Parents can log on to the school's internal network e-portal from home and, with a password, check on their child's academic record, schedules and teacher comments. Graphical analysis of students' development in each subject over a number of years is also available.

Every classroom has broadband and many of the teachers work from portable "tablet" PCs, similar to mini-laptops. All students and teachers have access to an internal school network with digital lesson plans, and the school is in talks with a publisher about developing online textbooks, which would eventually negate the need for schoolbooks.

Dunshaughlin was chosen as one of 12 schools worldwide for development by Microsoft as a "school of the future" through new uses of technology. The Innovative Schools Programme (ISP) is aimed at facilitating learning through technology and Bill Gates announced the chosen schools in February. Dunshaughlin and the other selected schools earned their place because of their progressive attitudes to technology.

Research from the "educational experiment" will be used to develop best practices in schools worldwide.

The programme is part of a larger initiative, Partners in Learning, in which Microsoft works with governments, ministries of education and other key stakeholders in 101 countries to offer a range of education resources. Microsoft has invested 25m in the project.

The two-year programme officially begins in September but work on advancing technology at the Meath school has already been ongoing for months. It is expected that all students there will eventually work from laptops. All the classrooms have PCs and many of the teachers work from tablet PCs which are projected onto white-boards. The tablet multimedia device offers everything from a keyboard, electronic pen and pad, audio recorder and camera, and will soon replace pens, paper and mountains of textbooks.

"Teachers' time is precious. We're not trying to make students work harder . . . we're trying to make them work smarter, " said Janice Corrigan, ISP co-ordinator at Dunshaughlin.

Students have their own internal email address and an electronic facility to report issues confidentially that concern them, such as bullying. "We received 30 emails this year through this service that were of concern to us, " said headmaster Seamus Ryan. "We believe there is a good chance these students would not have come forward otherwise because no-one wants to be seen standing outside the principal's office to report something."