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Videoconferencing in the Classroom - St Peter's C of E Primary School, Portishead, Bristol, UK

We have had our videoconferencing equipment now for just over half a term and in that time we have started to use it with schools in the UK and schools abroad.

We are in the first year of a Comenius project with partner schools in Romania, Germany, Italy, Poland and Finland. Our partner in Germany was given the same video-conferencing equipment at the same time so our initial plan was to establish a regular "real-time" link with children in both of our schools. This we did and children enjoyed the experience of speaking to each other and seeing each other at the same time.

Our project soon grew into other links and our year six children organised an International Day when they planned to video-link with schools around the world at half-hourly intervals throughout the school day. Using the Global-Leap directory, a timetable was planned and children wrote e-mails to all of their planned contacts. Every one e-mailed a reply and although some were unable to link on the day planned, we were able to make three positive links and all of the others said that they would do so on another occasion. We now have many potential links if we want to pursue them. On our International Day itself we made a live link with Buenos Aires, Germany and Minnesota and children in all of our schools enjoyed the personal contact.

We are now developing a regular pattern of linking and have added our partner schools in Poland to our list. We feel that it is essential to have a project which is of benefit to everyone taking part so with each of our regular links, Germany, Poland and Minnesota, we are trialling different types of project work in order to see what works the most successfully. In addition we are developing links with schools in the UK which will also be very beneficial to our pupils.

The whole project is very exciting and in our recent OFSTED inspection, although we were experiencing problems with our computer suite at the time, our ICT received high praise. I put this largely down to the video-conferencing which was working well at a time when all else failed. Inspectors were pleased that we seemed to be "at the cutting edge of technology".

We have not yet made links with any organisation other than schools although I am sure that we will in future try to link with art galleries and industries. Our thanks go to Mike at Global-Leap who is always there and for his trust in letting us have the equipment. We love using it and despite the cartoon drawn of me by my year six girls, it is easy and straightforward to use unlike so much else we have to come to terms with in schools! If you get a chance - do it!

Hilary Pride - Headteacher - St Peter's CE Primary School, Portishead

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