Wycliffe values God’s gift of digital technology as a tool for learning, communicating and creativity. We are excited to be celebrating some of our recent developments in I.T. as part of our commitment to partnering with our school community in not just providing excellent and innovative education, but empowering our children to navigate their God-given purpose and place in this modern, technological world.

Digital Citizenship

Year 7 students learning about Digital Citizenship during our ‘Tech Bootcamp’

We are committed to embodying gospel values in our community by our behaviour in digital realms, fostering strong digital citizenship values at school, and partnering with families to do the same in home life.

This involves deliberate teaching of attitude, behaviour and skills that will shape a culture of responsibility, respect, protection and education in the digital space.

This year, a team of staff have been developing a vision for modelling healthy use of technology to our children and community.

To learn more about what digital citizenship is, and our plans to soak good digital citizenship values into our school curriculum and culture throughout our Pre-school, Junior School and Senior School, click the link below to access our vision & framework.

Read our Digital Citizenship Vision & Framework

Internet Connection

We are delighted to announce that we are now live on a dedicated fibre Internet connection. The 6 month long project was an essential step to leapfrog NBN and allow us to continue providing excellent educational programmes using innovative technologies well into the future.

Unlike NBN or ADSL, our new connection gives us 1:1, synchronous download & upload performance, meaning that we can upload content to the cloud, collaborate, host video conferences or webinars, provide remote web services to the school community and more without impeding on general Internet use like research and content download.

Further, our connection is dedicated to Wycliffe and uninterrupted from here to Sydney (and out to the rest of the world), providing the best latency possible in the Blue Mountains.

As a scalable connection, performance will continue to grow in response to enrolment growth and the inevitable increase on demand for Internet services well into the future.

A graph showing the difference in performance our new Fibre connection brings, and can bring in the future.

Chromebooks & Phones in the Playground

Starting in Term 3, the school will be transitioning to the playground being a technology free zone. For all Junior students, and Senior students in years 7-10, it will be expected that Chromebooks (and other laptops or tablets) will not be used during break times, and that all mobile phones are turned off and not in use during the day.

Students in years 11 and 12 will be offered more autonomy in study areas, such as the Library and study centre, but encouraged to exercise discernment in the use of technology across the school day.

It is so important to take the time to enjoy God’s creation and His gift of relationship with our friends, and Wycliffe’s wonderful bushland setting is such a wonderful place to do this.

We recognise that technology is part of God’s creation too and that it can be an excellent tool for socialising and connecting, but this will now occur in the Library space and in moderation.

Recommended I.T. Partner

Finally, as part of our commitment to supporting our families in digital parenting, we have partnered with Blue Mountains Computers, who provide home tech support, including in the area of Internet filtering & monitoring and other tools that support digital parenting.

BMC knows the unique values & priorities that we have as a school community and will provide a professional service with this in mind.

We are glad to recommend them on the basis of their long term presence in the Blue Mountains community and their heart for the safety and education of children.

Wycliffe continues to be an exciting place to learn, and technology is a rich component of this – one that we both embrace yet regularly reflect on and evaluate, ensuring that technology is used to uphold our values of nurturing faith, unwrapping truth, encouraging discernment and enabling thoughtful action.

Rhys Andrews
I.T. Manager