How to develop a secondary school ICT policy

At the outset you will have to decide how you will deliver the National Curriculum Programme of Study for ICT. The way you intend to do this will influence many of your other ICT decisions.

There are two options: You may decide to opt for a discrete delivery model and teach the ICT Programme of Study as a timetabled. If you do this, then you will need to ensure that:  you have enough specialist staff to deliver the courses  you are able to create sufficient time from within the existing timetable  you have enough ICT rooms for the ICT lessons when they require access to computers  you distinguish between the ICT that is compulsory at Key Stage 4, and those courses which can be part of the options system.

You may decide to opt for a cross-curricular delivery model. If this is the case then you will have to decide whether:  your subject teachers have the necessary ICT skills and knowledge to deliver the ICT learning objectives  the subject teachers are able to distinguish and assess the ICT learning objectives as well as the subject learning objectives  the level and distribution of ICT resources will be sufficient to support this approach  the ICT leaning objectives from the Programme of Study can be fully mapped onto the individual subjects’ schemes of work or whether some discrete ICT lesson will also be offered  this approach will be supplemented at matric stage by optional examination courses.

There are several sources that will help in the drafting or reviewing of an ICT policy: your school’s other policy documents  ICT policy documents from other schools  the Programmes of Study for each Key Stage  the school’s existing ICT development plan  the school’s present position, as determined by technical and skills audits.

During the development of your policy:  have all meetings minuted  decide on the purpose, aims and objectives of the document before you start  set a timescale for completion  set aside sufficient time to work on the document  make clear the procedures for making decisions.

It may be that the drafting and adoption of a policy is itself a priority of the school’s development plan, in which case, responsibilities for tasks and timescales will already have been decided.

To help with the drafting process, ensure that:  the policy is not in conflict with other existing polices. If it is then try to work out how to resolve the conflict – the other policy may have to be changed  whatever you are going to set as policy is deliverable. For example, don’t specify extra-curricular activities if there are no staff to facilitate them  you bring together a body of people who have a broad overview of the school’s aims and objectives.  One of these people should be the ICT co-ordinator.  the document is drafted electronically  whenever changes are made, version numbers are used to avoid confusion.

Consult widely within the school. Issue a questionnaire to all staff asking them to list their aims and objectives in priority order.

Don’t put every detail in the policy document. Try to put everything down on a couple of sides of A4 paper. You can spell out details in supporting working documents that can form part of a teacher’s handbook.

Some of the requirements of the policy will have important repercussions on resource provision. For example, the policy may specify that during ICT lessons there should be a 1:1 ratio of computers to pupils. Before finalising your plans, compare this to a policy that makes clear the advantages of pupils working in pairs at computers.

Review your policy regularly to ensure that it continues to meet your requirements for delivery of the ICT curriculum.