MANY adults puzzle over how youngsters seem to intuitively know how to work computers and other gadgets.
Now teachers at one school are tapping into the expert knowledge of their tech-savvy pupils by asking them to help them with their ICT skills.
Whether its designing a PowerPoint presentation to teach the key themes of a novel in English, formatting spreadsheets to allow a teacher to analyse pupil's progress, or showing their art teacher how to set up their own YouTube channel, a group of pupils at The Sandon School are passing on their computer wizardry to staff.
The Molrams Lane school is set to be put on the educational map later this year as the man leading the project is to present his findings at the European Conference on Educational Research [ECER] in Portugal.
David Morris, from the University of East London, asked the school to be the pilot for his scheme, which is forming his research for his doctorate, with the view to it being rolled out into schools across the country.
He approached Mikki Burns, Sandon's deputy head teacher, to be associate tutor.
Ms Burns said: "We are the only school in the country to run a project like this. Most teachers today find that if they are struggling to work the overhead projector or find a program on their laptop, it is students rather than a colleague who will be able to give them a hand.
"Teenagers today, unlike many teachers, have never known a world without technology so it is second nature to them to know how to use it.
"Under the banner of the Teach the Teacher project we set up formal training lessons with two students working with one teacher to solve a particular problem."
Among the problems pupils were asked to solve were formatting Excel spreadsheets, making movies in Movie Maker, hyperlinking and animating PowerPoint presentations as well as creating YouTube video channels.
The students, who are all aged 13 and 14, were asked to volunteer last summer for the project, and nominate teachers they would like to work with.
Religious education teacher Rachel Keable wanted to know how to create video channels and pupils Luke Woolley and Charlie Seagrave were happy to help.
Luke, 14, said: "My teacher sometimes gets stuck in lessons, so I thought it might be a good idea to help her."
Miss Keable said: "They're really wonderful students, so I had no problem working with them. The project allowed me to set up a dialogue with the pupils and show that we as teachers are interested in what they have to say."
Science teacher Anwar Mismar said: "I believe teaching is a key skill for a student, and this project has allowed them to obtain that skill. It also lets the students see a teacher's world from a different point of view.
"They've enjoyed the fact I've wanted them to teach me, and as a result I'm now much more adventurous when it comes to using IT in my lessons.
"It should not be seen as a sign of weakness that a student knows more about modern day applications than some teachers. If anything, this should be celebrated and used to feed back into the teaching process. If more efficient ways to solve problems can be derived by students, it should be adopted by all."
Callum Steward, 14, who taught Mr Mismar, said: "This is the best project ever and I'm so glad to be part of it. It has been so much fun to be able to teach our head of year, and tell him what to do."
Sophie McMahon, 14, who helped her history teacher grapple with various IT problems, added: "It has been really useful for both us and the teachers. Not only have we been teaching them computer skills, it has also helped our own leadership and teamwork skills."
The school is aiming to continue the project with a new set of pupils being chosen this term to help their teachers.
