A JUNIOR school is to hand each of its Year 6 pupils a £300-plus iPad of their own.

Woodlands School, off Rayleigh Road, Hutton, is aiming to improve its teaching and youngsters’ understanding by offering an iPad to each of its 16 Year 6 pupils in September.

The scheme is then likely to be rolled out to the rest of the school.

Emily Norris, the school’s marketing officer, said: “The iPad will be incorporated into every subject area and enhance the children’s exam preparation. “There are so many applications available for numeracy, literacy, science, languages, etc, that the aim is to use it within each subject area to expand the children’s learning and make lessons as exciting and interactive as possible. “The school staff have attended iPad education workshops and training sessions to ensure they are fully familiar with the technology and its capabilities. “The eventual aim would be for the school to be an Apple Centre of Excellence.”

Asked if youngsters might become a target for thefts outside school, she added: “The iPads will only be for in school use so they will not be in any danger before and after school.”

The move comes after current Year 5 pupils visited the Apple Store at the Westfield shopping centre, in Stratford, to have a lesson.

The field trip was designed to prepare children for next year and the children created movies about the solar system on the iMovie application.

They added captions, edited the movies and played them back for each other.

David Bell, head of the junior department, who led the trip, said: “The session was very motivational. The children thoroughly enjoyed using the iPads and were completely focused throughout the lesson.

“The children are so keen to learn and we will incorporate the technology into their work during Year 6.

“This will ensure each child has access to the latest technologies to bring learning to life.”