St Joseph’s ICT Across the Curriculum
Policy for The Best Use of ICT Across the Curriculum:
This policy is developed in line with the school’s Aims and Ethos which are central to
progression at St Joseph’s. As such it is a working document, subject to change in line with
the school’s development.
At St Joseph’s it is recognised across both Junior and Senior departments that ICT has
transformative potential for both teaching and learning, and that it is essential that we
equip all of our students for the information age in which they live. To fail to embrace the
challenges and opportunities offered to learners through the use of ICT is to fail our
students. The role of ICT in providing the Firm Foundation for Life that is at the heart of the
school’s aims is clear.
To this end ICT is taught both as a discreet subject in order to foster key skills and ensure all
students are fully e-literate, and its use is encouraged and monitored across the curriculum
in order to enhance learning in other subjects.
It is incumbent on us as a school for the best use of ICT in other subjects across the
curriculum to be provided, encouraged, supported and resourced. We believe this begins at
senior staff level and should be evidenced in all subject areas. We aim to be an e-confident
school where ICT is effectively integrated into planning, teaching, learning and assessment
of all areas across the Curriculum.
At St Joseph’s, our aim is to encourage students to become confident, responsible and
independent in all aspects of their daily lives, and to transfer these qualities into their use of
ICT. We appreciate the impact ICT has on students’ daily lives, and our goal is to incorporate
this into their school experience, further enriching their learning experience and time at St
Joseph’s.
We do not believe in being prescriptive in the use of ICT across the curriculum, trusting a
highly skilled and well supported body of teaching professionals to employ a variety of
strategies depending on the needs of the individual or group. ICT can be employed to
excellent effect to enhance whole class teaching, grouped work, individual or paired work. It
offers opportunities for teachers to give extra support to those individuals or groups who
will most benefit from it.
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St Joseph’s ICT Across the Curriculum
At St Joseph’s, there are clear benefits in the use of ICT to support learning across the
Curriculum. Staff use ICT in their teaching, where appropriate, in order to further raise
standards and ensure pupil progression.
ICT in the Junior Department:
Learning with ICT at the Foundation Stage
(taken from Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage)

All children from the age of three should begin to show an interest in ICT

During the Foundation Stage, children should have opportunities to find out about and
identify the uses of everyday technology and use ICT and programmable toys to support
their learning.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities need to be provided with access
to appropriate resources.
Practitioners should:
Give opportunities for the use of ICT to develop skills across all areas of learning.
Learning with ICT at Key Stage 1
The National Curriculum defines that:
“During key stage 1 pupils explore ICT and learn to use it confidently and with purpose to achieve
specific outcomes. They start to use ICT to develop their ideas and record their creative work. They
become familiar with hardware and software."
The National Curriculum divides ICT into four areas, which at KS1 are:
1. Finding things out

Gather information from a variety of sources

Enter and store information in a variety of forms

Retrieve information that has been stored
2. Developing ideas and making things happen

To use text, tables, images and sound to develop their ideas

How to select from and add to information they have retrieved for particular purposes

How to plan and give instructions to make things happen

To try things out and explore what happens in real and imaginary situations
3. Exchanging ideas and making things happen
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
How to share their ideas by presenting information in a variety of forms

To present their completed work effectively
4. Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses

Review what they have done to help them develop their ideas

Describe the effects of their actions

Talk about what they might change in future work
Learning with ICT at Key Stage 2
The National Curriculum defines that:
During key stage 2 pupils use a wider range of ICT tools and information sources to support their
work in other subjects. They develop their research skills and decide what information is appropriate
for their work. They begin to question the plausibility and quality of information. They learn how to
amend their work and present it in a way that suits its audience.
The National Curriculum divides ICT into these areas, which at KS2 are
Knowledge, skills and understanding
Finding things out
1. Pupils should be taught:
1. To talk about what information they need and how they can find and use it [for example,
searching the internet or a CD-ROM, using printed material, asking people]
2. How to prepare information for development using ICT, including selecting suitable sources,
finding information, classifying it and checking it for accuracy [for example, finding
information from books or newspapers, creating a class database, classifying by
characteristics and purposes, checking the spelling of names is consistent]
3. To interpret information, to check it is relevant and reasonable and to think about what
might happen if there were any errors or omissions.
Developing ideas and making things happen
2. Pupils should be taught:
1. How to develop and refine ideas by bringing together, organising and reorganising text,
tables, images and sound as appropriate [for example, desktop publishing, multimedia
presentations]
2. How to create, test, improve and refine sequences of instructions to make things happen and
to monitor events and respond to them [for example, monitoring changes in temperature,
detecting light levels and turning on a light.]
3. To use simulations and explore models in order to answer 'what if ...?' Questions, to
investigate and evaluate the effect of changing values and to identify patterns and
relationships [for example, simulation software, spreadsheet models].
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St Joseph’s ICT Across the Curriculum
Exchanging and sharing information
3. Pupils should be taught:
1. How to share and exchange information in a variety of forms, including e-mail [for example,
displays, posters, animations, musical compositions]
2. To be sensitive to the needs of the audience and think carefully about the content and
quality when communicating information [for example, work for presentation to other
pupils, writing for parents, publishing on the internet].
Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses
4. Pupils should be taught to:
1. Review what they and others have done to help them develop their ideas
2. Describe and talk about the effectiveness of their work with ICT, comparing it with other
methods and considering the effect it has on others [for example, the impact made by a
desktop-published newsletter or poster]
3. Talk about how they could improve future work.
Breadth of study
5. During the key stage, pupils should be taught the Knowledge, skills and understanding through:
1. Working with a range of information to consider its characteristics and purposes [for
example, collecting factual data from the internet and a class survey to compare the findings]
2. Working with others to explore a variety of information sources and ICT tools [for example,
searching the internet for information about a different part of the world, designing textile
patterns using graphics software, using ICT tools to capture and change sounds]
3. Investigating and comparing the uses of ICT inside and outside school.
The knowledge, skills and understanding of ICT (addressed in the National Curriculum) are planned
and taught by each class teacher according to their individual planning requirements and needs, and
relate to the National Curriculum guidelines/ QCA and related documents. Class teacher’s medium
term plans (Curriculum Advice Leaflets), outline the discrete teaching of ICT and some of its
applications in other subject areas. This planning is monitored by the Key Stage coordinators and
forwarded to the curriculum coordinators to be monitored and kept in the subject coordinator’s file.
Records of any ICT lesson observations are also be kept in the coordinators file along with any INSET
records.
KS1 teachers mainly teach IT within the classroom setting and progress to using the Junior IT suite
when they are in year 1, prior to the transition to KS2.
During ICT in key stage 2, a balance of IT is taught in the classroom and in the IT suite. This is
dependent on subject matter and cross-curricular links. However, the IT suite has been designed so
that teacher's may use the space as an ordinary classroom to maximise its use.
At St Joseph’s, we take care to ensure planning includes activities that support learning for the range
of needs & abilities to be expected from a non-selective school such as ours, as well as ensuring
continuity and progression from one year to the next, taking care to regularly monitor that students
are prepared for the move to the Senior Department or another secondary school.
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St Joseph’s ICT Across the Curriculum
As with more traditional lessons, teachers are expected to use their professional judgement and
differentiate lessons according to the specific needs of individual learners.
ICT in the Senior Department:
As students in the Senior Department, St Joseph’s students develop their ICT skills both through a
discreet ICT course taught by a dedicated ICT teacher and through cross curricular work. The school
believes that blending these two approaches avoids the dangers of a thorough but abstract coverage
of ICT that can occur by relying exclusively on ICT as discreet subject, and that of failing to progress
beyond basic skills coverage that is a pitfall of relying entirely on cross-curricular work.
At St Joseph’s we believe in providing a carefully designed ICT course with appropriate consolidation
and application across the curriculum in order to enhance learning in other subjects. The nature of
the school, with small year groups and a high teacher to student ratio, lends itself to this; allowing
staff to benefit from skills developed in the Junior department as these are further developed by the
necessarily more demanding subject matter encountered in Key Stages 3 and 4.
It is essential that staff build opportunities for ICT use into schemes of work across Key Stages 3 and
4, and that this is monitored by those with departmental responsibility at the planning and delivery
stages. This will necessarily vary across subjects, but should include opportunities for learners to
develop the skills they have developed in discreet ICT lessons. To this end, it is intended that ICT
curriculum planning across Key Stage 3 is to be passed to other subject teachers in order to support,
build on and extend the use of skills that are developed in these lessons.
In order to encourage close links between Junior and Senior departments, dedicated ICT
coordinators from each department liaise closely, ensuring continuity of learning and ease of
transition. Through their expertise, these coordinators manage to offer support to other curricular
colleagues at St Joseph’s in encouraging best practice in the use of ICT, sharing their expertise as
required.
ICT Across the Curriculum: Junior and Senior Departments
Roles and Responsibilities
The roles and responsibilities with regard to ICT are as follows:The Headteacher & SMT are responsible for 
Ensuring there is a shared vision for ICT within the school

Ensuring consistent implementation of ICT Policy

Ensuring staff access to ICT and identifying ICT support needed by individual staff

Ensuring the careful development of a long term vision for ICT in the school, identifying and
managing priorities in relation to whole school development needs.
ICT Co-ordinators are responsible for Page 5
St Joseph’s ICT Across the Curriculum

The day-to-day implementation of the ICT Policy and aspects of the ICT departmental
development plans, as well as the implementation of the relevant ICT schemes of work

Reviewing the ICT policy & Schemes of Work

Maintaining an overview of the integration of ICT into the curriculum, ensuring continuity
and progression across the school.

Co-ordinating ICT training for staff to raise awareness, build on experience and develop
confidence.

Working with subject co-ordinators and staff to encourage the use of ICT as a teaching &
learning tool across the Curriculum

The oversight of equipment in relevant teaching areas, liaising with contracted support to
ensure this is maintained.

Co-ordinating the purchase and allocation of ICT resources depending on budget priorities
Teachers are responsible for 
Reporting ICT faults as they occur.

The assessment of pupils.

Meeting the statutory requirements.

Ensuring that curriculum development includes opportunities for ICT.

Implementing the health and safety policy and practice.

All subject co-ordinators are responsible for integrating effective use of ICT into the schemes
of work for their subject.
Our Parents and Carers

The Engage portal allows parents to access real-time information on information relevant to
their child, including letters, documentation and information on attendance. Reporting
information across Junior and Senior departments is available via the dedicated parent
Engage portal.

Email communication is to be developed, including sending letters home to parents
electronically.

The capabilities of Engage are to be constantly monitored and increasingly used in order to
ensure the school is maximising the benefits of ICT in communication and reporting to
parents.

All staff have school designated email addresses that are published on the website in order
to facilitate swift communication between school and home.

The school website is maintained by the school Registrar ensuring documentation is
available to relevant stakeholders.
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St Joseph’s ICT Across the Curriculum

School policies are available through the school website for perusal by parents and carers.

Presentations such as that on Cyberbullying have and will be offered to parents.
Teaching and Learning styles
At St Joseph’s, we believe that ICT is one way of providing teachers with the opportunity to make
learning differentiated and cater for the needs of all individual learners. It is one of the many tools
available to our highly skilled staff to engage students in high quality, enjoyable and meaningful
lessons. It is essential that ICT is not simply seen as an obligation on teachers, and is utilised to
ensure we are gaining the best learning outcomes for our students. The combination of traditional
and ICT led teaching that forms part of the St Joseph’s experience is aimed, at all times, at ensuring
we are meeting the needs of the diverse range of individuals who make up our vibrant student body.
Clear opportunities exist to engage students with SpLDs and SEN issues, particularly when producing
differentiated resources.
At St Joseph’s the careful and sensible use of the Internet to support teaching & learning is
highlighted, while vigilance to the dangers this can pose are countered by external professionals in
such areas as Cyber bullying. All staff are provided with dedicated email addresses and email is used
to alert staff to curricular and pastoral issues that are pressing, as well as to improve communication
outside of the regular meetings held in both Junior and Senior departments.
Access to ICT & Equal Opportunities
We value equal opportunities for all of our children and believe that all ICT resources should be fully
accessible to all learners, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. The size of
the school allows us to be flexible when meeting the demands of each cohort / year group and to
adapt our provision accordingly. This is monitored both at classroom and SMT levels, and we
endeavour to meet all identified needs in line with statutory and professional standards.
Recording, Assessment and Reporting
Junior Department:
The individual progress of pupil’s in the Foundation Stage is observed, assessed and recorded using
the EYFS Development Matters in their individual Learning Journeys. An end of Foundation Stage a
summative profile is completed for each pupil reviewing their learning.
The individual progress of pupil’s in KS1 and KS2 in ICT is observed, assessed and recorded in their
Curriculum Progression Record Book, which is updated throughout the year, with a summative entry
being made at the end of the summer term. Parents receive a written report on their child’s
progress in ICT twice a year; in December and March.
Senior Department:
ICT is assessed as a designated curricular area across KS3, in line with Senior Department assessment
policies and the ICT departmental handbook which where assessment practice is fully explained.
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Progress and National Curriculum levels are awarded based on skills developed in line with National
Curriculum Levels, and students identified as underperforming in ICT are supported as they are in all
subject areas. Across the curriculum ICT skills will aid the student in demonstrating progress in
individual subjects, but are not expected to be assessed as a discrete skill. KS3 summative
assessment is evident on grade cards, while diagnostic assessment is evidenced in both oral
feedback and targets set in regular marking of student work.
At KS4, feedback and assessment is in line with the OCR GCSE criteria used to inform students of
progress across the two year course. GCSE results are analysed on a subject level and this is
expected to be used to inform planning and teaching for following cohorts, as is expected to be the
case across the school in all subject and curricular areas.
General:

The school is using the Engage portal for summative reports to parents and carers.

The position of Director of Studies is expected to enable the school to develop the
transformative potential of ICT in Recording and Assessment.

It is intended that the possibilities of Engage for pastoral and academic monitoring are fully
explored as we move to fully realise its potential and centralise assessment and monitoring
across Junior and Senior departments.
Provision and Management of Resources
The Bursary holds a record of IT resources. The SMT prioritises need in conjunction with the IT
Coordinators based on the demands made by other areas of the school in their development plans
A designated ICT action group comprising teaching and support stakeholders has been established in
order to support the Headteacher and SMT in best focusing resources and ensuring best provision of
ICT is matched to identified learning priorities.
Dedicated support is insourced from Tanist, who offer independent appraisal of infrastructure,
hardware and software needs and have detailed knowledge of the progress made in key areas at St
Joseph’s.
Health and Safety
Pupils will be made aware of 
Hazards and risks to themselves and others when using ICT e.g. Projectors, Internet etc.

The steps they take to control risks e.g. Rules for the Internet, Cyberbullying

The action to be taken if risks occur

How to manage their environment to ensure health and safety of themselves and others.
Staff Development
Following an audit of staff needs, it is clear that a one size fits all approach to CPD would be
ineffective given the differing needs and skills of staff. It is intended that departments and staff
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identify areas for improvement and alert line managers to their needs and that appropriate support,
from peers, ICT coordinators or external providers can be put in place.
Inset can be offered via expertise within the existing staff, through Engage or via external providers,
either on selected courses or visiting professional INSET.
Reviewed April 2012.
Reviewed date May 2014
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