ICT Advice for Lewisham Schools - Preparing for Ofsted Inspections

Preparing for Ofsted Inspections - Issues to Consider

Statements to achieve in your Ofsted Report
Statements to avoid
What to have ready to show the inspector
Some questions to help you reflect on your progress
Resources

Statements to achieve in your Ofsted Report:	Examples:
Pupils are attaining expected standards for their age.	They use ICT to help them generate and communicate ideas in different forms such as texts and pictures.
	By Year 2 pupils sort and classify information (on traffic and weather surveys).
	By Year 7 can present information, for example fliers and the front page of a newspaper.
	They investigate common real world applications of ICT in everyday life (E-mail and Internet).
Pupils are enthusiastic in their use of IT and particularly enjoy the regular teaching provided in the computer room.	The after school computer clubs are well attended.
	Pupils consider and discuss their experiences of ICT.
The quality of teaching is good.	Teachers, benefiting from inservice training, have sufficient knowledge and expertise in the strands of communicating and handling information and in controlling.
	Teachers prepare carefully for the lessons in the computer room, effectively providing extra support for the lower attainers.
	They achieve a good balance in most lessons between allowing pupils independence to investigate and learn from experience, and the direct teaching of skills.
	Teachers use the work in other subjects successfully as the basis of their teaching, for example Year 3 work on data handling and the use of the Internet linked to Geography.
	The school has installed interactive whiteboards and these are providing teachers with the opportunity and challenge to use them productively across subjects.
The subject is effectively managed.	The efficient use of the computer room provides good value for money.
	The school benefits from good support from classroom assistants who make a valuable contribution to pupils’ learning, especially in ICT
	The ICT classroom assistant is well briefed and appropriately deployed. She has good subject knowledge and provides excellent support for teachers and groups of pupils. She also organises and manages a very popular early morning computer club.
Good progress has been achieved since the last inspection.	Improving the support for and confidence of staff, and in establishing more systematic use of computers across the curriculum. This has led to improved pupil progress.
Resources for ICT are good.	The ratio of computers to pupils is above the national average and the school has an appropriate range of software to support work across the curriculum and to develop pupils’ ICT skills.
The enthusiasm of the co-ordinator Makes a significant contribution to the development of the subject.	She has a very good subject knowledge and sets an excellent example in her own teaching. She monitors teachers’ planning and regularly works alongside other members of staff. There is a good policy statement and a helpful scheme of work links class topics and activities with relevant programs.

Two statements to avoid in your Ofsted Report:

The school has NO map of the range of ICT skills to show how they are used and consolidated across the curriculum.
Whilst the use of ICT is satisfactory it is NOT fully developed in other subjects.

What will be highlighted in the summary of the inspection report:

Provision in ICT is: Unsatisfactory? >> good? >> excellent?
What the school does well (inc. ICT if it is going well)
Where the school has weaknesses (inc. ICT if it is not doing well)
How the school has improved since the last inspection (inc. ICT if it has improved)
Standards in subjects (inc. ICT) (comparisons are made with all schools and with similar schools)

ICT ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

ICT across the curriculum is:

Unsatisfactory? satisfactory? good? very good? excellent?

Make sure you have these things ready to show the inspector:

Item:	Examples:
ICT development plan	audit of where you are now and where you will be in 3yrs time
ICT map	map showing where ICT is taught and where it is used in subjects
ICT policy	what are you trying to achieve and how
other subject schemes	identify how ICT contributes to the subject
professional development	dates, content & outcomes of ICT courses & training
internet policy/home school agreement	showing how you protect pupils using the internet
portfolio	samples of pupils’ work assessed

And don't forget

to show examples of teaching in different key stages covering all the strands and use of ICT in different subjects
examples of the use of ICT across the curriculum in displays around the school.

Some questions to help you reflect on the progress you have made since the last inspection:

Has the amount of time given to ICT changed?
Are all subject teachers integrating ICT into their teaching?
Are teachers more confident in teaching and assessing ICT?
Are classroom assistants, admin assistants and other staff using ICT confidently?
How is children’s work and progress recorded in ICT?
How is the quality of teaching and use of ICT in subjects monitored?
How have the resources changed?
Are pupils using ICT regularly and confidently?

Resources:

Further guidance and materials from Becta to help you prepare for Ofsted on: http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=lv&catcode=ss_lv_pla_02&rid=11742

Review and evaluate whole school ICT using the Becta Self Review Framework (SRF) on: http://matrix.ncsl.org.uk

Lewisham (1998 – 2007), Ideas for Integrating ICT into the primary & secondary classroom: Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 available on-line on: http://ecs.lewisham.gov.uk/intict

Lewisham ‘Talent’ ICT Training material: http://ecs.lewisham.gov.uk/talent

Lewisham ‘ICT Advice’ guidance and material: http://ecs.lewisham.gov.uk/ictadvice

Lewisham ‘Subject Community’ material: http://lewisham.lgfl.net

*ICT Mark for schools: http://www.becta.org.uk/schools/ictmark

Gill Deadman & Margaret Bell (June 1999)
Revised September 2004

Last update: 28th March 2007