This is a community special school for pupils with a range of moderate learning difficulties aged 11-16. It is a small school with 121 pupils on roll, all statemented for special educational needs

PART B: STAFF

THE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE

The school is managed by its Board of Governors through the Head and his SMLT (senior management Leadership Team). This team consists of the Deputy Head, AST (Advanced Skills Teacher) and some of the department heads from other subjects ICT. (Appendix C)

THE ICT DEPARTMENT STAFF STRUCTURE

The ICT department is run by the ICT co-ordinator who is also the Head of Department; he also oversees the implementation of the ICT strategy across the curriculum, and in this situation teaches the majority of the classes. The Head of department/ ICT co-ordinator/ teacher has been with the school for 7 years and has a very good relationship with the children, resulting in, I think as being a better teacher. One of the Maths teachers, an NQT, teaches ICT, to one class from year 7 and one from year 8; however she has been off sick for the period of my placement, with stress so the cover of the lessons has been left up to the ICT co-ordinator, teachers of other subjects and supply staff. He also line manages an English teacher who teaches 2 sessions of ICT per week.

The two technicians who are responsible for the maintenance/ upgrading of software and smooth running of all the computer equipment and the audio/visual equipment are also managed by the ICT co-ordinator. One of the main tasks for the technicians was to take down the computer projector at the end of the school day and attach it back at the beginning of the school day due to two projectors being stolen recently.

OTHER STAFF

There are16 teaching staff supported by 15 teaching assistants, the administration department is made up of 2 full time and 2 part time staff. In the ICT department there is one full time network manager and one part time IT technician. The above list is not exhaustive and many more duties can be added.

All staff take on a range of responsibilities, ranging from academic, pastoral, spiritual and the moral welfare of the children. Multi tasking is an essential requirement for any teacher.

From Capel, Leask et al (1994).

Academic Roles includes

• Subject teaching
• Lesson preparation
• Setting and marking homework
• Assessing pupil progress in a variety of ways; formative, summative
• Writing reports
• Recording achievements
• Working as a subject team
• Curriculum development
• Reporting to parents
• Implementing school policies
• Extra curricular activities
• Examining for GCSE and A level boards

The pastoral role and spiritual and moral welfare includes

• Working as part of a pastoral team
• Teaching personal, social, and health education
• Taking part in the daily act of worship required by legislation
• Getting to know the pupils as individuals
• Helping pupils with problems
• Being responsible for a form
• Monitoring sanctions and rewards given to form members
• Reinforcing school rules and routines
• Writing reports ensuring record of achievements/ proifiles are up to date
• House/year group activities
• Liaising with parents
• Ensuring school information is conveyed through pupils to parents
• Giving careers and subject guidance
• Extra curricular activities

PART C RESOURCES

THE ICT DEPARTMENT/EQUIPMENT

Altogether there are 87 computers in the whole of the school, including those used by the administration staff and senior management. In the academic year 2004/2005 £22,000 was spent in the ICT department on upgrading the computers, adding another ICT suite(conversion of another classroom) and a laptop trolley that can be used anywhere in the school. This can be very useful if the subject teacher needs to be either outside or in a certain part of the school where there are no computers.

The ICT department consists of two ICT rooms ICT 1 and ICT 2 (Appendix B) and a laptop trolley, which can be booked for use by any other subject teachers. ICT 1 contains 14 computers with six on either side of the room and two at the back of the room sandwiched between two black and white printers, the layout is “U” shaped. There is an Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) on the wall adjacent to the entrance from the school corridor this is linked to the ICT teacher’s computer at the front of the room on the left. This room houses the new computers which are HP Compaq Pentium 4 processor 512 Ram 80GB Hard drive. The laptops again are HP Notebooks Pentium mobile notebooks, wi-fi enabled 512 Ram with 40 GB Hard drive. The school has 14 printers dotted around the school 10 of which are accessible by the pupils the rest used by admin staff. There is one colour printer which is situated in the library.

ICT 2 houses the older computers and is arranged slightly differently (see appendix B). This room houses 20 of the old computers which are HP Compaq with Celeron processors, 256 RAM and 20 GB hard drive. This room also has a computer projector and an IWB on the wall adjacent to the door, and is mainly used by other subject teachers to research on the internet, or perhaps to do some word processing. This room can be booked if it is free, as it does run on a set timetable with some free periods.

All computers and laptops are connected to the school network and have access to the broadband internet. The operating software installed on all computers is Microsoft Windows XP Professional. The topology used in the school is client-server based and the majority of the maintenance work is done by the Network Manager from the computer in his office. All pupils have access to a shared area where they can access files and they also have access to their own storage space to save their own work via a personal username and password.

The computer to pupil ratio in this school is now 1:1.5 which is well above the average stated for secondary schools in ICT in schools survey, 2004, for special schools. The Annual Ofsted Subject Report ICT 2005 stated;

….much greater access to ICT for pupils and staff. Government initiatives to develop ICT infrastructure in schools have improved pupil: computer ratios significantly. In the DfES/Becta ICT in Schools survey in 2004, the mean annual expenditure was £88,200 per school - £91 per pupil. On average there were 4.9 pupils per computer, compared with 8.7 in 1998. Almost all schools are now connected to the internet with the proportion with broadband connections having risen from 68% in 2002 to 90%.Many schools have benefited from more flexible deployment of resources, for example through the use of laptops wirelessly linked to school networks and clusters of machines in various curriculum areas around the school. This has enabled more use of ICT to take place in other subjects across the curriculum

The school is very well resourced for ICT equipment throughout the school. All other classrooms apart from the technology rooms have IWB and computer projectors, and networked computers.  SMLT actively encourage the use of this specialist equipment. My observations led me to the conclusion that in the majority of cases teachers had got over their mental block of having an IWB in their class and embraced it to facilitate a varied approach to teaching and learning to address the individuality of the pupils. In Maths in particular the IWB is used in most lessons and the pupils are nearly always engaged in the process of learning. However there are some rooms in which they are just gathering dust and are viewed as a “white elephant” which is trying to takeover their classroom.

This school is above national averages for computers in other classrooms too;

 Table 3.12: Mean number of computers per school in each location 

 ICT in Schools Survey 2004 p 17

The two IT technicians are based in a small room at the back of ICT 1 which can be accessed through ICT 1 or through a separate door from the corridor adjacent to the entrance to ICT 1. On a number of occasions the lesson is disturbed by pupils/teachers needing to speak to one of the IT technician, who use ICT 1’s door instead of his office door.

OTHER ICT RESOURCES

Overall this school is in line with the average in the hardware, software and specialist equipment that they have in use for special needs. ICT in schools survey 2004 p 24

Chart 4E: Specialist equipment for pupils with SEN and disabilities

The Annual Ofsted Subject Report ICT 2005 stated the national scene;

Resources for ICT continue to improve; while well over half of schools are now well resourced, over one in ten continue to be unsatisfactory.

The report goes on to state how the use of ICT has impacted on SEN pupils.

ICT was generally perceived to have a positive impact on helping pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) to access the National Curriculum. This was particularly the case for special schools, where more than seven out of ten claimed ICT had a substantial impact and almost all the others said it had some impact. In the majority of primary and secondary schools ICT was thought to have some impact, although a significant minority of primary and secondary schools also perceived it as having a substantial impact

 Impact of ICT on helping pupils with SEN to access the national curriculum

ICT in Schools Survey 2004

Comparison of the key stage 3 results for 2004 (Appendix H) and 2005(Appendix I) clearly show an improvement in this school, could this be due to the increased use of ICT? These tables can be then compared to the national KS 3 results (Appendix J). The GCSE attainment table figures also show considerable improvement from 30% to 96% from 2003 to 2004 for at least one pass at GNVQ or entry level GCSE.(see later for graph)

PART D STRATEGIES

ICT STRATEGY USED

There remains a problem of continuity of learning between schools at transfer, in spite of notable successes in some areas in using bridging projects or locating pupils' assessed work on the internet - approaches shared with delegates on the Ofsted ICT Dissemination Conference in February 2003. For many schools, the sheer number of primary schools from which pupils are drawn inhibits smooth transition. A concerted national approach is needed if this perennial problem is to be addressed. Ofsted Annual Subject Reports 2005  

This problem is exacerbated in this school due to the varied learning barriers, and some pupils are taught very basic skill such as “mouse control” and are assessed according to “P” Levels as stated prior.

The KS3 strategy used in mainstream schools is not appropriate in this school and an adapted version of key stage 2 is used. (Appendix G) The appendix gives a brief outline for the teaching of ICT in this school.

Schools are required to provide 1 hour of ICT lessons per week at KS3, at this school, pupils have one 55 minute lesson per week for the whole school year, but each term one form is taught an extra lesson of ICT each week, on a termly rotational basis as there are 3 year form groups in each year, this has been implemented since last year and the upcoming year 7 and 8 will have covered more ICT than the present year 9’s. Therefore some year 8 pupils are at the same level as year 9’s.

At KS3, pupils are generally taught the KS2 strategy with some adaptations made, taking into consideration the needs of the pupils. Extension tasks are given to the more, able pupils and pupils with additional educational needs are helped on a one to one basis by teaching assistants. The differentiation of the pupils can be greatly varied and most certainly need to be taken on board when lesson planning. The less able pupils are seated to the right of the teacher at the front of the class where the keyboards are specialised for various individual needs (visual, movement).

At KS4 pupils are taught the European Computer Driving License (ECDL) course to give the pupils essential skills in using computers. The more able pupils do the GCSE (Short case) in information and communication technology (3185) and have had a 100% pass rate in the previous year!

Every Wednesday afternoon one of the IT technicians takes some pupils for a “Curriculum Enrichment” session and teaches the pupils about the hardware components that make up a computer, by stripping old computers and getting the students to put them back together again. This is a very rewarding lesson for the pupils who choose to do this.

The variety of approach to teaching ICT reflects the corresponding special needs of the pupils and how the school attempts to address each and every individual, this approach is maintained in all other subjects.

The national scene for KS4 is summarized in the Ofsted Annual Subject Reports ICT 2005

Curriculum provision for ICT remains a concern in Key Stage 4 where more than one fifth of schools do not ensure that pupils are able to progress in their ICT capability.

ICT ASPECTS OF THE RECENT OFSTED REPORT

Ofsted (2004) in their report stated;

“Work in ICT supports pupils’ speaking and listening skills excellently; explanations of what they have produced are often of very high quality. However, the written work of a significant number is weak. Much support has been recently provided in lessons to compensate for these weaknesses, such as spell checking, the use of dictionaries, and spoken text output. This is often used for the reading of complex texts from the internet, but can also be used to check their own work to see if it makes sense. (Ofsted 2004:29)

ICT ASSESSMENT STRATEGY USED

On a national scale the assessment strategy used by schools has come under criticism and some time, resources and planning needs to be allocated to this problem by the majority of schools. Ofsted Annual  Subject Report ICT 2005

Assessment of ICT capability remains a weakness in one fifth of schools at Key Stage 3 and one eighth at Key Stage 4.

The use of assessment to respond to the needs of individual pupils remains very variable, especially at Key Stage 3 where it is unsatisfactory in almost one fifth of schools.

The pilot program of pupils on line testing was completed 9/12/05; this has had a very good uptake by most schools. Guidance on how to prepare pupils can be found in the DfES publication; Preparing Year 9 pupils for ICT assessment including tests.

This school already uses an on-line testing system  www.goalplc.co.uk which the school has invested in since 2002 . Tests for the pupils can be set for any subject at KS1 to KS3 level, with target levels from1-6. The subject teacher accesses the application on line setting the subject to be assessed and the level at which they want it to be tested at taking into consideration the pupil’s ability. In one form three different level tests may be taken. All pupils then access the test on line and on completion it is then sent for marking.

A hard copy of pupils skills are recorded regularly after making class observations. (Appendix E).

Achievement in ICT nationally has clearly improved in the last few years.

Achievement in ICT in secondary schools - 2003-05 and 1998/99.

The school also has made considerable improvement in attainment with an increase from 30% to 96% from 2003-2004

ICTAC (ICT across the Curriculum)

Schools have two responsibilities for ICT in the National Curriculum:

a to teach the National Curriculum programme of study for ICT;

b to give pupils opportunities to apply and develop ICT capability across the

curriculum (all subjects).

ICTAC Date of issue: 09-2004 Ref: DfES 0172-2004 G

The training pack for ICT across the curriculum (ICTAC) forms part of the Key Stage 3 National Strategy’s support for whole-school improvement. It should be used flexibly to suit local circumstances and, if you have chosen ICT across the curriculum as your whole school priority, will be supported by your local Key Stage 3 lead consultant for ICTAC.

The ICT across the curriculum (ICTAC) pack is a set of materials designed to promote the use of ICT across all subjects in schools. It builds on the work of the Key Stage 3 National Strategy ICT strand and the ICT capability that pupils are bringing to their subject lessons from their ICT lessons. It also considers the value that ICT can add to teaching and learning in subjects and the need for a whole-school approach to develop coherent and effective practice across the curriculum.

The past five years have seen a slow but steady improvement in pupils’ achievements in ICT capability, the quality of teaching, and the leadership and  management of ICT … The complementary use of ICT across subjects, however, has been slow to develop and is uneven across schools and subjects …

The effective balance between the teaching of ICT skills, knowledge and understanding on the one hand and the application of these as part of learning across subjects on the other hand remains a difficult and elusive goal for the majority of schools. (Information and communication technology in secondary schools:

Ofsted subject reports 2002/03)

The ICT co-ordinator is also responsible for the implementation of the ICT across the curriculum, the discreet teaching of ICT through other subjects, for example teaching spreadsheets through Maths, Data collection and processing through English. Due to the pressures of running a one man show this has been left primarily to the subject teachers.

In line with ICT in Schools survey 2004, the Maths and English department in this school make excellent use of the ICT equipment, after taking on board the criticisms from their Ofsted report last year.

In special schools, as in primary schools, the highest levels of substantial ICT use (apart from in ICT lessons) were for English and Mathematics. Again the proportion of special schools reporting substantial use of ICT has generally increased since 2003 in most curriculum subjects (Table 7.5)

 Use of ICT in areas of the curriculum – special schools

The Ofsted report stated that ICT across the curriculum needed improvement;

“Most departments have sufficient equipment but not all fully use it. The role of the subject co-ordinator in promoting and developing ICT in many subjects needs further development.” (Ofsted 2004: 30)

The Head of the English, who is also the Advanced Skills Teacher, promotes the use of ICT by using “Success maker” for year 7 &8 from the “Teach It” website and is currently using the template for Nursery Rhymes in the style of a tabloid newspaper. ICT provides a wide range of reading and writing assessment opportunities. ICT always gets a response and can be used to elicit whole class focus, which then come under the learning of speaking and listening. The limitations placed on ICT across the curriculum. In the Maths department some excellent starter activities are used to focus the attention of the pupils from various websites.

The national scene is summarised in the Annual Ofsted Subject Reports ICT 2005

The gap between schools in terms of their effectiveness of ICT use across the school continues to widen. School leaders need to ensure that strategic plans focus on optimum use of the available resources to develop pupils' ICT capability and to support work across other subjects.

It went in to say that the strategic leadership of who school needed improving

Increasingly schools are recognising the need for a whole-school strategy for ICT to ensure that pupils achieve well, make effective use of their ICT capability in other subjects and are confident about using ICT as and when appropriate to help them to learn. It is now common for senior management to be involved in this. Gone are the days when the ICT coordinator was responsible for every aspect of ICT in the school. They still have a number of vital roles, but these are now often shared between several staff. For the broader development to take place, the overview and influence of the senior management team is essential. The question for senior managers is how to take principles forward into practice.”

The above is in the developmental stages in this school and the resources are available for the complete embedding of ICT across the curriculum.

PART E CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

“Embedding ICT in Schools-a dual Evaluation”; This report examines the degree to which information and communication technology (ICT) has become embedded in schools across the curriculum and the success of a sample of schools in using a new self-evaluation opportunity. After my observations at the school I would say they apply to this school also, although quite advanced in its resources and strategies, improvement is still needed. (Embedding ICT in Schools 2005:5)

Recommendations

The government should:

• further clarify its expectations of schools with regard to the embedding of ICT in teaching and learning across subjects and make clear what provision for embedded ICT looks like
• further encourage schools to improve their whole-school provision for ICT

so that they can move forward at a practical rate from their current position towards ensuring that ICT has a positive impact on pupils learning.

• expedite plans to make the .strategic leadership in ICT. (SLICT) training courses for school leaders available to middle management and those who support schools.

LEAs should:

• ensure that all those who work with schools in an advisory, support or monitoring capacity are aware of the potential impact of ICT on teaching and learning in their area of expertise and in administration
• ensure that ICT is considered as an integral part of system-wide developments on issues of school leadership and management, teaching and learning, curriculum and assessment.

Schools should:

• combine planning for ICT developments with other important development goals, especially those involving active, independent and collaborative learning, thinking skills and inclusion
• evaluate their provision for ICT against broad headings such as those in the common evaluation framework(CEF), with particular emphasis on the views of pupils and all staff.

After studying my placement school staff, the resources available to them and how they implement the department strategy the true multi-tasking nature of the teaching profession has become apparent. Although the school is now well resourced for ICT, it still hinges on the staff on how they use the resources, as to how well the pupils benefit from them. With ICT across the curriculum a major developmental project for many schools, and more so in this school after observing various other subject teachers’ use of their ICT equipment.

The Annual Ofsted report ICT 2005 also stated that leadership and management needed improvement.

The gap between schools in terms of their effectiveness of ICT use across the school continues to widen. School leaders need to ensure that strategic plans focus on optimum use of the available resources to develop pupils' ICT capability and to support work across other subjects.

Leadership and management in ICT in secondary schools - 2003-05 and 1998/99.

It did however state:

 On many measures, ICT is by far the most improved subject, although it was easily the weakest 0% to 96%in 1998

The QCA ICT 2004/5 annual report on curriculum and assessment, published on 22 December 2005, had similar finding as the above reports and made recommendations to further develop on line resources, provide further training for staff and research how the use of ICT could be further developed to encourage pupils to take this option at KS4.

As can be evidenced by the investment of monies, resources and timetable time being allocated to ICT, this subject is fast becoming a major player in the whole school curriculum, and is being heavily promoted by the government. This school is planning to embed the use of ICT further into the curriculum and a report to the Governors on ICTAC is pending. I would consider this school as an established school in its use of ICT.

The summary of the main Ofsted inspection judgements are listed in the (Appendix F) and it is fair to note that in a special school such as this, standards achieved are judged against individual targets and not national standards. The impact of ICT on helping pupils with SEN can be compared to the national average and can then be compared to the results achieved by pupils in the last three years from the School league tables. Does this provide evidence as to how well ICT impacts on teaching and learning after looking at the substantial increase in attainment from 2002-2003?

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APPENDIX

APPENDIX A : School Diagram

APPENDIX B: ICT 1/ICT 2

APPENDIX C: Staff Management Structure

APPENDIX D: Examples of “P” Levels

Within or before Level I
P1
Pupils are beginning to show sensory awareness in relation to a range of people, objects and materials in everyday contexts. They show reflex responses to sensory stimuli, e.g. startle response.
1. Make a response to a sound or image e.g. TV, telephone etc.
2. Make fleeting glances towards a stimulus but my attention is not held
P2
Pupils perform some actions using trial and error and show reactive responses to familiar people and objects, such as reaching and holding objects, smiling and turning to familiar voices. They make sounds or gestures to express simple needs, wants or feelings in response to their immediate environment e.g. protesting or requesting, using facial expression to enhance meaning.
3. Turn towards a sound or image
4. Attend to a stimulus which has animation only
5. Attend to a stimulus which has sound only

APPENDIX E: Example Assessment Records

APPENDIX F Summary inspection judgements

APPENDIX G:ICT skills list for pupils in Placement School                         

APPENDIX H SCHOOL KS3 RESULTS 2004

Crosby High School

De Villiers Avenue Crosby
Liverpool Merseyside
L23 2TH
Tel: 0151 9243671

SPECIAL MIXED 11-16

School can also be found in the GCSE/GNVQ tables

APPENDIX I: School KS3 Results 2005

APPENDIX J: National KS3 Results 2004

APPENDIX K: Data Collection Sheet

BIBLIOGRAGHY

Ofsted (2004) Inspection Report-Crosby High School Inspection no 104980 accessed 15/10/2005 from

DfES (2004) Crosby High School GCSE (and equivalent) Achievement and Attainment Table 2004 accessed 10\12\2005

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DfES(2004) Crosby High School Key Stage 3 Achievement and Attainment table 2004 accessed 12/12/05

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ICT in Schools research and evaluation series- No 22 ICT in Schools Survey 2004 accessed 16/11/05

http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/dfes-1122-2004[1].pdf

Embedding ICT in schools – A Dual evaluation exercise accessed 20/ 12/2005

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubs.displayfile&id=4128&type=pdf –

The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools 2004/05 School subject Report on ICT accessed 16/12/2005

QCA ICT 2004/5 annual report on curriculum and assessment

PUBLICATIONS

Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools: Standards and Quality in Education 2002/2003

Publication date 4/2/2004 . HMI No 0-10-292677-8.London TSO.

Kay stage 3 National Strategy Framework for Teaching ICT Capability: Years 7,8 and 9 Publication Date 09/02 Ref: DfES 0321/2002

Key Stage 3 National Strategy  Preparing Year 9 pupils for ICT assessment including tests, part 1 | Key messages Ref DfES 0754-2004G

Key Stage Three National Strategy, ICTAC Management Guide date of issue 09/04 Ref DfES0172-2004 G

BOOKS

Capel, S., Leask, M., et al (1995) Learning to teach in the Secondary School, London : Routledge

Cohen, L., Manion, L., et al 5th Ed (2004) A Guide to Teaching Practice London : RoutledgeFalmer

School Documentation (Available from the school)

School Policies

Staff Handbook

School Prospectus

School scheme of work

Subject scheme of work

Old Ofsted Reports

School Assessment strategies

Group IEP Documentation

Special Educational Needs

Additional Special Educational Needs Register