Education – Primary and Secondary – Greenside Primary School – Apple (SE)

Greenside Primary School is a state school in London with students from economically and culturally diverse backgrounds. Many of them have English as a second language. Greenside strives for everyone to have equal opportunities and therefore offers an iPad to all students aged 4-11 and all teachers.

School leaders and teachers also want to teach inner-city children about their impact on nature, how to reduce waste, make sustainable choices and eat healthier. Deputy Headteacher Georgina Weber is passionate about raising climate awareness and has led efforts to create a vibrant green space and several programs of action that help reduce the school's carbon footprint.

A private mini bakery and growing area are some of the features of the sustainability program developed, which runs in parallel with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEAM) curriculum. Students learn to grow their own food on the school's small farm in a farm-to-table experience. They will be able to showcase what they have learned in new ways using the iPad.

In the kitchen, kids use Notes to follow recipes, iMovie to record how-to videos, and Keynote to create nutrition labels. In the garden, students test soil samples and document the results with numbers, so they can learn how to grow nutritious crops. They're even using FaceTime to talk to farmers across the UK about how to grow food on a sustainable scale on a sustainable scale.

The iPad and its accompanying apps have changed the way students learn and how they can express themselves in the ways that work best for them. Teachers are inspired to get creative with the Apple Learning Community and helpful lesson planning resources that help them engage students and save time.

“The iPad is a versatile tool that students can use for creative forms of learning and to develop their understanding of sustainability, regardless of how the message is taught,” says headteacher, Karen Pastek-Stiles.

The most important lesson from Greenside Elementary School is that even a small school can have big ideas.