St ThomasMoreRomanCatholicSchool Policy for Information Technology

St. Thomas More

CatholicJuniorSchool

Policy for

Information & Communication Technology

POLICY FOR INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Document Purpose

This policy reflects the values and philosophy of St. ThomasMoreSchool in relation to the teaching and learning of Information and Communication Technology. It sets out a framework within which teaching and non-teaching staff can operate, and gives guidance on planning, teaching and assessment.

This policy should be read in conjunction with the Medium Term Plans for Information and Communication Technology, which set out in detail what children in different year groups will be taught.

Audience

This policy, having been presented to and agreed upon by the whole staff and Governing Body is available for: -

  • All teaching staff
  • All non-teaching staff

A copy of the policy is available in:

  • The Head Teacher’s Office
  • The School Server – ‘Staff only’ – ‘Policies’ folder
  • Teachers’ page of the VLE

This is available for:

  • School governors
  • LEA adviser/inspector
  • Inspection teams
  • Parents (if requested)
  • Visiting teachers

Aims for Information and CommunicationTechnology at St. ThomasMoreSchool

  • To be consistent with our school philosophy
  • To follow Curriculum Policy Guidelines
  • To encourage a cross-curricular approach to Information and Communication Technology in addition to whole class lessons.
  • To ensure that children have access to appropriate hardware and software and opportunity to use these tools when it is appropriate
  • To follow National Curriculum Statements of Attainment, Level Descriptions and

Non-Statutory Guidance

  • To enable children to work together to share ideas
  • To develop an awareness of the need for e-safety
  • To develop an awareness of the use of ICT in ‘real–life’
  • To begin to see how ICT can be used to help achieve economic well-being.

Information and Communication Technology is a foundation subject in National Curriculum, and is a cross curricular skill. This is split into communicating and handling information and controlling and modelling. Throughout Information and Communication Technology there are five strands:

  • Communicating Information
  • Handling Data
  • Measurement and Control
  • Modelling
  • Applications and Effects

These are taught through:

  • Knowledge, skills and understanding
  • Developing ideas and making things happen
  • Exchanging and sharing information

These strands are developed through the Programmes of Study, Attainment Targets and Level Descriptions.

Throughout Key Stage 2, children will be given opportunities to develop an understanding of, and a competence to use increasingly challenging Information and Communication Technology skills.

At St. ThomasMoreSchool, our children work at levels appropriate to their abilities. It is expected that most children will achieve Level 4 by the age of 11.

Objectives

In the teaching and learning of Information and Communication Technology children will have the opportunity to use the computer or other devices to:

  • Manipulate and present text so as to convey a message effectively
  • Detect patterns and relationships and form and test simple hypotheses eg. by using spreadsheets
  • Store and retrieve information
  • Plan a set of instructions, enter them into the computer, and manipulate them to achieve a desired end
  • Experience computer control encountered in every day life
  • Present and develop art, graphics and musical skills

Curriculum and School Organisation

In order to achieve these aims and objectives, the teaching of Information and Communication Technology is organised:

  • To teach discrete ICT skills
  • To support and enhance individual subjects

Within the Medium Term Plans, activities for Information and Communication Technology are sequenced to ensure progression, and are taught in a variety of ways:

  • By direct class teaching to introduce a specific program or skill
  • Through practical tasks using the appropriate hardware and software (see hardware/software lists.)
  • In small groups or pairs, so that children can interact with each other
  • By giving individual help when necessary
  • By providing children with real experience in the practical application of

Information and Communication Technology skills,for example in drafting and redrafting a letter, preparing a report, or for a class newspaper.

Time Allocation

All the Key Stage 2 classes are timetabled to use the ICT Suite for one lesson of approximately 45 minutes per week. There are some free lessons in the ICT Suite which can be booked each week to support work in other curriculum areas. A set of 15 laptops is also available for use in downstairs classrooms and a set of 16 Netbooks for upstairs classrooms.

Planning

The Information and Communication Technology Co-ordinator is responsible for planning continuity and progression through the Key Stages and the provision of appropriate hardware, software and other resources.

Each member of staff is then responsible for planning Information and Communication Technology work to meet the needs of the children in their class.

The planning for lessons in each unit of work follows the format of Objectives, Activity, Learning Outcomes, Cross Curricular Links and Resources. The units were originally based on the former QCA recommended units of work but have been modified or changed where necessary to give the children the best possible learning acitivities.

The teaching and development of ICT in the whole school Curriculum will be under review for the next few years, due to Government changes and school Curriculum changes (eg. use of the International Primary Curriculum]. It it envisaged that it will remain an important area of the curriculum.

Class Organisation and Teaching Style

At St.ThomasMoreSchool, most of the teaching takes place in a class group when timetabled. Whole-class teaching may be used, especially to introduce new skills, with the Interactive Whiteboards, and then children may work in groups, pairs or individually as appropriate for the task.

All children have equal opportunities to use the computers. Group work and paired work provide good opportunities for Personal and Social Development.

Sharing ideas and good work is an important part of the Information and Communications Technology curriculum as well as Personal and Social Development, helping to boost confidence levels and developing a greater awareness of what makes a successful piece of work.

There are times when the computers are not timetabled, thus enabling special needs groups or individual children to have extra access to support basic skills learning.

Assessment

Information and Communication Technology can be assessed in a variety of ways:

  • Observation of child or group on task
  • Discussion with children about their task
  • Saved work
  • Annotated printed samples for each completed Unit of work
  • Children’s own evaluations of their work

These assessments:

  • Inform future planning
  • Provide information about individuals and groups
  • Provide summative information
  • Provide information for parents – at present they are linked to statements on the end-of-year Report

These assessments are carried out at the end of each Unit during each year throughout Key Stage 2 and are the responsibility of the Class Teacher with support from the Co-ordinator.

Record Keeping

Records are kept of each child’s progress in Information and Communication Technology. Individual class teachers use methods appropriate to their class to record progress made. Records for individuals are transferred to Year group assessment sheets stored on the Server. The Co-ordinator monitors these records and tracks the progress of children for the whole of the Key Stage leading to a Year- on -Year record.

Reporting

Staff teaching Information and Communication Technology are required to report on individual attainment in this area in the annual end-of-year Report to Parents.

Co-ordinator’s Role

There is one member of staff designated as the key Information and Communication Technology Curriculum Co-ordinator. This role can include preparing a draft policy for discussion;producing medium term plans;creating a Development Plan and associated Action plans; liaising with the Notre Dame High School and St John’s Infant School and the ICT Centre, School Technicians and ‘ICT Solutions’(now under ‘ICT Shared Services’) staff;giving INSET; ordering and managing resources; giving advice and help with planning, hardware and software issues.

Resources

Hardware

20 Networked PCs in the ICT Suite.

15 Networked Laptops in the Laptop Trolley

16 Networked Netbooks in a Trolley.

13 Interactive Whiteboards

3 Data Projectors for use in other areas of the school

1 laptop for use in the dining room

5 PCs in classrooms.

A few smaller deviceswhich count as PCs for the recommended ratio, used to support Word Processing type tasks.

Colour Laser Printer – 1

Access to Office Photocopier for multiple copies in black and white

4 Control boxes in the ICT Suite set up for Control Trechnology.

Software

Software has been purchased to support all areas of the Curriculum, mainly by using elcs.

The Co-ordinator keeps a complete list of software, the licences and many of the actual disks.. See Appendix 1.

A list of software is available for all teaching and non-teaching staff on request and can be found on the Server. Most software is installed on the computer Server. Some is installed locally. It is accessible to all teaching and non-teaching staff.

Any problems must be reported to the co-ordinator. Machines are not to be moved about, disconnected or exchanged.

Peripherals

The School has various other peripheral equipment, such as a digital camera; basic movie cameras; webcams; digital microscopes and dataloggers and one Activote system per year group.

INSET Provision

INSET needs are identified through:

  • School development planning
  • Curriculum review and evaluation
  • Co-ordinator needs
  • Individual needs

These are prioritised by the ICT Co-ordinator in conjunction with the Headteacher and with advice from ‘ICT Solutions’ if necessary and form part of the ICT Development Plan and when appropriate, the School Development Plan. A variety of providers are used.

Equal Opportunities

All teaching and non-teaching staff at St.ThomasMoreSchool are responsible for ensuring that all children, irrespective of gender, ability, ethnicity and social circumstances, have access to the whole curriculum and make the greatest possible progress.

It is the responsibility of the individual teacher to plan their pairs and groupings so that this is achieved, and to keep records of this. General monitoring is the responsibility of the Headteacher and the Deputy Headteacher.

Special Educational Needs

All children should have access to a broad, balanced curriculum, which includes Information and Communication Technology, and should make the greatest progress possible. Provision for children with SEN in relation to Information Technology is the responsibility of the class teacher, support staff and SEN Co-ordinator as appropriate. Information and Communication Technology especially provides a means by which children with SEN are able to present and develop their work easily.

Where possible, the computer is made available for specific children, or groups of children to work with support staff and/or work with each other so that work can be drafted and redrafted easily. (This needs to be discussed by the class teacher, Information and Communication Technology and SEN Co-ordinators to ensure the best use of the available resources.)

See Policy on Special Educational Needs.

Evaluation

Evaluations focus on:

  • Children’s progress and achievements
  • Appropriate use of hardware and software
  • Coverage of the five strands

These evaluations form the basis for future planning, long and short term.

Evaluation and review of the Information and Communication Technology Policy and Scheme of Work take place on a regular basis. The staff work together to discuss any changes or adaptations of policy before the policy is amended. Throughout the year the whole staff can feed back information about hardware, software, Schemes of Work, policy and ideas. There is a section within the Monitoring Staff Audit prepared by the Co-ordinator to allow for constructive feedback.

Use of the Internet – February 2011

See the Policy for E-safety and use of the Internet in school. (This includes the Acceptable Use Policy/Code of Conduct for Staff, Governors, Visiting Staff, Pupils and Parents – and the Use of Digital Images and Photographs.

Policy for

ICT.

  • The date of this policy is February 2011
  • This policy has been presented to and agreed by the whole staff on

13th June 2011

  • It will be reviewed in Spring 2014

Appendix 1Software

English
Interactive Literacy for each Year / Site Licence
Clicker 4 / 1+44
MS Office / 45
Textease Studio Plus / 1+43
Inspiration / On machine
Internet Explorer / On machine
Dorling Kindersley - Encyclopaedia / Site
Literacy Bank Yr 3 / Unlimited
Literacy Bank Yr 4 / Unlimited
Literacy Bank Yr 5 / Unlimited
Literacy Bank Yr 6 / Unlimited
Cloze Pro / 40 users
Scholastic 100 Literacy Framework Lessons. Yrs 3,4,5,6 / School licence per CD-Rom when purchased by a school.
Starwriter – Yrs 3 - 6 / School licence.
Maths
Mathsphere Calculations for all years. / Site licence
MathSphere Booster CD / site licence
Mental Arithmetic Questions for all years. / Site licence
MS Excel / On machine
Ratio / 16-50
Enriching number / 16-50
Properties of Number / 16-50
Mathematical Puzzles / 16-50
Investigations / 16-50
Probability / 16-50
Breakaway Maths / Single+ 24 Disks
Exploring Geometry / 16-50
Symmetry and Transformations / 16-50
Numeracy / 16-50
Sense of Number / 16-50
Angles / 16-50
Graphing / 16-50
Movement / 16-50
Co-ordinates / 16-50
Algebra / 16-50
MathsWorks – Yrs 4 - 6 / School licences.
Abacus Evolve – Interactive Teaching disks and Solve the Problem. / Site licences and Internet access.
Science
Junior Viewpoint / 1+45
Animals of the British Isles / Single
Encarta 2004 Premium Suite / 49 computers
Science Simulations 3 / Unlimited
Seeing Science (9 CDs) / Site
Animals
The Human Body
Light and Sound
Plants
Earth and Beyond
Forces
Habitats
Materials
Electricity
LOGIT Lab V. 4 (upgrade) / Licence for all teacher laptops.
French
Dix Jeux Francais / 20
Pilote Vol 1 / Single
Pilote Vol 2 / Single
Linguascope - year's subscription / Website - students and staff -
Early Start French 1 and 2
Rigolo French
SEN software
Wordshark / 5 User +
Numbershark / 5 User +
Lexia Phonics
Lexia Reading
Norton Antivirus software licences / 2
Cloze Pro / 40 users
Lexia Basic Reading / 3 single computers (90children per comp)
Lexia Advanced Reading / 2 as above
Lexia Foundation Reading / 3 as above
Winsuite / 1
History
Non-fiction writing - Roman Britain / Site licence
Non-fiction writing - Ancient Greece / Site licence
Non-fiction writing - World War II / Site licence
ArcVenture - Romans / Unlimited
Britain since 1930 / Unlimited
Zig Zag - The Tudors / 35 extra users
Encarta / 49
Time Detectives - The Victorians / Site licence
Geography
Chembakolli / Single
Rivers / Single
Encarta / 49
Mapping skills / Unlimited
The Map Detectives / Unlimited
The Map Detectives - Rural / Unlimited
R.E.
World Religions / Unlimited
Art
2Animate / All machines
Paint / All machines
Primary Clip Art / All machines
Textease Studio Plus / All machines
Clip art on MS Office / All machines
Photo Editor / All machines
Draw (Word) / All machines
Music
Music Box 2 / Unlimited
Scheme Music Yrs 3-6 / Single?
Sibelius / Various elements - 2 single 1 site.
Thinking skills
Badger Trails (Yr. 4) / Unlimited
Inspiration / On machine
Scally's World of Problems / Unlimited
President for a Day (Yr 6/7) / Unlimited
The Map Detectives / Unlimited
Archipelago (Yr 7) / Unlimited
Deadly chocolate / single
Jennifer is missing / single
Calabash Pirates / 20 User
ICT
Flexitree / Site
Junior Control Insight / 1+50
Junior Viewpoint / 1+45
Model Shop / Unlimited
The Crystal RainForest / Unlimited
The Map Detectives / Unlimited
Textease Studio Plus / 1+43
MS Offvice / All machines
Email Detectives / Unlimited
Encarta 2004 Premium Suite / 49 computers
Flowol / Site
Map Detectives - Rural Mystery / Unlimited
Web Detectives / Unlimited
Smart Learning ICT - Yr 3 / Unlimited
Smart Learning ICT- Yr 4 / Unlimited
Smart Learning ICT - Yr 5 / Unlimited
Smart Learning ICT - Yr 6 / Unlimited
The Broadband Detectives / Single User. – e-safety.
Several items can be for multi-use
P.E.
Motion Coach / Single User
Gerneral Use
ESPRESSO / Site Licence
Assessment
Testbase English, Maths, Sci KS2 / Site licence

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