Rationale
St Michael's is situated in Soho Ward, one of the more economically deprived areas of inner city Birmingham. The National Grid for Learning (NGfL) has enabled the school to achieve a good level of connectivity for the school site including networking all classrooms, the two small IT "labs" , offices and hall.  However, the opportunities offered by  the World Wide Web will end at the school door unless St Michael's is able to provide access into the home. Currently very few families in the school have an internet service provider.

The NGfL places a onus on St Michael's, and our neighbour, Benson Community School, a duty to become a centre of excellence and to act as a Ward Support Centre. In pursuance of these aims both schools, in conjunction with Birmingham College of Food, Tourism & Creative Studies and Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery have established a charitable association ( known as The Soho Connection )   The  Weekend on the Web project at St Michael's is intended to be a pilot project for what will eventually run across the entire ward with the aim of providing, for at least one term per year, a loan computer to every home with children aged 7+ .

Objectives

• purchase a stock of suitable workstations (viz the NTS DreamWriter IT)
  
• identify a number of teachers at St Michael's willing to become on-line mentors. As part of its commitment to professional development within ICT St Michael's provides a portable computer for each teacher on the staff.
  
• select children from existing target groups to receive a loan computer each weekend for a term and invite the parents of the children to join the project
  
• in conjunction with the College of Food and NTS, provide training and certificated courses for parents both during and after school 
  
• in conjunction with the College of Food, provide training and support for staff from other schools within Soho Ward