At the heart of the school there is a dedicated information technology support centre. An industry-standard PC network reaches every office and classroom on the campus.
The school and boarding houses are also covered by a wireless area network which allows members of the school community to use their laptops for Anytime Anywhere Learning.
All students are encouraged to master the use of information technology in the research, editing and publication of their work in all subjects.
We are an approved British Computer Society Test Centre and a Microsoft© Education Resource Centre. We provide a showcase for the latest operating systems and applications from the Microsoft© stable of products. Student Licences for Microsoft© Adobe© and others can also be purchased at substantial discounts from the school bookroom.
An advanced AVAYA IPOffice digital telephone exchange with two hundred incoming numbers integrates our computer and messaging systems and provide all with email and voicemail accounts.
The school has dedicated broadband access to the internet by fibre-optic and satellite links, providing every student at Hurtwood House with web access for research.
Film makers shoot in our dedicated TV studio or on location with professional equipment and use the media suite which contains five professional video stations for full digital editing and the direct creation of DVD ROMS. This set-up is the envy of any London-based professional media company!
In our Music Technology Suite we have a huge choice of sampled instruments for our compositions: over a thousand orchestral sounds including more than thirty grand pianos. The industry standard Cubase© programme from Steinberg allows us to mix and remix our work before recording to a 16- track tape recorder or on to compact disc.
French, German, Italian and Spanish language scholars practise listening and speaking skills with daily news bulletins recorded from satellite and converted into podcasts. We also have a wide collection of online resources and encyclopaedias in a variety of languages. Our Office software includes Western and Non-Western alphabets and offers translation and spell-checking in a wide range of languages.
We have a huge collection of computer-based reference material ranging from museum tours and art works to 30 years of ‘New Scientist’ magazine, all available online to help in our researches.
Our media students and artists use scanners and digital cameras to capture and develop ideas.
With Photoshop© to explore digital effects we feed our creative imaginations before publishing our work with Quark© and InDesign©.
The school subscribes to the principles of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST). Only when confirmation is produced of software licences and current anti-virus protection may students use their own laptops and attach to the wireless networks. The school can advise on the recommended computer specifications and wireless network cards and academic software can be purchased through the school bookroom.
Our IT provision is under constant review and it grows as emerging technologies become reality.