In January it was Broughton's turn to benefit from the City's rolling programme of replacing our aged computer stock of computers. Over 240 machines were replaced and the school paid to upgrade a further 70 or so machines to the required spec as well as buying 26 new laptops, 20 of which will be part of a wireless set-up for use in the Science Department. At the beginning of March our Local Area Network was also upgraded with all switches and hubs being upgraded to run at 100mb per second - in other words, a much faster network throughout the school.

The school has also invested heavily in increasing the number of interactive whiteboards and data projectors throughout the school. This will mean that many lessons will be more attractively presented and should result in a better learning experience for many of our students.

The improved computer estate now enables us to take full advantage of the learning package 'Successmaker Enterprise' which we bought 2 years ago. This is an attractive programme aimed at improving literacy and maths skills, primarialy in S1 and S2.

After Easter Broughton switched over from Phoenix to SEEMIS as our Manangement Information System. The new system, being rolled out across the city, should bring about a number of improvements and can be used for tracking and reporting. SEEMIS also looks different to Phoenix so parents will notice a difference when they recieve attendance reports, etc and student's timetables have also changed in appearance.

Thanks to the skill and dedication of our web team, especially of Craig McCreath of 6S2, as well as others, the new Broughton High School website is back up and running.

Recently a number of students have been involved in posting information on a website called 'Bebo'. Some of the information is rather distasteful, some is of a bullying nature. I would like to suggest to parents that they ask to see their child's homepage.

Tony Dougan