Welcome to ICT

Staffing

Mr Chris Davies - Systems Manager (Line Manager)

Mr Alan Farmer - STL ICT & Year 7 Tutor

Mr Justin Allsop - 2nd of ICT & Year 7 Tutor

Mrs Elaine Young - ICT and Business Year 8 Tutor

Mr Yunus Kalifha - Network Manager

Who we are

The ICT and Business Faculty is centred around five, modern computer rooms. Next to these rooms is the ICT and Business office, with a well equipped work area.

Staff in the department are supportive of each other and the school’s initiative to develop ICT and vocational links across the curriculum. Teaching staff work closely with the Network Manager to help ensure the smooth running of the faculty.

The Curriculum

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

ICT is taught as a discrete subject in Years 7, 8 and 9 for one 60 minute lesson each week. The scheme of work used for KS3 is based around the National Strategy that the government want all schools to teach. At Ash Green School we use the strategy to help with the teaching of our students. Students follow schemes of work in line with the Secondary Strategy and have a folder in which they compile assessed work. The schemes of work are adapted to suit each class and in some cases each individual student.

Year 9 study 3 Units of work, each Unit taking 1 term to complete. One Unit on Control, one on Databases with the final Unit combining all aspects of the students work over their time in KS3. Each Unit is designed to engagall our students and challenge all our students whatever their ability.

At Key Stage 4 students can opt for one of two GCSE qualifications either a single award by studying AQA GCSE Specification B or from September 2007 GCSE Applied ICT. This GCSE is worth 2 GCSE’s *A – C. Both GCSE’s are taught for 3 hours per week. All materials are available to students on the school intranet and will in the future be available via the school website.

All lessons at both Key Stages are taught in one of the suite of four ICT rooms, with 28 workstations. All rooms are also equipped with a teacher tablet PC as part of the Warwickshire We-Learn initiative.

Resources

The building of a new ICT and Digital Media Centre will be completed by Easter 2008. This will provide a flexible resource of over 30 computers in a purpose built, air-conditioned environment. A key development in the centre will be the use of CAD/CAM and Control. The centre will also support staff in the production and use of state of the art resources – such as digital video.

The We-Learn initiative has seen 40 classrooms across the school equipped with wireless PC’s and projectors in the areas of Mathematics, English, Science, Humanities, Modern Foreign Languages and ICT (and Business). The initiative is supported with a comprehensive training programme through Warwickshire LEA. Further details of this exciting project can be found at www.we-learn.com/pfi

The school network consists of over 150 Windows XP workstations running off two servers. All the workstations have been purchased within the last five years and all have multimedia access. They are installed with software, which allows staff and students to manage projects and assignments. Each student has their own personalised desktop environment, allowing them to store and retrieve files, share projects and the ability to communicate via email (through a monitored service).

The network is also installed with CSE Resource Manager which is an enabling system supporting easy-to-learn and highly flexible management of the network and is based on current ICT industry standards. The package simplifies access to networked resources for all users and provides a secure and readily understood teaching and learning environment.

The network has a wide range of software including Microsoft Office XP applications. We have also invested heavily in both curriculum software and E-learning materials.

Our school website www.ashgreenschool.co.uk will provide the staff and students with a focused access point for a wide range of E-learning materials. We have also been developing the use of access from home where students can log in from outside the school and continue with their work, access their e-mail, utilise resources, etc. This is going to be extended through the We-Learn project.

The network runs throughout the whole site with a variety of large and small clusters, including wireless aspects to the network. Across the network, there are a range of Laser/Ink Jet Printers and scanners. Fast and effective internet and email are provided via the Warwickshire Broadband Initiative. Additional resources, such as digital cameras / video cameras and scanners are available.

The Future

As a specialist Arts college and school we will be looking to an exciting future for ICT learning development.

The department is committed to a range of exciting and innovative initiatives, including the wider use of E-learning materials, the further expansion of the school network and increased use of electronic communications. Our work with primary and secondary partner schools, businesses and other community partners will grow significantly.

As computing specialists and because we appreciate the tremendous value of new technologies across all subjects, there will be opportunities to get involved in wider dimensions of ICT.

ASSESSMENT

RECORDING & ASSESSMENT IN ICT

Regular assessment is a vital tool in the measure of learning and motivation of our students; it can take many formats:

 Teacher marks and written feedback

 Teacher verbal feedback

 Student evaluations both peer and self

 Examinations

 Question and answer sessions

KS3 Assessment

The department makes a clear distinction between the work completed in class and the work completed at home, but both are valued equally.

Classwork & Homework

Marked in line with the school policy with emphasis on ICT skills. Folders are checked regularly to assess ICT quality and content, and overall presentation with ticks and comments in pen to move learning on. At the end of a unit of work students assess their own performance by writing a self evaluation. Teachers also assess the work by levelling the work using the level descriptors and also adding comments to the work and adding a ringed ‘T’. This ‘T’ is a target level for the students to aim for. This normally occurs every half term. All these marks are recorded in the teachers electronic mark book to chart student progress and provide formative information for parents evening’s/ monitoring sheets and formal reports.

Students also experience a formal test per academic year and feedback must be prompt. It is departmental policy that students correct their exam answers and excellent practice to encourage students to share their response. Students should receive their results in the form of a percentage grade / level. Exam results are entered on the student’s data sheet.

National Curriculum Assessment

In year 7 students are given a target grade for the end of the Key Stage. This is calculated by taking the KS 2 levels in English and Maths then dividing by 2 plus adding 1.5 Eg 4+4/2+1.5. = 5.5. As we can’t give points of a level we taking into account the students reading age and round up or down accordingly.

For each unit of work students will complete tasks designed to give a characteristic level for a particular skill. At the end of KS3 students folders are moderated alongside exam results and teacher professional judgements to reach an appropriate level for all.

KS4 Assessment.

All students are expected to print out their work and keep their folders in order. Folders are checked regularly and comments made to motivate and highlight any weaknesses. The challenge of the work set must be appropriate to KS4 study, offering a range of opportunities to extend learning access ICT develop skills and practice exam style questions. All students will also have two pieces of coursework to complete over the two year course. This work is also assessed every half term with comments and a ringed ‘T’ as a target. All work is assessed using the AQA spec B marking scheme.

Examinations

Students will experience one formal exam in the school hall during year 10, with GCSE mock exams in year 11. Opportunities should also be provided in class to practice timed exams questions with prompt feedback. It is excellent practice to share student best answers with the class as part of the feedback and learning process.