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In magazine articles about the millennium., the Apollo moon landing is top of the list of the most memorable events of the century. In the 1960's people were overawed by the technological achievement of getting a man to the moon and back. Yet the total computing power of the Apollo spacecraft is nowadays outperformed by even a Furby; a toy which has 4 times the Apollo's computing capability (and that was last year's Christmas present!). The pace of technological innovation is staggering and will undoubtedly accelerate into the next Millennium.
While there are some amongst us who might want to argue about whether we should celebrate the Millennium in 2000 or 2001, the school has been looking back on the last year to see how we are prepared for the next century. Theale Green has never been an institution that has rested on its laurels and we have always done our best in the past by responding to the changing needs of a changing society.
In all the discussion about the future which the forthcoming change of calendar date from 1999 to 2000 has brought, many people seem to agree that one of the biggest technological developments impacting on all our lives, now and into the future, is the global availability of information. With that realisation comes similar agreement about the importance of a style of education which encourages a love of learning. Without that students will be ill-equipped to access newly available information and to use it wisely.
There are currently about 150 million computers connected to the Internet. Most of them are switched off most of the time. With the rapid changes to communications and the even more rapid growth of global communications companies, in a matter of a few years that figure will be in the billions and the computers will be switched on all the time.
165 of those 150 million Internet connected computers are at Theale Green as a result of a drive, supported by sponsor day and our parent covenant scheme, to fund a network of machines across the school. To make use of that connectivity we already have one of the largest school websites in the country and a recent survey amongst our students reveals that 55% of families have an Internet connection at home; a very high figure. That number is sure to grow very fast when, next year, most televisions can have an Internet link.
We are a teacher training centre for IT in schools and the first training day for our own staff, on the fourth of January in the new millennium is, appropriately, another session about applications of the internet which support student learning.
It is indeed a brave new world that students of today can look forward to in the new millennium. We must work hard, with family support, to keep up the momentum from last year so that our students are 'future proof'. They all need the necessary experience and training, which will allow them to benefit from the information super highway and the developments that will surely follow in the new millennium
So, in wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year, we can now even do
that in a style befitting the new millennium. You are invited to visit the school website on
www.thealegreen.berks.sch.uk where you will be able to read this newsletter in a way that would have truly amazed anyone in the previous decade, let alone at the time of the Apollo moon landing! It starts with a good old-fashioned Christmas message though - our key values will never change!
WE WISH ALL FAMILIES A VERY ENJOYABLE HOLIDAY, A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR AND EVERY HAPPINESS IN THE
NEW MILLENNIUM
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