Schemes of Work

How to plan effectively for IT in your school

A scheme of work should translate school aims into classroom practice. The new programme of study for IT can be broken down most suitably into two themes or content areas:

communicating and handling information
controlling, monitoring and modelling.

Where IT is delivered in a cross-curricular way, the schemes of work should demonstrate clearly which aspects of IT are being covered in which subjects. Schools will decide for themselves where each area occurs in the schemes; the important thing is that all of the programmes of study should be catered for. For example, some schools place the control and monitoring aspects under the rubric of science, the modelling and handling information in maths, with the communicating information area the province of everyone. This may not be the only way.
A caveat to this is the fact that the OFSTED review of inspection findings 1993/94 states that:

"Cross-curricular delivery of IT works only where subject teachers are also confident in IT, pupils' progress is monitored, and structures are in place for motivating and effectively co-rdinating delivery. Where IT is taught as a separate module or standalone course, coverage of the PoS is more rigorous; but often there are insufficient opportunities to apply the IT skills so acquired to work in other subjects." The same document also mentioned that the best teaching standards were observed where teachers were promoting IT through building it into their schemes of work.

Towards this end NCET has recently published a useful series of booklets entitled 'Approaches to IT capability'. The first of the series addresses KS1 and 2 management issues and goes on to planning IT activities across those key stages. A similar booklet has been produced for KS3, with subject co-ordinators booklets as well. These are all intended for the subject departments and aim to suggest where IT can be used to support the teaching and learning of the subject and develop aspects of IT capability. Middlesex University gives explicit guidance to its BEd Honours students in the construction of schemes of work.
It suggests a first level brainstorming stage to generate initial ideas then weave these into a workable programme. The second level depends on showing how you progress from stage to stage (with a minimum of three stages) identifying skills and concepts that build upon prior learning.
Moving onwards, the associated programme of study and attainment targets/level descriptors offer you the direction, formulation of objectives and content for daily planning. This approach is rigorous in comparison with some institutions associated with the sort of work at a University. The responsibility for training teachers is falling more on school-based trainers, however, so the moderation of a rigorous approach towards constructing schemes of work will become more difficult.

Look at us!

Visiting schools gives one the opportunity of seeing commercial and home grown schemes of work. Some of the best schemes I have seen tend towards a box/matrix approach arranged in columns under various headings. I have amalgamated some of the ideas into a communicating and handling information example (table 1).

Table 1

PoS opportunity	Collect and classify information to be entered into a database TE5 1a, 2a, 2c.
Pertinent activities	Talk to pupils about different forms of information and decide which data is needed to carry out the enquiry. Create a data collection sheet (ideally mirroring the data entry screen), collect the data, enter it into a database. Save, retrieve, search and analyse the data to staisfy the original enquiry.
Subject/topic/theme	science (Life Processes 4a) maths (Number 1a,1c,1d,1f,4a,4c,5b) and (Shape and Measures 4a,4b) Ourselves - measuring mass, height, hand span, shoe size etc.
Software/hardware requirements	Scales, measuring tapes, wordprocessor with simple draw facilities. database with sort/graph facilities.
Assessment	via graphical output of results to see largest/smallest measurements.
Skills to be developed/progression	comparing graphs of different attributes to spot patterns(Ma/Sc). Using a broader range of information sources eg CD.
Any other information	class exercise in data collection, in small groups for data entry and analysis.

This may seem lengthy to some people. But in many cases it could be a consolidation of material that already exists in school. Schemes of work too often list or make reference to programs that could be used, rather than to the skills to be developed within the subject and within IT.
There are cases where a mismatch occurs between agreed policies to develop IT through subjects/departments because the schemes of work in contributing subjects do not always reflect the policies. The DfE, of course, has placed IT as a common requirement in almost all National Curriculum subjects; so there is more of a case for revision of schemes of work to include IT. This would be strengthened within the school by collaboration across departments, phases or year groups to agree common standards.

Collaborate

The Education Select Committee earlier in the year visited some primary and secondary schools in an investigation into science and technology teaching. One MP saw two Year 2 pupils with heat-sensing probes in cans of hot water, one insulated, one not. The results were displayed graphically on the computer; in their own way they could explain why one graph was steeper than the other and how this could be applied to a domestic hot water tank. In the afternoon of the same day, the same person saw the same experiment carried out by Year 9 pupils, only this time they could not give any reason for doing the experiment or relate it to real life. Collaboration between schools could also avoid similar experiences!

Pragmatists

Teachers are on the whole pragmatists. Table 2 was produced by an advisory teacher for teachers in response to the then new Order. It was meant as a 'bare-bones' stopgap, while waiting for the exemplification material from NCET already referred to.

Table 2

Year 1	Play a matching game. Draw and print a picture
Year 2	Enter some text, save it, retrieve it later and make simple amendments
Year 3	Add to a database, and sort the data for some purpose
Year 4	Combine text and images to make an illustrated story
Year 5	Present information in more than one format, such as a news article, hand bill etc
Year 6	Amend and interogate a database. Present numerical information graphically

This simple approach has been well received. Teachers found that they could relate it to their schemes of work. A similar 'rough guide' to the National Curriculum attainment levels was also sought. SCAA is in the middle of producing a document which will also help those formulating plans by isolating the kernel of the levels as in table 3.

Table 3

Level 1	Symbolises an awareness that information exists in a variety of forms
Level 2	Concentrates on use
Level 3	Pupils are more organised etc
Level 4	Is where pupils are interpreting and checking plausibility
Level 5	May have pupils encountering more quantitative aspects
Level 6	Pupils should experience a range of sources and complex enquiries
Level 7	Should allow pupils to discuss advantages and limitations in IT use
Level 8	Could allow ffor the design of systems for others

The message here is that material exists. It could already exist in your own area/LEA, or coming via NCET, SCAA etc.
In the OFSTED publication 'Planning Improvement - Schools' post-inspection plans', it states that 'revision of schemes of work is therefore often integral to the process of raising expectations and achieving higher standards'.
Then it would be possible to work up a checklist of attributes which your scheme of work really ought to have. Do your schemes of work:

ensure appropriate opportunities to develop the range of National Curriculum IT capability in each year or across the appropriate subjects?
have a balance across the two themes appropriate to the key stage?
make explicit reference to IT support teaching and learning and engender the development of IT capability in the subjects or topics?
give sufficient access and entitlement to all pupils with adequate pace and challenge in the tasks set or undertaken?
provide differentiation in various forms?
allow strategies to ensure that all pupils have equal access to computers?
provide for the needs of pupils in terms of class, language, race, gender, special needs etc where the software and support materials provided ?
provide a good match between teacher-expertise in IT and the themes that they are expected to teach?
provide clearly defined opportunities for assessment and subsequent recording of pupils' progress across all aspects of IT capability?
allow assessment results to be regularly monitored to gauge the effectiveness of the school's delivery of IT capability?

Within a school there is clearly a need to have comprehensive schemes of work for IT per se and across subjects/topics. This is being more than hinted at by the DfE, NCET, and SCAA who have - or are producing - helpful material to aid you. So try them!
If such schemes exist in your school, where there is the detail alluded to above, and where the schemes have at least a similar feel or approach, then the OFSTED framework suggests that this fact will be seen as a positive factor for the school in terms of efficiency, management and administration. One of the strongest arguments though is for the highest quality delivery of IT across the curriculum for all pupils.

Good luck in achieving this!

Andy Lambert
General Inspector (Information Technology) for the London Borough of Haringey