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Subject ICT in Primary and Secondary School Education

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 SUBJECT ICT IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION

*ING. JANA JACKOVÁ, **STEVE A LUCK MSC, ***PHILIP SCHONKEN MSC

*Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, The University of Žilina,
Bystrická cesta 21, Ružomberok, Slovakia, tel. ++421 44/432 17 10, e-mail: jackovaj@fria.fri.utc.sk
** Head of ICT, Newcastle-under-Lyme School, Mount Pleasant,
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire ST5 3RX, United Kingdom, e-mail: SLuck@nuls.org.uk
*** Head of ICT, Bloxham School, Banbury Road,
Bloxham, Oxfordshire OX15 4PE, United Kingdom, tel. +44 1295 724 329, e-mail: ps@bloxhamschool.com

ABSTRACT
The ways of ICT teaching and learning in other countries is an interesting topic for most ICT teachers who want to teach
better and more effective. The paper deals with primary and secondary ICT in Great Britain.

Keywords: ICT syllabus, programming, examination board, resources, IT career

piloted the project for Dulwich College and London

1. INTRODUCTION
In this paper we try to summarize some
experience from teaching ICT syllabi in England.
S.Luck and P. Schonken both have experience from
Bloxham School, the small school with the great
spirit, how it is written/as can be seen on the
school‘s website [1]. J. Jacková visited this school
last year. S. Luck was Head of ICT there from
September 2002 to December 2005. He introduced
new courses into the 3rd and 6th forms, reorganised
the curriculum and developed computing in the
school. Now he is Head of ICT at a very large
school in the North of England, Newcastle-under-
Lyme School [2], [3]. P.Schonken is Head of
Department at Bloxham since January 2006.
2. ICT SYLLABUS
The table below shows how ICT is taught in
various schools ( 1 (year 7) means here the 7th year
of school attendance, i.e. about 12-year-old pupils
attend it). Bloxham School uses a product written by
Dulwich College called the iBTEC (BTEC
Intermediate Award in ICT, now called the
International Award in ICT online), a newly
developed online course [4]. It runs tutorials to
teach the pupils, sets exercises for them to work on,
marks these exercises and writes the results into an
Access DB. There is Demo of the Course on the
website, too [5]. A teacher does not need much ICT
experience as the software does everything for the
pupil. The package teaches the pupils word
processing, spreadsheets, presentations and
databases – all using MS Office 2000/2003 as a
standard. The pupils are awarded a certificate at the
end of the course if they complete all the exercises,
pass two tests and deliver. The course is certificated
by in the Institute of Administrative Management
and administered by London Learning. There is a
cost associated to running the course. Steve Luck
Learning (2004 –5).
2.1. iBTEC Course Structure (International
Award in ICT online)
The BTEC Intermediate Award (International
Award in ICT online) consists of three units. The
first two units have courseware that includes
interactive on-line materials, self-assessment tests
and practical exercises. The courseware is on
Intranet, a CDROM or on the Internet.
Unit 1 (Presenting of Information) - Consists of 4
modules on Word Processing (using Word
2000/2003) and 3 modules on Presentations (using
PowerPoint 2000/2003).
Unit 2 (Data Handling) - consists of 5 modules on
Databases (using Access 2000/2003) and 4 modules
on Spreadsheets (using Excel 2000/2003).
Unit 3 (Applying ICT) - This coursework
component requires the pupil to submit eight tasks in
which the pupil has used some of the ICT skills
taught in the course. The completed tasks should be
saved in the form of electronic files and will act as
evidence that the pupil has used some of the
techniques taught in Units 1 and 2. The pupil is
allowed to produce a maximum of five pieces of
work demonstrating techniques learnt from one unit.
So, for example, the 8 tasks could consist of 5 tasks
for Unit 1 and 3 tasks for Unit 2.
Testing
The International Award in ICT online is tested by:
 Taking two half hour online tests that will be
electronically marked.
 Completing the "I can" statements to demonstrate
the pupil has used the skills.
 Submitting eight tasks which will be teacher-
assessed and externally moderated.
 Sixth Form
School Year 1 (year7) 2 (year 8) 3 (year 9) 4 (year 10) 5 (year 11)
(year 12 - 13)
AS ICT
Subjects use the Computer Room. Pupils issued with laptops for use in classrooms.
1 (2 sets L6)
School A
No timetabled ICT lessons. A2
ICT skills taught by means of a cross-curricular approach. (1 set U6)
Small
2 x 35 mins 1 x 35 mins numbers
2
School B Key Skills (level 2).
follow
ICT skills taught by completing worksheets. Level 3
ICT Business &
3 ICT (SC) ICT (FC) with Communcation
School C
with ICAA. ICAA. Systems with
ICAA.
2 x 35 mins 2 x 35 mins GCSE ICT (OCR) both Full and AS & A2 ICT
School D 4
Formal ICT lessons iBTEC Short courses offered. (OCR)
No formal
2 x 35 mins
ICT lessons, A level ICT.
No formal ICT lessons. iBTEC
except for No formal ICT International
Bloxham School Techniques taught through ‘cross International
those needing lessons. Award in ICT
curricular’ activities. Award in
to complete online
ICT online
the iBTEC.
1 x 40 mins
2 x 40 mins No formal ICT lessons, except for
iBTEC AS ICT only
School E 5 Covers basics in preparation for the those who have not yet completed
(A bit tight in L6.
iBTEC. the iBTEC.
for time).

1
Have taken ECDL in the past but have now given it up.
2
Have taken CLAIT but gave it up because of its tedious approach. Key Skills not popular with pupils. Considering ECDL in the Sixth Form.
3
Pupils taking ICT GCSE in year 10 have to take ICT GCSE Business & Communication Systems in year 11.
4
Have taken CLAIT but gave it up because pupils found it boring. iBTEC is new in year 9 this year. No insistance on pupils taking the exam.
5
1 x 40 mins inadequate in year 9. Cross-curricular approach in years 10 & 11 has had limited success.

2.2. Subject Information and Communication
Technology (A level ICT)
The nature of the course (after [6]):
The syllabus is modular, with two of the six
modules being examined solely through
coursework while the rest involve written theory
papers.
AS Level Modules
Module 1 - Information: Nature Role and Context (30% of the
AS mark)
Module 2 - Information: Management and Manipulation (30% of
the AS mark)
Module 3 - Coursework - (one project) - spreadsheet or web site
(40% of the AS mark)
The approach to the teaching and learning for
Modules 1 and 2 is aimed to produce developers of
ICT solutions rather than just users of ICT. Pupils
learn how a given ICT solution achieves a given
end result and why the solution is the most
appropriate. Knowledge is at an operational level
rather than managerial/strategic.
A2 Level Modules
Module 4 - Information Systems within Organizations (30% of
the A2 mark)
Module 5 - Information: Policy, Strategy and Systems (30% of
the A2 mark)
Module 6 - Coursework: Use of Information Systems for
Problem Solving (one major project)
– database (40% of the A2 mark)
The approach to the teaching and learning for
Modules 4 and 5 is aimed to create understanding
similar with a competent user of ICT or manager
rather than a programmer or technician. Much of
the work on communications and networks is based
initially on experience of the school network and
codes of practice.
This is as stipulated by the AQA examinations
board [7]. The school has choice of which exam
board we would like to use. The most common are
AQA, Edexcel and OCR. Schools also have a
choice of teaching Computing or ICT to A-level
students. This will depend on the school and the
perceived calibre of their students. Computing is
more technical and requires programming, whereas
ICT is more about how information is handled and
used in a business. Some theory elements of
programming are taught in ICT, but it is not the
main focus of the course.
2.3. Teaching programming
Progamming is not a required element of the
AS modules but many of the pupils will use VBA
for the MS Excel and MS Access project work. If a
school chooses to teach A level Computing (rather
than A Level Information Communication
Technology) then any programming language is
acceptable. Bloxham School does not offer any
formal programming tuition (although S. Luck ran
a computer club teaching JavaScript and Visual
Basic) If there were enough students selecting
Computing as a subject we would offer it in the
curriculum. But Dataflow diagrams, Entity
Relationship Diagrams and Normalisation are all
8 Acta Electrotechnica et Informatica No. 1, Vol. 1, 2001
part of the ICT course. The theory element is taught
and then the practical element is demonstrated in
the pupil’s coursework. The pupils will be
expected to (record macros and then edit then in the
VB editor – Note: macros are rarely coded by
pupils on ICT courses) used the MS VBA editor to
write some macros for their coursework, both in
spreadsheets and databases. Pupils don’t start with
programming (writing programmes in Pascal,
Delphi, C, ... ) unless they take Computing as an A-
level subject. Some of the bigger schools, like
Dulwich College, offer Computing as an A-level
subject.
2.4. Teaching methods and resources for lessons
Teaching methods vary greatly between
Primary and Secondary Schools and initial teacher
training courses emphasise different skill sets.
Cross-curricular and the embedding of ICT is a key
element of much of the training as well as discrete
delivery of ICT skills.
At Bloxham School we have taken the decision
to give every 4th former (year 10) a laptop that is
owned and maintained by the school. Two year
groups now have their personal laptops provided by
the school. This is fully supported by a campus
wide wireless network. We have also given every
member of the teaching staff a laptop and projector.
Subjects teachers see note taking as a poor use of
pupils time and the laptops are generally used with
specialist software and for coursework preparation.
We feel this is preparing them life outside school.
There are still some teething issues, but we have an
ICT Strategy Group which meet every couple of
weeks to view trends and make decisions on where
things are moving in technology and education.
Resources: Internet / textbooks / video /
specialist software / prepared worksheets / Intranet /
visits to organisations / simulations. Resources
for the subject is developed in-house (worksheets,
ppt presentations, DB exercises) or downloaded
from various sites. These are either other schools,
the examinations board or independent third parties.
Here are some examples: http://www.psionica.co.uk/
http://www.geocities.com/fatmax_uk/ http://www.fatmax.org/
http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gceasa/inf_assess.html
Textbooks are also a good source of resources for
teachers and pupils.
We also use video clips, downloaded from
apple.com/trailers/, youtube.com, videobomb.com,
Google video and Yahoo video. Some
organisations, like Birchfield, sell software and
resources to be used in the teaching of ICT. PDF
copies of the various syllabi can all be downloaded
off the various Examination Board's websites. Here
are some other interesting sources:
ICT 5-14 subjects http://www.qca.org.uk/280.html
ICT 14-19 subjects http://www.qca.org.uk/2993.html
http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/Subjects/ICT/Subject.htm
National Curriculum in Action, ICT:
http://www.ncaction.org.uk/subjects/ict/
This website uses pupils' work and case study
material to show what the National Curriculum in
ICT looks like in practice. The examples given
show: the standard of pupils' work at different ages
and key stages, how the programmes of study
translate into real activities, effective use of ICT
across the curriculum.
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/subjects/ict/
http://www.nc.uk.net/webdav/servlet/XRM?Page%2F@id=6004
&Session%2F@id=D_cm7QQwACfgxrdrL6mn9F&Subject%2
F@id=3331
http://www.nc.uk.net/webdav/servlet/XRM?Page/@id=6005&S
ubject/@id=3331&Session/@id=D_cm7QQwACfgxrdrL6mn9F
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ast/
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_ICT/?vie
w=get
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/downloads/ict_csy9
_022703_1.pdf
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/downloads/ictsampl
ey7_6a007403control.pdf
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/downloads/ict_secu
ringl5_booklet.pdf
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/downloads/ictkm_f
065002monitor.pdf
http://www.teachers.tv/psZone.do?zoneId=2
http://www.teachers.tv/siteMap.do
Secondary ICT :
http://www.teachers.tv/subjectBlock.do?transmissionBlockId=2
75701&zoneId=2
Personalised Learning with ICT 1:
http://www.teachers.tv/subjectBlockVideo.do?transmission
BlockId=275701&zoneId=2&transmissionProgrammeId=2
75330
3. IT TEACHER CAREER
The University preparation & entrance
requirements for teachers and IT specialists.
What are the entrance requirements for studying
computer science at university? Each
university will have it own entrance requirements.
The pupils, once they have finished their lower
sixth year (year 12), they use UCAS website [8] to
apply for their university & course of choice. All
entrance requirements are given to the pupil via the
website. Most universities would expect a student
wanting to read Computer Science to have
completed A-level Maths or at least a Science of
some sort. Universities do not expect a pupil to
have studies Computing or ICT at School to read
Computer Science.
Is there a difference between preparations for
career of 1) IT teacher for primary and secondary
schools and 2) computer science / IT specialist?
Students can search for specific courses for these
purposes on these UCAS websites:
http://www.ucas.com/search/index.html
 10
Computer Science courses at University usually
prefer students with a background in Mathematics
and/or Physics but a number of students from
Bloxham studied Computing at University having
only studied ICT.
Pupils wanting to study at university to teach IT
at school (secondary school) need to read their first
degree in a chosen subject. The majority, if they
are looking to teach ICT, would study one of the
courses searching on the UCAS websites
mentioned above. Once they have completed their
first degree they would study a PGCE to allow
them to teach their subject of choice.
Co-author of this paper, S. Luck (BSc MSc
PGCE MBCS), holds a Masters degree in
Information Systems (Lancaster University 1999 -
2000). He has a wide range of teaching experience
having been a University lecturer as well as a
Secondary School teacher. He taught VB in a
Further Education College for 2 years (2000 -
2002).
To teach primary school ICT a student would
have to search on UCAS websites for primary
teacher courses.
Most ICT teachers in practice today in the UK
do not have their first degree in ICT, but have taken
an interest in the subject and developed their
knowledge. A second degree can be studied part-
time.
St. Martin's Teacher Training College [9], [10]
St Martin's has one of the biggest teacher training
programmes in the country, which means that we
can offer you lots of choice. All of these courses
lead to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). An
alternative route to QTS is to complete a degree
(preferably in a National Curriculum subject) and
then take a 1 Year PGCE course. Many of the
degree courses in our Single and Combined
Honours Scheme are suitable.
In terms of preparing a pupil in their career
choice and university choice, we a Bloxham School
(and most other schools) have a Careers Officer & a
University Officer to help pupils make the right
choices. We attempt to direct them towards careers
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Acta Electrotechnica et Informatica No. 1, Vol. 1, 2001
they show attitude for and enjoy. This is done in
conjunction with the UCAS application and parent
meetings.
EXPLANATIONS
 GCSE General Certificate of Secondary
Education
 A Level
1. The later of two standardized tests in a secondary
school subject (GCE AS Level, GCE A Level) used
as a qualification for entrance into a university.
GCE.....General Certificate of Education
AS.....Advanced Subsidiary A.....Advanced
2. The educational background and skills required
to pass this test.
 ICT Information and Communication
Technology
 AQA Assessment and Qualifications Alliance,
examination board
 UCAS Universities and Colleges Admissions
Service
REFERENCES
[ 1] Bloxham School
http://www.bloxhamschool.com/
[ 2] Welcome to the ICT Department
http://www.nuls.org.uk/?pageid=29
[ 3] Newcastle under Lyme School
http://www.nuls.org.uk/
[ 4] BTEC Intermediate Award in ICT
http://www.london-
learning.com/section/prod_online_award_in_it
c.htm
[ 5] Creating Database Tables
http://www.london-
learning.com/section/demos/dulwich.html).
[ 6] Sixth Form Choices Booklet
http://www.bloxhamschool.com/uploads/6_th_
form.pdf
[ 7] AQA http://www.aqa.org.uk/
[ 8] UCAS http://www.ucas.ac.uk/
[ 9] Becoming a teacher
http://www.ucsmprospectus.co.uk/becoming-a-
teacher.htm
[10] St. Martin's College http://www.ucsm.ac.uk/