Six primary schools introduced to Britannica Digital Learning UK platform |07 July 2022

Mr Saunders facilitating the workshop learning sessions (Photos: Salome Abel)

Six State primary schools are being introduced to the Britannica Digital Learning UK platform, as part of the Ministry of Education and Britannica’s pilot project here.

This is during a four-day workshop learning session taking place at the Port Glaud school since Monday this week.

Present for the workshop are teachers and head teachers from Port Glaud, Pointe Larue, Cascade, La Misère, Anse Aux Pins and Grand Anse Mahé primary schools as well as the senior development manager and team leader Luke Saunders and the account manager and trainer Amy Woodhams from Britannica.

This project is being introduced to the schools of Seychelles through a series of workshop sessions for the teachers and head teachers of the schools which began on Monday and will continue until today, July 7, 2022.

For now, the aim is to raise awareness of the platform’s features and to acquire feedback from the teachers, answer their questions and any clarifications they may have about its use.

Mr Saunders and Ms Woodhams began the session with a brief presentation to familiarise the participants with the digital platform. They emphasised the features of the site which facilitates the teaching process and helps the students remain engaged in their learning.

One particular feature mentioned was a ‘read aloud’ option which allows the text shown on the screen to be read and hence students with dyslexia will be assisted with their reading.

A demonstration of the use of the platform was then carried out and the teachers were invited to join and experience how it functions.

This was followed by an interactive session, where the teachers asked any questions they had about how the platform works and the benefits it can bring.

Announcing that the Britannica School platform can be accessed from any device, Mr Saunders noted that a profile can be created by students, teachers and parents alike, without any cost.

“Britannica School is a platform that caters for ages three to eighteen and we do have other resources for higher levels, but at this stage of the journey of the digital transformation we just want to make sure that the youngest users can start their journey with Britannica.” He went on to add that they expect to soon extend the platform to the older audiences.

Senior education officer at the Ministry of Education, Daniella Marie, said the decision to implement the platform in schools will be based on the feedback received from the teachers during these workshops.

“At the end of the day, it is the teachers who will be using this resource so for us it is important to get feedback on how this can benefit them, and then the ministry will see how we can move forward with its implementation,” she explained.

Sylia Ah-Time