in primary schools and Early Years settings |
|
Provision
| The ICT Mark standard recognises the physical constraints of many school buildings. For physical environments, the standard is Level 3: Where possible some learning and teaching spaces have been created or adapted to reflect the school’s vision, strategy and learning and teaching approaches with ICT. |
Software
New installations require high quality, up-to-date curriculum software which is appropriate to the needs of learners. The Primary ICT Team have identified a selection of suitable software which schools could use to ensure they meet curriculum requirements.
Click here to see Kent software recommendations
The Kent ICT software zone features recommended free downloads, including utilities to be downloaded during a new installation. Creating a build list of suitable software prior to installation can save a lot of additional cost and time later on.
An example of ICT Resources for a one form entry primary school (Word doc)
Things to consider
- Try to buy site licences where possible, so that any additional machines do not require extra licences. It is also good practice to purchase the licence rather than having software preinstalled. In case where software comes preinstalled, the school doesn’t own the licence. Therefore when machines are upgraded the school have limited software.
- Be aware that some older CD ROMS titles may not run on new machines. Make sure the school therefore budgets for some new software and subsequent licenses rather than relying on existing or possibly out of date software.
- With the development of learning platforms software is likely to become more web based with annual subscriptions rather than traditional CD and licences to be installed. Eventually this potentially could allow pupils and parents access to the software at home.
Kent ICT website
Products highlighted on the Kent ICT website are those recommended to us by schools and/or where suppliers have offered significant discounts to our schools. It is not our intention to tell schools what to buy and we acknowledge there are many other equally good products available. Schools should conduct their own evaluation of hardware / software prior to making decisions about purchasing.
We take care to list only those products which Kent teachers have evaluated in school. Evaluation focuses on educational worth, value for money, robustness and accessibility.
RM Schools
Schools with RM CC3 or CC4 must check that purchased software will run on the RM network. RM maintain a list called Curriculum Choice. Purchasing from RM guarantees that the software comes with installation support for CC3 and CC4:www.rm.com (See Primary Software Curriculum Choice)
Displays
In any school, effective use of display makes an important contribution to the learning environment. Many teachers make good use of display space to showcase pupils’ ICT work. Posters, printed banners and labels reinforce ICT vocabulary and communicate important information. The use of ICT in displays gives the impression that the school is ICT proficient and inevitably raises the profile of ICT. ICT also cuts burdens! Free display material for schools can be found sites such as the TES Resource Bank: www.tes.co.uk/Resources
Learning posters for Early Years settings are at the Kent NGFL Early Years site:
www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/earlyict/posters.htm
 |
|
 |  |
 |  |