Rachel Walker won a Silver Award as Digital Innovator of the Year in the Pearson National Teaching Awards. She teaches at Sneinton St Stephen’s C of E Primary School in Nottingham. The school has a vibrant and diverse community with many children on pupil premium funding. One of the school's vision statements is about hope and aspiration. This has been a major influence on Rachel's approach to digital transformation. She provides opportunities and experiences in school that children would not otherwise be able to access.
Rachel studied music for her degree. Her dissertation looked at how music can impact children and young people with autism. She also enjoyed working in special schools and with nonverbal children. It was during her teacher training that she discovered the benefits of technology. 'Everyone else had great big paper files and I would turn up with my iPad and a keyboard. I did all my lecture notes on OneNote and took pictures of resources. Other students would look over my shoulder and comment that it was a good way of doing things. But none went on to try it for themselves!'
Making change happen
'I always like to tell the story of my interview,' said Rachel. 'I emailed to check if there was an Apple TV available so I could mirror my iPad onto the screen. Unfortunately, no one had ever used it or even set it up. I had to set up the TV and connect it to Wi-Fi with all the children sitting there waiting for me to begin. When they appointed me, I adopted a trolley of 30 iPads, took it into my classroom and started from there.' That was nine years ago and since then the use of technology in the school has flourished.
Described as a 'trailblazer for digital innovation', Rachel is Lead Teacher for Music and Maths as well as Digital Lead. She has had an impact on many other schools, some in the Transform Trust and others further afield. Phil Herd, Associate Headteacher and Digital Lead for Transform Trust, said: 'Rachel takes the basics of technology and is always looking at ways in which it can help to solve real-world problems. Thanks to Rachel, we are helping to lead the way in digital technology in primary education. Under her patient and selfless guidance and expertise, Sneinton has been able to successfully develop the use of iPads within their curricula.'
Cascading her skills
Trailblazers lead the way but it is a whole different set of skills to inspire others to follow in their wake. A simple clock app that every child could access on their iPads was an effective way to teach telling the time. 'I was a brand new teacher and I was simply experimenting with things in my classroom seeing what worked and what didn't,' said Rachel. 'But as I was trying things, other people go, 'Ooh I quite like that idea' or, 'How did that work?''