Background
Bristol is one of the 15 Local Authorities (LAs) from the South West that make up the South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL). The other LAs are Bournemouth, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Devon, Dorset, Plymouth, Poole, Somerset, Torbay, Wiltshire, Bath and NE Somerset, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, and Swindon. This area matches the area covered by the South West Regional Development Agency.
Broadband Applications
Two of the most significant and valuable broadband applications that have been procured through the SWGfL and are free to Bristol Schools are listed on the right, The Portal and Infomapper. Read more about these applications on these pages and see what you have been missing - you will see their value when you have read about them.
The aims of South West Grid for Learning
- This is a grid for learning. Whilst other services are important, learning is our focus and, in particular but not exclusively, the learning of school age pupils. Our aim is to enhance the curriculum and increase the learning gain for all.
- Neither a delivery mechanism with no goods to deliver, nor goods that cannot be delivered, is of any use. We require the parallel development of both network infrastructure and content.
- To achieve this balance, given existing attention within National Grid for Learning to infrastructure, our focus must shift to content. The management of content, quite apart from its creation, is a key area for development.
- The aim is to provide public access to content, to support learning at home and other access points, as well as at school. Content developed by SWGfL will be web-based. SWGfL will promote the use of its materials for lifelong learning, including within the context of NOF Community Access to Lifelong Learning (CALL) schemes.
- All relevant public institutions (libraries, museums, community centres, etc) need to be connected at a bandwidth which comfortably supports learner needs. A 2Mb connection to secondary schools was the first step on the road, followed this year by the connection of primary schools.
- While the South West has both local needs to meet and local resources to exploit, SWGfL sees its regional work in a national context. Technical and educational standards, particularly relating to regional content, must comply with those emerging at a national level in order that each region gains value from the others and inter-operability is achieved between education and other services.
- SWGfL embraces a policy of inclusion with respect to both broadening access and ensuring that materials are developed appropriate to the needs of those with additional needs.
SWGfL Structure
SWGfL operates through a Management Board and The South West Grid Implementation Group, which forms into Project teams, designed to achieve maximum delegation and rapid decision making at minimum cost.
Contact:
Tracey O'Brien, Strategy Leader IT and MI
Children & Young People's Services
The Council House
College Green
Bristol
BS1 5TR
Tel: 0117 90 37654
Fax: 0117 90 37988
Email: tracey.o' brien@bristol.gov.uk