Information Communication Technology (ICT) Policy and Practice

The Berwickshire High School believes the benefits to be derived from using Information Communication Technology (ICT) across the curriculum are significant and that every pupil at The Berwickshire High School should have the opportunity to develop personal ICT competence and to use and extend personal ICT competence in a range of subjects across the curriculum. ICT competence is best achieved by:

Developing sufficient skills and expertise amongst pupils and teachers to maximise the appropriate use of ICT in individual subject areas.

Developing sufficient ICT resources and maximising the availability of ICT resources to enable access to ICT resources to be a daily reality for students and staff.

Co-ordinating the cross curricular experience of students to guarantee pupil entitlement to ICT.

Developing whole school policies/approaches to ICT where appropriate.

Providing opportunities for students to have their ICT competence accredited by appropriate assessment schemes.

It is the intention of this ICT policy to secure the following within The Berwickshire High School:

To identify and maximise the appropriate use of ICT across the curriculum to enrich pupils teaching and learning experiences.

To respond positively to new guidance on use of ICT in the curriculum as and when it arises.

To provide staff and pupils with the skills, knowledge and understanding to make maximum use of existing ICT resources.

To help teachers incorporate ICT into their curriculum, administrative and management practice through appropriate training and support.

To ensure that ICT is properly resourced, that ICT equipment is repaired quickly and ICT equipment is updated on a planned basis.

To ensure that ICT equipment is available in sufficient numbers at suitable sites around the school to enable staff and pupils at The Berwickshire High School to maximise the real benefits ICT offers to the enhancing of teaching and learning.

To co-ordinate the cross-curricular ICT experiences of students at The Berwickshire High School to ensure coverage, continuity and progression in ICT and to address weaknesses in the cross-curricular experience of students.

To implement whole school policies on acceptable use of the Internet.

Rationale

The Berwickshire High School recognises and values the role ICT can play in:

Enhancing the teaching and learning process in all subjects.
Developing literacy, numeracy, communication, problem solving, information handling, social, interpersonal and independent learning skills amongst pupils.
Positively preparing students to play an active role in a work place and world dominated by ICT.
Encouraging students to experiment, explore, understand, interpret, research, select, present, check and improve their work.
Enabling students to explore creative and expressive ideas.
Enabling students to experiment with abstract and concrete concepts.
Enabling students to engage in measuring, controlling and recording.
Enabling students to test hypothesis, create conceptual models and improve decision making.
Contributing directly to the school’s mission statement of promoting excellence amongst staff and pupils.

Benefits of ICT to Education

In addition, The Berwickshire High School recognises the proven benefits ICT offers to the teaching and learning experience. For pupils there are frequently gains in:

Motivation
Presentation
Questioning skills
Problem solving
Information handling
Techniques of modelling

Teachers often find that (among many other gains) using ICT can lead to:

Rethinking teaching and learning strategies
More opportunities for differentiation
Greater expectations of their pupils
More opportunities for individual teaching and group work
Better understanding of their pupils’ learning
Providing greater access to sources of information that are ‘live’ and up to date
Facilitating greater differentiation of pace and content for both the fast and slow learner
Facilitating the development of ‘independent learning’ skills for later life
Helping the acquisition of information skills that will be an essential part of life in an information rich society

In addition Information and Communications Technology :

Is a valued environment in our school, it promotes the public image of the whole school and assists students in developing a positive self image
Can provide a safe and non-threatening environment for learning
Has the flexibility to meet the individual needs and challenge the abilities of each student
Promotes access for pupils with learning difficulties to otherwise inaccessible areas of the curriculum
Promotes high standards of presentation, especially for boys
Promotes skills in decision making
Empowers its users
Gives students immediate access to richer source materials
Can present information in new ways which help students to understand, assimilate and use it more readily
Can motivate and enthuse pupils – ICT can and should be fun
Can help children to focus and concentrate
Offers potential for effective individual and collaborative working patterns
Facilitate high levels of interaction between staff and pupils, and enables all pupils to become actively involved in and take control of their own learning
Offers staff new and interesting ways of enhancing the teaching and learning process

RESOURCES

Notebuses

The Berwickshire High School has two Notebuses or ‘Classroom in a box’. Each Notebus contains sixteen laptops with wireless access to the Network and Internet. A laser printer is supplied to accompany each Notebus.

Notebuses are a ‘bookable’ resource. Class teachers can book one or both for the morning or afternoon session through the school office. They are delivered to the classroom by the janitors. Teachers are responsible for issuing and collecting laptops to students and reporting any difficulties encountered.

The janitors make sure that they are charged up between sessions. The Information Technology Technician checks the Notebuses on a weekly basis for problems.

Digital Projectors

There are currently eighteen in The Berwickshire High School. These are mainly located in individual departments. In addition there is a ceiling mounted projector in the Hall. This is now used via a wireless network. There are five projectors available on a booking system to any member of staff.

Interactive Whiteboards

There are currently five interactive whiteboards at present in the school. Two are permanently located in the Geography Department. The others are currently being used by interested numbers of staff as part of staff development.

Laptops

There are currently ten laptops available to staff on a booking system. These are used by staff for curriculum development and writing student reports at home using the Mark It Pro system recently installed. These can be booked out for up to one month at a time via the Information Technology Technician.

Digital Cameras

There are seven digital cameras available for use by departments. These are booked via the Information Technology Technician.

Consumables

Printer cartridges, mice etc are purchased centrally and available to departments via an internal transfer. This is arranged via the Information Technology Technician.

Maintenance of Inventory

The inventory is maintained by the Information Technology Technician in consultation with departments.

Backup system

The curriculum network is backed-up daily by the Information Technology Technician and the tapes are stored off site.

Assessment Manager/Mark It Pro

As part of its plan for implementation of Personal Learning Planning, The Berwickshire High School has adopted the use of Mark It Pro. Mark It Pro is part of Assessment Manager which is part of the Phoenix system.

A pilot exercise took place in session 2004/05 with S4 pupils. Two reports were produced this session using this system. Despite initial difficulties, particularly with members of staff who have less experience of Information Technology, the system is producing high quality reports.

A full evaluation was carried out with members of staff, students and parents. As a result it has been extended to use with all year groups.

The system will provide a useful tracking system for students’ progress. As a result it was extended to S3 in 2004/05. During 2005/06 all reports will be written using Mark It Pro.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

All staff received basic Information Technology training via NOF training. In addition staff are encouraged to develop their skills. Self help booklets in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and use of the Internet are available from the Information Technology Technician and the following named members of staff are available for support.

D Robb, G Marchand, C Watney, I Boyd, A Frame

Help/support is also available for the Network Administrator and Information Technology Technician. Support on Mark It Pro is available from the Business Support Assistant, A Merryfield and Technician, C Robertson.

CONCEPTION

Conception supports the development of information maps for learning, teaching, research and communication. An information map (sometimes called a ‘semantic net’) represents a framework of ideas by means of a visual language diagram. Concept maps and mind maps are two of the best kinds of information map. Conception supports these, as well as web maps, argument maps, decision maps, planning maps, project maps and many others.

Conception is used in the following departments:

Modern Languages
History
Art and Design
Chemistry
Computing

A joint license was purchased originally and the update provided by the author, Tom Conlon.

SCHOLAR: on-line Learning Resource for Higher and Advanced Higher Courses

The scholar website has all the content, topics and sub-topics for a range of National courses. Students can also assess their progress through their courses via built in features of the site.

This session nearly 200 student passwords were issued for Advanced Higher and Higher courses in Maths, French, Computing, Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Used most effectively in Advanced Higher courses, patchy use as yet in the Higher courses.

Download Parent Internet Permission Form (Word document opening in a new window)