ACE Centre - Foundation

Foundation

The first ACE Centre was started in 1984 through UK government funding as part of the new initiative to introduce information technogy into schools in England and Wales following the end of the Micro-Electronics Project MEP. During MEP four Special Education Micro-technology Resource Centres (SEMERCs) were set up in London (Redbridge), Manchester, Bristol and Newcastle. A special education software development centre was also established in Manchester. It was felt that those pupils with severe language or physical disabilities required more specialist support.

This idea for the first ACE centre to support these students came from Tim Southgate (Head of Ormerod Special School) and Prue Fuller, a teacher at the school. They were inspired by the computer research of Patrick Poon at the school. The original staff at the opening of the Centre in May 1984 were Prue Fuller (Director), Andrew Lysley (SEN Teacher), David Colven (Technical Officer) and Pauline Paine (Administrator). The Centre was managed by Mary Hope at MESU, a post that was later taken over by Tina Detheridge now of Wigit Software.

It was essentially a project under the management of MESU (Micro Electronics Support Unit) a government quango which later merged with CET (Centre for Educational Technology) to become NCET (the National Centre for Educational Technology). This eventually became Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) in 1998.

In 1985 a second Centre was opened in Oldham at Park Dean School It was managed by the head teacher Rhys Williams, who later became principal of Hereward College, and Roger Bates (now of Inclusive Technology). The first Director proper of ACE Oldham as it was then was Steve Broadbent. The two Centres in Oldham and Oxford service the north and south of England and Wales respectively.