Wickham is a small town in the mining heartland of Australia’s north west – it sits 1500km north of Perth and 800km south of Broome, looking out over the Indian Ocean. With a population of around 3000, the town has one primary school, which teaches 360 children from kindergarten to year 6.
“We have a mix of pupils”, says Mark Donaldson, principal at Wickham Primary, “around 30% of our students are indigenous and most of the rest are from families who work for Rio Tinto, the major employer in the town.”
Mark is proud of the school’s achievements in providing education for students of all backgrounds. This achievement has been aided by the school’s commitment to technology, including being one of the first schools in the State to install interactive touch panels in every single classroom in the school.
The school has always embraced technology and were already using interactive whiteboards. But as these reached end of life, Mark wanted to research the latest developments in educational technology, to find the best possible ways of engaging children in the learning process. “We felt that rather than just replace what we already had, we wanted to find something more innovative, with access to a wider range of apps to appeal to the students”, he says.
