'Professor Brian Cox is very popular with our pupils'

At a new dedicated Science school building, students will be able to view 3D science programmes on a cinematic scale

Opening this autumn, Repton School's £9.5 million Science Priory will bring all science teaching under one roof.

Named in honour of the school's oldest building, Repton Priory, the modern steel and glass structure contains wireless-enabled classrooms, state of the art laboratories and a 200-seat lecture theatre.

"Students will be able to view 3D science programmes on a cinematic scale," says Lee Alderman, the school's director of ICT. The 3D videos will be fully interactive: students will be able to click on the screen image for close-ups and explanatory text, for example.

Online digital video specialist ClickView provides educational content and information sharing technology. "We use the system to download television programmes and their media store to select suitable resources for our online library. We mainly use it for Freeview and BBC 4 science programmes. Professor Brian Cox is very popular with our pupils," explains Alderman.

Repton's is also part of an online schools network, whose members can upload and share resources.

Using the ClickView software, teachers can import graphics and video clips in to their classroom presentations. Students are able to communicate with the teacher using handheld polling devices to provide instant feedback on whether a class has understood all of the main points of the science experiment or a demonstration. Teachers might also send students links to resources held in the online library.

"Video learning engages pupils straight away," says Alderman. "We are going from class-based learning to one-to-one interaction."