The development of the curriculum which we are re-inventing at Spark of Genius has been a long process consisting of different stages. The goal was to create a curriculum which could be individually tailored for each of our young people, enhancing their learning experience.

The initial stage of the process was to determine exactly what our children needed to better meet the different stages of the Governments proposed 'Curriculum for Excellence' document.

Spark undertook an extensive consultation process with the young people and staff within the organisation on how we could better educate our young people.

We canvassed the opinions of our Learning and Teaching Managers and formulated a new curriculum which focused heavily on aiding young people achieve academically.

This paper-based curriculum is backed up by a unique individual online learning environment. This online learning environment is 'Odyssey'. If you wish to view the Odyssey system please contact us for assistance.

Odyssey includes many features such as:

• Personalised profiles
• Blogs
• Interactive communication between centres
• College & recruitment information
• Result tracking
• Access to their rewards system

The 'InGenius' participation website affords our young people and parents the chance to take part in the running of Spark of Genius. We feel it is incredibly important to get as many views as possible before making decisions. The InGenius website allows parents and young people to vote on important issues, discuss current topics and give us suggestions to keep us excellent.

Our 'SparkACE' self-assessment tool allows our young people to track their progress over other factors than simply attainment. It allows our teaching staff to see key areas for pupil development which we can then together build upon.

All our educational systems are updated on a regular basis inline with young people and parent views.

Our team have been working over the previous five months on a new feature of Spark of Genius; Web design.

We will be offering our comprehensive services externally in the near future. These services will include the ability to provide websites and online content which can satisfy the needs of any requested projects.

We can provide online video content in High Definition, produced and edited by our team of experts in our Software Design department.

We can provide websites using effective layouts and designs to deliver a message to your customer. We can also offer mission-critical backend database management systems handling high volumes of content.

Our Software Design team has 20 years of experience in the design field and is well equipped to meet the needs of many different projects. These include every internal and external document which is released from Spark of Genius. The team has given the company a new look and feel by re-designing the website and overhauling all of our publicity material.

To view samples of our print and media work please click on the links below.

	Making Connections Leaflet			Good News Booklet
	GRFW Introductory Leaflet			Every Second Counts Leaflet
	Skills Centre Leaflet			InGenius Magazine

 

 

Our expert software developer's develop our in-house software systems including our intranet - SparkNet - which comprises a backend database as well as a rich internet application which help Spark of Genius stay on top of all aspects of our work. Our other internal software systems include our online learning environment, 'Odyssey'.

As part of Spark's commitment to improving the lives of our young people we have structured our intranet to help monitor each pupils performance academically and over a series of criteria they aim to meet each day. Our teaching staff record this data on SparkNet allowing us to understand how a young person is performing. If there is an issue, a member of staff will be assigned to work through it with the young person.

SparkNet utilises electronic purchase ordering and financial management to streamline the organisations financial systems. Additionally it allows all our staff to perform paper-based taks electronically freeing up more of their time to work with our young people as well as going green.

Our policies & procedures ensure the effective security of our data through authentication and access management. All data is backed up continually to ensure minimal loss in the event of a hardware failure.

Nicholas - Project Manager

Nicholas has been involved with Spark of Genius since its inception and is ideally placed to lead the team ensuring its primary focus is to deliver the highest quality product at all times.

Robert - Graphic Designer

Robert has been involved in the world of design for over twenty years. His vast experience and expertise have helped Spark produce arguably the most attractive print and design media of any educational establishment in the UK. He uses tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

Stephen - Technical Author

Stephen is responsible for ensuring the standard of the curriculum that leaves our department is at its highest. He is responsible for the outlay and ease of use of the curriculum which Spark has overhauled after exhaustive research.

Peter - Multimedia Designer

Peter is considered one of the hottest young talents on the Scottish film scene today. Peter has worked extensively with our children to create promotional DVD's, online video clips, viral marketing campaigns and training videos. Peter develops his multimedia content in Adobe After Effects and Flash.

Christopher - Database Designer

Christopher is responsible for the development of our online software systems including Odyssey, InGenius & SparkNet. He has been working to develop effective software solutions to enhance our young people's education and ensure their placement with us, whether it be in residential care or as a student in our day learning centres, is the best experience possible. Christopher builds desktop software systems in Java as well as online applications in PHP & MySQL.