Robert Gordon’s College is the first three to 18 years and also first independent school in Scotland to be recognised under the new European digital schools award, recognising and celebrating best practice in digital education.
Launched in 2021, the Digital Schools Awards European programme was created to encourage and recognise innovation, collaboration and skills development in digital technology amongst schools. It is backed by the European Commissions’ Erasmus+ programme, national government bodies including Education Scotland and leading technology companies led by HP.
In addition to being awarded Digital Schools Award European Status, Robert Gordon’s College has also been highlighted as a Mentor School. Mrs Jess Power, Digital Education Co-ordinator shared: “This is a wonderful achievement and a testament to the hard work of colleagues and pupils from both the Junior and Senior schools. It is our aim to help the next generation be true digital natives. We want all of our pupils to be able to benefit from the positives technology has to offer in terms of creativity, connectivity and collaboration, but have a true appreciation of some of its pitfalls and how to avoid these.”
Anna Doody from Digital Schools Awards said: “We know that schools across Europe have taken great strides in recent years to integrate digital practices into their teaching, and one of the most important and valuable aspects of the European Digital Schools Awards is the ability to network with counterparts in other parts of the world.
“By connecting schools, we hope to bring attention to innovations happening elsewhere in the continent and encourage collaboration by opening more channels for knowledge sharing across borders.”
Only 90 secondary schools across the continent were selected to take part in the initiative which is being piloted in five European countries namely Ireland, Lithuania, Scotland, Serbia and Slovenia and it is the first of its kind to be available across the continent.
To achieve European Digital Schools status, schools have to demonstrate strong leadership in digital education and provide sufficient access to resources and infrastructure. Their school culture, professional development strategies and teaching practices were also assessed as part of the submission.
The European Digital Schools Awards programme also intends to open up dialogue across borders and create a growing community of digitally competent schools, where teachers can share learnings from different education systems.