OFSTED published a report on The Importance of ICT last week and it can be download from here
http://tinyurl.com/bllnbb.
Be warned the report is a lengthy 40 pages, with 116 points presented in two main parts:
A) The quality of ICT in Leanring
B) Issues (which need to be takled to increae engagement and raise attainment)
A couple of points which struck a chord with our priorities and focus for our ICT strategy in Islington included:
Section B which opens with a section on Assessment (Page 29) as a driver for improving ICT capability, reporting one in five of the schools inspected had no systems for assessing levels of ICT capability. They rarely had a formal system for tracking the progress of individual pupils and students, and they were unaware of how well they were doing.
The final part of section B 'Getting ICT to the learning' (page 35) highlighted althought nationally the use of ICT in other subjects is generally improving, the picture this survey establishes is one of patchy provision and inconsistent progress.
It points to a critial issues of resourcing which we have been discussing with schools on the place for an ICT suite. The report states .... schools have successfully created a demand from teachers to be able to use ICT to improve learning in other subjects but are rarely able to meet it. Most primary and secondary schools have chosen to centralise the bulk of their ICT resources in networked computer rooms……but the result is that resources are often extremely limited elsewhere for work in other subjects. It is still common to see students taking work from other subjects to the computer room where they are using ICT, in effect, only to present their ideas well. When ICT is unavailable to students in their classrooms when they are studying other subjects, it is unable to contribute to improving learning.
Read other comments in a blog from a CLC in Manchester who had a review mirroring some of our thoughts and included other interesting points. http://tinyurl.com/a9l7pa
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Bid for £1000 ICT funding for your school from LGfL - 'Durrants Den'
Ever aspired to appear on Dragon's Den? Why not participate in a school's version? LGfL are offering schools a chance to bid for a share of a £10,000 fund for ICT projects. "Durrant's Den" (named after LGfL CEO Brian Durrant) will take place via a live Video Conference on 10th July.
Bids must be towards purchasing hardware and/or software which enhance the ICT provision for the school and increase ICT learning opportunities for pupils. You will have 5 minutes to 'pitch' your idea, followed by up to 10 minutes of questioning by the Dragons. At least 1 pupil must be involved in the pitch itself.
Maximum funding is £1,000 per school, but you could join up with other schools for a joint project and therefore access a larger fund.
Why not have a go - the event will be fun and you could end up with some money to fund an exciting ICT project. Further details, including curriculum links and an application form can be found here:
www.durrantsden.lgfl.net
Deadline for appications is 22nd May.
Bids must be towards purchasing hardware and/or software which enhance the ICT provision for the school and increase ICT learning opportunities for pupils. You will have 5 minutes to 'pitch' your idea, followed by up to 10 minutes of questioning by the Dragons. At least 1 pupil must be involved in the pitch itself.
Maximum funding is £1,000 per school, but you could join up with other schools for a joint project and therefore access a larger fund.
Why not have a go - the event will be fun and you could end up with some money to fund an exciting ICT project. Further details, including curriculum links and an application form can be found here:
www.durrantsden.lgfl.net
Deadline for appications is 22nd May.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
HSBC/British Council CHINA Conference
HSB and the British Council held an excellent conference on educational co-operation with China just before half term.
AM Session
The morning began with key note addresses from Martin Davidson, Chief Executive, British Council, Rt Hon Jim Knight MP and Minister Counsellor Tian Xiaogang, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. Sessions then focused on school and area partnerships with China.
Redbridge
http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/redbridge/accounts/beijing/
Annette Carlon, School Improvement ICT Consultant for the London Borough of Redbridge presented. She said leading the 2008 Redbridge Beijing project has allowed her to further develop the use of ICT which has been crucial in forging, maintaining and nurturing the global links.
Redbridge project has been running for 3 years and the fact that some of the schools have made their third visit demonstrates the legacy and vibrancy of the partnership. Other schools in Redbridge, having seen the impact of a global dimension in teaching and learning, are keen to participate and there are now 8 schools involved with a view to further growth this year.
PM Session
The afternoon options covered areas including developing the link across the curriculum, and China in the Primary Curriculum. In particualr a partnership of 3 primary schools from North Lincolnshire and their headteachers spoke.
PAUL MCNICHOLAS, HEADTEACHER
ST BERNADETTE'S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL, NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE.China Link School - Taoyuan Primary School Dalian (2000 pupils) Headteacher Mr Li Shaocheng.
http://www.saintbernadettes.org.uk/
Link established in 2004. Worked with partner school on Joint Curriculum Projects, Professional Development for teachers and teaching assistants. Pupil visits took place 2008. International School Award achieved.
JUDITH MOORHOUSE, HEADTEACHER OF HOLME VALLEY PRIMARY SCHOOL IN NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE.
http://www.holmevalley.n-lincs.sch.uk/China_page.htm
The school has been involved in a link with a partner school in Dalian, China since 2003. The study of China is now incorporated into our school's curriculum and staff visits are made annually as part of CPD. The school was successful in gaining the International Award in 2006 and is currently working towards compiling our portfolio for re-submission in 2009.
AM Session
The morning began with key note addresses from Martin Davidson, Chief Executive, British Council, Rt Hon Jim Knight MP and Minister Counsellor Tian Xiaogang, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. Sessions then focused on school and area partnerships with China.
Redbridge
http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/redbridge/accounts/beijing/
Annette Carlon, School Improvement ICT Consultant for the London Borough of Redbridge presented. She said leading the 2008 Redbridge Beijing project has allowed her to further develop the use of ICT which has been crucial in forging, maintaining and nurturing the global links.
Redbridge project has been running for 3 years and the fact that some of the schools have made their third visit demonstrates the legacy and vibrancy of the partnership. Other schools in Redbridge, having seen the impact of a global dimension in teaching and learning, are keen to participate and there are now 8 schools involved with a view to further growth this year.
PM Session
The afternoon options covered areas including developing the link across the curriculum, and China in the Primary Curriculum. In particualr a partnership of 3 primary schools from North Lincolnshire and their headteachers spoke.
PAUL MCNICHOLAS, HEADTEACHER
ST BERNADETTE'S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL, NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE.China Link School - Taoyuan Primary School Dalian (2000 pupils) Headteacher Mr Li Shaocheng.
http://www.saintbernadettes.org.uk/
Link established in 2004. Worked with partner school on Joint Curriculum Projects, Professional Development for teachers and teaching assistants. Pupil visits took place 2008. International School Award achieved.
JUDITH MOORHOUSE, HEADTEACHER OF HOLME VALLEY PRIMARY SCHOOL IN NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE.
http://www.holmevalley.n-lincs.sch.uk/China_page.htm
The school has been involved in a link with a partner school in Dalian, China since 2003. The study of China is now incorporated into our school's curriculum and staff visits are made annually as part of CPD. The school was successful in gaining the International Award in 2006 and is currently working towards compiling our portfolio for re-submission in 2009.
PETE HARGRAVE, BROUGHTON JNR SCHOOL, NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Primary Software Choice Survey
I have created a survey to canvas opinion on software choice for Primary Schools. Has been spread far and wide by the 'Twitter' community, but would love to get the local perspective too. Please spare 5 minutes to complete it below. Thanks!
Monday, 23 February 2009
TIPD Visit to Sandviken, Sweden - Part 4
The final 2 days of our visit to Sandviken were spent in Upper Secondary Schools (sometimes known as 'Gymnasiums'). These take pupils for three years from 16-19 (grades 10, 11 and 12), so roughly equivilent to a UK 6th form with an extra year. This level of education is not compulsory, although roughly 90% of pupils will begin a course. There are 15 national upper seconday programmes that students can choose from, as well as some specially designed programs that may be available locally. Programmes include for example Construction, Buisness, Handicrafts, Medi, Healthcare. Whatever programme they are studying, all students will continue with the 8 core subjects of maths, Swedish, English, PE and health, the Arts, General Science, Social Studies and Religion. This ensures a broad education even whemn studying programmes that may seem quite specialised by their title. Students are free to attend the school of their choice, whether or not this is in their local municipality, is state run or private. The student's home municipality must fund the student wherever they wish to attend. This has led to increasing competition between schools and municipalities, and much money is now spent on marketing and incentives to attract the best students. The situation also means that municipalities and individual schools cannot be sure of the level of funding they will get each year as it is entirely dependent on student numbers.
The state-run Sandviken Gymnasium has recently been refurbished due not in small part to increased competition from privately run competitors and the need to attract students and importantly the money that comes with them. ICT is put in the hands of the learners with most students beign issued with a laptop for them to use through the duration of their time in the school. There is wifi throughout the building to allow flexibility in where students work, with much of the learning taking place in small break-out rooms where groups can collaborate together. Student are free to take the laptops home to use and treat them as their own. As in the schools we visited earlier in the week, there is no internet filtering in place at all. A useful, if not attractive, feature of most classrooms was retractable mains cables hanging down from the ceiling to allow laptops to be easily plugged in.
Most of the ICT use seen evidenced was the ever-present powerpoint (extensively used by both pupils and teachers). We also saw some use of adobe flash for pupils to present their work, but this was beign used at a quite basic level.
As with most of the schools visited, they were using the 'first class' system for communication between staff and to a lesser extent pupils. However, it was evident that use was not uniform across the school and that not all staff utilised the system for anything more than email. It was recognised by the school that the system does not have full MLE functionality and they are seeking to move to another system in the future.
On the final day of the trip we visited a specialist 'Gymnasium'; a joint venture between major local company, Sandvik, and the local authority. This felt very much more like a business environment than a school. Each student had an individual desk and workstation in a student office. Much work was done in collaborative groups as it would be in the workplace. There were only 2 specialist programmes offered and these very much concentrated on the engineering skills favoured by Sandvik for their future employees. Facilities in this school were very good and it was obvious that much money was spent on the school by the parent company - high tech machinery, robotics and tools were routinely used by the students.
Interestingly, this school was the only one that we came across that has any sort of web filtering in place. However, this was not due to concerns over safety. Rather the filters are there to ensure that bandwidth-heavy content, including video and audio is not accessed. The school shares an internet connection with the main industrial site and they limit heavily how much they are able to use. This places obvious limitations on the way that the internet can be used as a tool for learning and teaching.
The state-run Sandviken Gymnasium has recently been refurbished due not in small part to increased competition from privately run competitors and the need to attract students and importantly the money that comes with them. ICT is put in the hands of the learners with most students beign issued with a laptop for them to use through the duration of their time in the school. There is wifi throughout the building to allow flexibility in where students work, with much of the learning taking place in small break-out rooms where groups can collaborate together. Student are free to take the laptops home to use and treat them as their own. As in the schools we visited earlier in the week, there is no internet filtering in place at all. A useful, if not attractive, feature of most classrooms was retractable mains cables hanging down from the ceiling to allow laptops to be easily plugged in.Most of the ICT use seen evidenced was the ever-present powerpoint (extensively used by both pupils and teachers). We also saw some use of adobe flash for pupils to present their work, but this was beign used at a quite basic level.
As with most of the schools visited, they were using the 'first class' system for communication between staff and to a lesser extent pupils. However, it was evident that use was not uniform across the school and that not all staff utilised the system for anything more than email. It was recognised by the school that the system does not have full MLE functionality and they are seeking to move to another system in the future.
On the final day of the trip we visited a specialist 'Gymnasium'; a joint venture between major local company, Sandvik, and the local authority. This felt very much more like a business environment than a school. Each student had an individual desk and workstation in a student office. Much work was done in collaborative groups as it would be in the workplace. There were only 2 specialist programmes offered and these very much concentrated on the engineering skills favoured by Sandvik for their future employees. Facilities in this school were very good and it was obvious that much money was spent on the school by the parent company - high tech machinery, robotics and tools were routinely used by the students.
Interestingly, this school was the only one that we came across that has any sort of web filtering in place. However, this was not due to concerns over safety. Rather the filters are there to ensure that bandwidth-heavy content, including video and audio is not accessed. The school shares an internet connection with the main industrial site and they limit heavily how much they are able to use. This places obvious limitations on the way that the internet can be used as a tool for learning and teaching.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Thursday, 19 February 2009
TIPD Visit to Sandviken, Sweden - Part 3
On the afternoon of day 2 we visited a grade 5/6 class at the Primary school. This is the equivalent of a year 7/8 class in the UK. The pupils were having an English lesson and were very much given ownership of their own learning. They selected their own activity and there was a range on display - translating books from English to Swedish or vice-versa, writing a report in English, reading English novels etc. The teacher told us that she lets the children know at the beginning of the term what activities they needed to cover and it was up to the pupils to do so. Periodically the teacher would check up that the required work had been done and if it had not been then the pupil needed to catch up in their own time. Pupils were even trusted to work at home in many cases and would regularly do so up to a few months ago when the government changed the rules that allowed this to happen. The teacher and pupils were enthusiastic about this particular way of working and were hopeful that it may be allowed again in the future.
In terms of ICT with this group, the teacher said that the pupils were free to use it when they wished to, but the most common uses were word processing, powerpoints and online dictionaries. Interestingly we were told that there were no dedicated ICT lessons to teach specific skills. ICT was in use for some home-school communication through their 'First Class' system. This was mainly via the teacher updating an online class calendar that parents could then pick up via the school website, as well as some email-type communication. Other ICT use seen in the school was mainly with individuals or groups; for example a memory building / brain training piece of software for specific targeted pupils and a program called Lexion being used to reinforce basic literacy skills - this program having been procured on behalf of all Sandviken schools and introduced with an extensive training programme.
In terms of ICT with this group, the teacher said that the pupils were free to use it when they wished to, but the most common uses were word processing, powerpoints and online dictionaries. Interestingly we were told that there were no dedicated ICT lessons to teach specific skills. ICT was in use for some home-school communication through their 'First Class' system. This was mainly via the teacher updating an online class calendar that parents could then pick up via the school website, as well as some email-type communication. Other ICT use seen in the school was mainly with individuals or groups; for example a memory building / brain training piece of software for specific targeted pupils and a program called Lexion being used to reinforce basic literacy skills - this program having been procured on behalf of all Sandviken schools and introduced with an extensive training programme.
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