Two students from St Mary’s University College were among the eight winners of this year’s “Fronter Ready To Go Rooms” competition organized by the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET NI) - C2k Liaison Group and sponsored by C2k and Capita Managed IT Services.


Claire Kearney, a BEd 4 Mathematics student, and Orlaith Stewart, a BEd2 Business Studies student, were each awarded an iPad Air at a showcase event held in Ulster University (UU). Prizes also were awarded to students from Stranmillis, Queen's and UU.

For the competition the students were required to create an interactive online course, called a “room”, within Fronter which could then be shared with other teachers. Fronter is the virtual learning environment (VLE) available to schools through C2K/Capita’s cloud-based learning portal MY-SCHOOL.

Claire’s award-winning room was entitled “Angle Mania”, a resource to teach the properties of Angles at Key Stage 3, and Orlaith’s award-winning room was on “Recruitment and Selection”.

At the event, all of the students displayed their “rooms” and explained their purpose and features to the other students and to their lecturers and representatives from C2K and Capita. In welcoming everyone, Sam McGuinness, Head of the School of Education at UU, praised the unique and strong partnership between teacher education, C2K and Capita with its focus on beginning teachers who are leading the way in using emerging technologies for teaching and learning.


Speaking at the award ceremony, Avril Allen from C2K said:

“The Fronter Room Creation competition is open to students from all four Higher Education Institutions here in Northern Ireland. C2k and Capita are delighted to be involved with St Mary’s University College, Stranmillis University College, Queen’s University and Ulster University whose students have created and shared resources that can be used by teachers throughout Northern Ireland. The level of design and interactivity is extremely impressive. Through the excellent work that the lecturers do with their students in initial teacher training, these students will be ideally placed to promote and embed eLearning in schools for many years to come.”

Mr Gerry Trainor, who will be taking over the Chair of the UCET(NI)-C2K Liaison Group in September, remarked:

“This competition is another good example of the ongoing close collaboration that takes place between C2K and the Initial Teacher Education institutions. We thank C2K and Capita for their continued sponsorship. All the judges agreed that the standard was extremely high this year, and the winners, and also the students who were highly commended, have produced a bank of high-quality rooms to be shared with teachers through the Equella system. They should all be proud of their achievements.”