensely and use them to enable them to expand their life chances and to give them the opportunity to live a fulfilling and creative life.

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