Page 24 - link magazine

Bromcom keeps tabs on progress and attendance

Teachers at Greendown don't mark at- and the tutor can be overwhelmed by paper.
tendance registers anymore - at least not "This system enables us to rapidly collate
with a pen! information about homestudy, attendance
Anew compact computer, the 'Bromcom', and achievement for an individual student
the same size as a register has taken its place. and communicate it to parents at consulta-
Simply pressing a key calls up each class tions or by letter.
register from a central computer, students in "In the future, we plan to provide a
class are marked in, and the data is transmit- comprehensive picture of each student':
ted back, cutting out all the manual labour progress through the different stages o
needed to check 41 individual register books. school."
Moreover, every student is registered at Progress at the press of a button? Well,
every class - not just twice a day. teacher and Head of Logistics, Ray Barker i
The system has huge potential says headteacher Ian Matthews. 'The more than convinced. 'It's been a big investment for the school and
key issue for schools is how to get information on any one student we've had one or two glitches - as you would expect with a new system
rapidly and efficiently. Each student may have up to 12 different used by 68 teachers. But Bromcom has settled into regular use and the
teachers. Passing hits of paper to one another about that students system has the potential to revolutionise the handling of masses of
progress, attendance, discipline and reward is massively complicated pupil data. The quality of information available to parents will be vastly
and inefficient - multiply this task by 27 students in each tutor group improved."

Musicians help bring out the 'Soul' of the Wiltshire Festival

The Greendown music department con-
tinues to be hugely popular with over a
quarter of students learning a musical
instrument or taking singing lessons. Their
learning is having very public results.
This summer's Wiltshire Festival in
Lydiard Park was particularly memorable
for 50 students who opened the show
with three numbers. Later on they re-
turned onstage to provide backing for the
legend of Soul Music, Sam Moore, in front
of six thousand spectators.
As a result, the Music Department has Above: Launching the Wiltshire Festival. Below: With Sam Moore at rehearsals before the big show
new equipment worth £2,000.
Sam, much impressed with our singers
and musicians has hinted that he would
like to record with them. Whatever tran-
spires in the future, we very much hope
he will perform with us again and will
consider becoming our music patron.
Also in the last year, our musicians
raised £2,000 for Children In Need, and
also helped Goddard Primary School in
Swindon at a charity cabaret which raised
£1 300 for an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.

Below: On stage with Sam Moore

Spanish-speaking visitors get students talking

This year we have welcomed tour Spanish culture.We should now like to find four native Frenc
speakers to provide our year 7 students with speakers to help us with conversation.
regular conversation - Venezualans Hender &
Sandra, Colombian, Roxanne and Spaniard Natali.
All five groups studying Spanish have been Recherche!
meeting our young visitors who are living and Jeunes francais(e)s pour pratiquer la conversatio
working in Swindon. avec les eleves deutantes de francais a Greendow
We are delighted that another international School Ic mecredi. £6.00 par heure; une heure p
Connection has been forged to help our students semaine pour l'instant. Contact Madame Mochan: tel
learn both another language and about another 874224.