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About Case Studies Harlow College - Apple Distinguished School

Fri,29Mar2024

Harlow College - Apple Distinguished School

Harlow College is delighted to have recently been recognised as an Apple Distinguished School for 2017–2019.

The recognition is for the College's enterprising approach to transforming learning, teaching and assessment: by creating personalised curricula; instilling and developing digital confidence in line with industry needs and investing in a five year plan to upskill all staff to be digitally competent. As part of this programme every Harlow College student is issued with an Ipad to support their learning and development.

Apple Distinguished Schools are centres of innovation, leadership, and educational excellence that use Apple products to inspire creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. They showcase innovative uses of technology in learning, teaching, and the education environment and have documented results of academic accomplishment.

Karen Spencer, Principal of Harlow College, said: “As a College we truly believe in our strapline ‘Not just Courses. Careers’. We therefore prioritised investment in the development of new technologies to make sure our students are well prepared for an ever changing future.”

Kelly Edwards, Director of Professional Development explained: “Students have been able to personalise their learning and use technology in innovative and creative ways. This has helped them throughout their studies and will continue to do so when they move into the world of employment as digitally competent citizens.”

The selection of Harlow College as an Apple Distinguished School highlights the Colleges success as an innovative and compelling learning environment. This was further reinforced recently with a visit from Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, to meet staff and students to see how they are using Ipads to add coding and app development to their digital skills development.

During the visit Tim joined a group of Level 2 IT students learning to code with Swift Playgrounds on iPad, listening to their experiences of using the app for their learning and asking them about their aspirations. He tweeted following his visit to say “thanks to students, teachers and staff @HarlowCollege outside London, one of the first in Europe to adopt Apple’s App Development with Swift curriculum. Keep learning, keep coding!"

Nathan, 16 from Harlow, said: “I was really excited knowing that the CEO of Apple was coming to our class today. I wanted to show him how much the Swift Playground app has helped in my learning.”

Karen Spencer, Principal of Harlow College, said: “At Harlow College, we recognise that learning to code will help students prepare for a technological future. It develops their approach to problem solving, logic and reasoning, as well as reinforcing key mathematical skills.