Plantsbrook School is using pioneering technology to help visually impaired pupils meet their full potential and learn alongside their fellow students.
The school, in Upper Holland Road, Sutton Coldfield, is the only school in the Birmingham to boast a special Vision Resource Base, a dedicated suite of rooms where pupils can access one-to-one support and technology.
Now a remarkable piece of kit – called the BrailleNote Touch – is being rolled out to help children who are Visually Impaired (VI).
Pupil Athda Saeed, 11, said: “It has made learning so much easier for me. I used to have an old machine that was like a typewriter. It used lots and lots of paper to write in braille and you had to carry it all around in big folders.
“With this it’s all here for me. You can email your teachers and they can email your work. It’s got a calendar, camera, YouTube, everything.”
Braille keyboards for visually impaired students at Plantsbrook School
The BrailleNote Touch has multiple uses. It functions as a braille keyboard, and includes a screen to allow teachers to read what Plantsbrook School’s visually impaired students are working on. It has a camera that can be used to scan text, which the device will then read out or translate into braille, while it also has all the connectivity usually found in a smart phone; sending and receiving emails and giving students access to all kinds of useful Google apps.
“It has made learning so much easier for me. I used to have an old machine that was like a typewriter. It used lots and lots of paper to write in braille and you had to carry it all around in big folders.”
– Athda Saeed
The device is one of a number of high-tech solutions provided by the Resource Base, which currently helps 16 pupils fully integrate with life in a school of 1400 children.
A team of 12 specialist skilled Teaching Assistants provide personal support for the VI pupils, prepare them for lessons and help teaching staff understand their needs in the classroom.
Mrs Helen Maltby, Head of the Vision Resource Base, joined Plantsbrook in September from New College in Worcester, one of the UK’s most respected schools for the blind.
“The BrailleNote Touch is a phenomenal piece of kit which connects the teacher and student. It’s one of the ways we can help VI pupils fully integrate.
“The priority is that pupils are in lessons with their sighted peers, that’s the whole point of inclusion.
“We support them in making sure they have all the resources they need, which we often modify for them, and then we provide a teaching assistant in class if they need that support.
“However, the ideal situation is to set them up so they don’t need a teaching assistant. That way we empower them to be an independent young person, so that they’re ready when they go out into the big wide world.”
The BrailleNote device is one of many options open to visually impaired pupils at Plantsbrook school, who are encouraged to find their own ways of working using the technology available.
Yahya Mansoor, 13, uses a laptop and iPad in tandem, both in the classroom and the resource base.
“I find it extremely useful to have a base like this, because all the resources are here for me, from my laptop and iPad to pens and thick-lined paper,” said Yahya, who lives in Falcon Lodge.
“As well as the technology, the staff support me too. In a lot of the lessons I don’t require support, because I like to be very independent, but in science, technology and PE I get personal support.
“The base helps help me in a lot of lessons where otherwise I would be struggling.”