MILL Chase Community School in Bordon found out this week that it will be designated as a specialist technology college from September 1. The school will receive a one-off capital grant from the government of £100,000, plus an annual grant of £129 per student over four years. Headteacher Stephen Mulcahy said: "This is a very exciting development for the school and one that will have a substantial positive impact on the quality of learning for all our students." The additional resources will be used to continue to improve standards across the whole curriculum as well as in its chosen area of expertise. Specialist schools are expected to be centres of good practice in their designated specialism and to have a detailed action plan which demonstrates how partner schools and the local community will also benefit from the school's new status. From the start of next academic year all students at Mill Chase will benefit through being taught in state-of-the-art teaching rooms for science and design and technology. C Block is being refurbished to house two new food technology rooms and a room for teaching about textiles. During last year's summer break 90 computers were installed in the school's three existing ICT suites, and at the start of this term, a fourth computer suite was commissioned. Twenty-one interactive whiteboards have been installed around the school and every classroom is now connected to the school network and the internet. Last September all members of the teaching staff were provided with a laptop computer for use in planning their lessons. Through these they have access to detailed individual assessment data for all the students they teach which they can use to match their planning to the needs of the students. As a technology college the school will continue to invest in its ICT (Information & Communications Technologies) resources. The plan for September is to install two mobile classrooms, each of which will have 30 wireless-linked laptops with internet capability for use by students working in the maths, English and science departments. Mr Mulcahy said: "Staff will be able to prepare learning materials that pupils will be able to access from any computer in the school and from home to support their studies. "This will include revision guides and exam preparation activities, coursework calendars, course notes, work for pupils who are at home ill and banks of extension activities that will help to fully develop the talents of our able students." He concluded: "The additional funding attached to becoming a technology college will allow us to ensure that our teachers are provided with the on-going training and development opportunities that will allow them to consistently deliver high quality lessons that make the best use of the range of new resources we are making available. "We will also be working closely with our feeder schools to share our new resources and improved practice, so that their pupils can in turn benefit from this initiative." Mill Chase is one of eight schools in the county to have become the latest to be awarded specialist status in the areas of humanities, arts, business and enterprise, maths and computing, science, sports and technology. In order to be eligible to apply for specialist status, Mill Chase first had to raise £50,000 in private sector sponsorship. When the newly- designated schools join the 46 that have already achieved this status, 54 of Hampshire's 71 secondary schools will be specialist. Felicity Hindson, Hampshire County Council's cabinet member with temporary responsibility for education, said: "I offer my congratulations to all these schools on achieving specialist status. The designation reflects their success in a particular area of study and the extra resources will allow these schools to develop specific areas of the curriculum which can be shared with other schools. "All of Hampshire's comprehensive schools aim for high standards and the specialist initiative is a valuable means for supporting the development of our schools. These new specialist schools are part of the county council's policy to create a network of schools so that the sharing of good practice between schools can be further enhanced. I look forward to even more success in the future."
