Introduction
The purpose of these materials is to provide primary teachers with a long overdue and up-to-date structure for the teaching of ICT. This Progression will assist them in both understanding what ICT capability is and in further developing planned curriculum opportunities where that capability can be developed. The Progression will assist teachers in understanding standards in ICT and help them to raise children’s attainment within the context of a personalised curriculum.
The Progression is intended to be the basis of a scheme of work for a school which, once written, will replace the current QCA Scheme of Work. Although the QCA scheme provides a structure to deliver ICT capability it was very much of its time and many schools have moved from this to a point where they embed planned opportunities to develop ICT capability within appropriate curriculum contexts. These materials will assist schools as part of the process of reflecting on, and further developing, their current practice.
The Herefordshire Primary ICT Progression makes explicit a progression of capability through Key Stages 1 and 2. This is shown as expectations across pairs of year groups (years 1 & 2, 3 & 4, and 5 & 6). We have adopted this approach (rather than individual year groups) because we believe there is no specific point at which children should necessarily develop a specific skill in ICT or reach a level of ICT capability; rather more this should be dictated by the demands of the curriculum and the extent to which skills, knowledge and understanding of ICT needs to be in place to support learning across the whole curriculum. As technology develops (and that happens very rabidly) the goal posts move and allocations of skills to individual year groups quickly become out dated (a major problem with the QCA units of work). The paired year group approach will also be more accessible to the many small schools in Herefordshire.
The progression of ICT knowledge, skills and understanding will enable all teachers to gauge a range of expectations that may be appropriate for their children. Subject based examples show how opportunities to develop capability can be planned into both discrete and subject based lessons. Schools will wish to offer children the full breadth of national curriculum entitlement and this document sets out progressions of capability by core themes / applications.
Schools have a statutory requirement to teach children ICT; however it is up to them to decide how this is best delivered. Some schools offer discrete skills based lessons on a weekly basis whilst others plan to develop capability in the extended curriculum by embedding the skills into the wider curriculum. It is certainly the case that ICT capability is best developed when there is a real reason both to develop and apply the particular aspect of ICT and when children have access to resources as a normal part of their learning. A definition of best value would be when the resources and learning spaces available enable children to learn effectively as individuals and in groups as and where it is appropriate.
However a school tackles the teaching of ICT skills, the planned curriculum should include opportunities for children to develop their ICT capability. This means that teachers need to be clear about what the learning objectives are to develop that capability, and assess children’s progress in learning techniques, applying these techniques in their learning and in developing their higher order thinking making qualitative judgements about when and when not to use ICT.
Information and communications technologies are embedded in our society. Children are growing up at a time of rapid technological change and are adopting these technologies as a matter of course both at school and at home, for work and in their leisure time. Schools have a responsibly to ensure that children develop the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding in order to be successful citizens of the future. In line with “Every Child Matters” children will need ICT capability to achieve economic well being and will need to understand electronic communications in order to enjoy and achieve and to stay safe. Equally, schools have a duty to make appropriate use of the powerful tools and resources that ICT now offers every child in so much of their learning and across all subjects.