ICT Information

The school currently uses Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Publisher and Access). If you have an earlier version of Office you will need to download and install the Office Compatibility Pack. This will enable your child to open Microsoft Office documents created at school in versions of Microsoft Office created prior to 2007.

Students will need to save the work they create as a Word file by opening the document and go to File then choose Save As... and from there select Word Document or .Doc from the File Type drop-down box (under where you type in the name of your file).

If you are using Microsoft Works, you may wish to consider purchasing Microsoft Office 2007 through The Basement, they offer up to 90% off or downloading OpenOffice, which is free.

As they progress through the school students may also need to use other pieces of software, these are all available from The Basement at up to 90% off.

Parents should ensure that their computers are protected from viruses, especially whilst surfing the internet. We recommend either AVG Free Antivirus or Microsoft Security Essentials. You should also use either the Firefox Web Browser or Google Chrome and ensuring that your computer is fully updated via Windows Update. You should also regularly perform scans for Spyware using a program such as Ad-Aware.

However, nothing can protect you and your computer better than common sense. If a website looks suspicious, avoid it. If you are repeatedly asked to install software from a website, avoid it. If in doubt, use Google to find out more about a website. Try searching for the website name followed by the word "virus" or "spyware".

The school's ICT department is open before school from 8am, during break times and after school until 4:30pm. The ICT Technicians are also available during those hours to give advice to parents and students. The ICT technicians can be contact by ringing the school or visiting the ICT office.

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