A SCHOOL in North Yorkshire has been given a top designation by technology giant Apple.

With 970 students on roll, all with iPads, plus 114 staff, with 88 per cent of teaching staff now qualified as 'Apple teachers', Malton School has been recognised as an Apple Distinguished School for the next three years, running until 2024.

Head Rob Williams said the award has been given for the way the secondary school has used iPads to innovate teaching and learning practice across the curriculum. He said this has especially been the case during the last 18 months where the school has used its embedded 1:1 technology to ensure that students have not fallen behind with their studies or suffered the extent of “learning loss”.

Mr Williams said: "In the nine years since we introduced iPads performance has improved across the board – at GCSE and at A level, as well as when measured by our Progress 8 Score, and 97 per cent of students believe that their individual progress has been enhanced by their use of the iPad devices. Our last Ofsted report, also highlighted that students on 16-19 study programmes demonstrated faster progress as a direct result of the iPad scheme.”

Mr Williams said the almost seamless transition to remote learning from day one of lockdown in March 2020 helped to support the students with their wellbeing by providing a clear structure and routine. The use of the technology to enable wellbeing outreach to continue during the lockdown was significant.

Apple Distinguished Schools are centres of innovation, leadership and educational excellence, using  Apple technology to connect students.