The facilities
The facilities of the centre have been designed to provide exciting ways of learning that motivate and engage all learners. We have welcomed users of all ages and abilities, completing work from subjects in the curriculum.
The radio studio
This is used to hold discussions, role plays and interviews. The learners will either prepare scripts or plan out their programmes prior to the visit. After they have been recorded, the work is saved to the network and then edited. Mistakes can be taken out and music and sound effects added. In this way, the learner can ensure that the final product reflects the intended meaning.
The video studio
We use the video studio to bring learning to life. The children are filmed in front of the blue screen which allows us to electronically place any image behind the actors. In this way, the learners have filmed reports from the trenches in the Somme, given weather forecasts and filmed news items from towns and cities hit by volcanoes and floods. The programme is saved onto the network, allowing the learners to edit their work to take out mistakes and add additional effects.
ICT facilities
We have three ICT suites and these have been designed to cope with the demands of audio-visual learning. We are therefore able to capture, edit, store, print and render the very large files that this work generates.
The Main ICT suite contains thirty-two workstations, but also has space for group work and non computer-based learning. We then have two smaller suites: the Training Suite has sixteen computers, and the Community Learning Suite a further eight.
Software
Pinnacle Studio allows learners to create their own movies using stills, home produced movies as well as clips from professional sources. The learners can add sound effects, music, their own titles and a voice-over. On occasion they can create their own DVD labels and packaging.
Other well-used software titles include Kar2ouche, Adobe Photoshop and the Macromedia Studio MX 2004 suite of applications.
Mug Production
We can now produce high quality glazed mugs at the Centre. The children can create their designs in PowerPoint or Photoshop, exporting them as JPG files. These are then printed using a sublimation printer onto a transfer.
The Vinyl Cutter
This has proved to be very popular with schools. The children can work on designs using one or two colours in PowerPoint or in Photoshop. The images are then saved as JPG files and transferred to the vinyl cutter.
It has proved popular with Applied Art, ICT, Food Technology, and as a product for enterprise days.
T Shirt Production
We are able to create high quality t-shirts using the sublimation printer. These are transferred onto poly-cotton t-shirts using the heat press. The end product maintains the vivid colours of the original, which appear, to remain colour fast.
Banner Production
This is very popular with schools. We can print out a banner 1m wide and of any length. We think it works best when it is the culmination of a group activity. These can be seen in the examples below.
In the first, Formby High created banners on the Every Child Matters outcomes
Find out more
In the second, we worked with the primary schools in the Professional Partnership Education Action Zone on target setting.