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,' she said. '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.'