Sunday 31 October 2010

Redbridge ICT Subject Leaders - THIS THURSDAY!

Final reminder to book yourself on this terms subject leaders course. http://redbridgepdc.org.uk/

Can I remind everyone that you shouldbring a laptop, there will be a limited supply to borrow as normal.

Also more importantly can you bring with you your staffmail username and password.

Thanks

Nic

Sunday 24 October 2010

ICT Subject Leaders Agenda - 4th November

Hopefully you have all booked on though PDC. If not what are you waiting for. Got to http://redbridgepdc.org.uk/ and search for ICT subject leaders.

The exciting Agenda this time is as follows.

9:00am - Welcome and News


Where we will be feeding back on a wide range of issues across the borough. Including USO and Educationcity.

9:30am – 10:30am

Key theme: Planning your school’s ICT Curriculum -

How do you start reinvigorating your ICT curriculum?

10:40am – Here’s something new…

Whats PurpleMash? 2simple will be along to demo their newest product.

11:00am - Training Experience – Hands-on with online tools

Have you heard of these? Prezi, Busy things, j2e, iBoard

- A chance to learn a new tool.

12:00pm - News from the floor

How have we have saved money?

12:15pm - Close

What events are coming up?


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1.20pm - 3.30pm - Afternoon Session

Choice of 2 sessions.

1. What is G2? How can the class teacher use this flexible tool?

2. Stuck with your learning platform? Not sure where to go next? How to get unstuck!

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Redbridge ICT Subject Leaders - 4th November

Sign up now for the first ICT Subject Leaders of the year.

Go to redbridgepdc.org.uk and search for ICT Subject Leaders. Its on Thursday 4th November.

The agenda will be posted on Thursday this week.

Hope to see you all there.

Nic

Highly Commended: Churchfields Infants’ School

ICT Excellence Awards 2010: Best Whole School - London

In the best whole school category, schools must demonstrate that their strategy and vision for ICT stretches across the whole school and beyond and is having clear impact on the outcomes for pupils, staff, parents and the wider community. This award recognises schools that are at the very forefront of transformational use of ICT, who are keen to share this practice and continue to find new ways of working.


Highly Commended: Churchfields Infants’ School and Nursery, South Woodford

Highly commended for continuous professional development and advanced use of their learning platform.

Find out more about this school at: http://www.churchfieldsinfants.redbridge.sch.uk/

Monday 18 October 2010

ICT guidance for Ofsted inspectors

It is important to note that this guidance is intended only to inform the judgements made by specialist inspectors carrying out subject survey visits. It is not for use on Section 5 whole-school inspections. The statements copied below refer to what is considered to be Outstanding practice. If you are interested in the other ICT statements or other subject guidance notes click here.
This advice was published 30 September 2010.


Achievement in ICT

Pupils show exceptional independence and discernment in their use of ICT. They are able to think for themselves and take the initiative in, for example, asking questions, carrying out their own investigations and in working constructively with others. They show significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity in their understanding and skills within the subject. Appropriate to their age and ability, they make highly effective use of a wide range of equipment and software. Their knowledge and understanding of how to keep themselves safe when using new technologies is extremely thorough and comprehensive. They are highly enthusiastic about using ICT.


Quality of teaching in ICT

Teachers of ICT communicate high expectations, enthusiasm and passion about their subject to pupils. They have a high level of confidence and expertise, both in terms of their specialist knowledge and technical skills and their understanding of effective learning in the subject. As a result, they use a very wide range of innovative and imaginative resources and teaching strategies to stimulate pupils’ active participation in their learning and secure outstanding progress across all aspects of the subject.


The Curriculum in ICT

The imaginative and stimulating subject curriculum is skilfully designed to match to the full range of pupils’ needs and to ensure highly effective continuity and progression in their learning. All strands of the statutory ICT National Curriculum are covered extremely well for all pupils, in ICT lessons or in a planned and monitored way across the school curriculum. Pupils are able to use their ICT skills in realistic and challenging situations. Excellent links are forged with other agencies and the wider community to provide a wide range of enrichment activities to promote pupils’ learning and engagement with the subject. Students in KS4 have access to a wide range of appropriate ICT qualifications, including vocational options.


Effectiveness of Leadership and Management of ICT

Leadership is informed by a high level of subject expertise and vision. There is a strong track record of innovation. Subject reviews, self-evaluation and improvement planning are well-informed by current best practice in the subject and in education generally. Subject leadership inspires confidence and whole-hearted commitment from pupils and colleagues. There are effective strategies to delegate subject responsibilities where appropriate and to share good practice and secure high quality professional development in the subject. The subject has a very high profile in the life of the school and is at the cutting edge of initiatives within the school. Access to ICT equipment is outstanding, and the school is likely to have promoted the use of mobile technologies. The school has a virtual learning environment (VLE), which gives pupils and staff very good access to their work and to the school’s learning resources at all times, and has a significant impact on pupils’ achievement.


Overall effectiveness in ICT

Overall effectiveness in the subject is likely to be outstanding when:
Achievement in the subject is outstanding, or achievement is good and outstanding leadership and management underpin the capacity for sustained improvement in the subject. At least one, of teaching or the curriculum in the subject, is outstanding, and neither is less than good.

Course info: FITS training

The London Borough of Redbridge is an accredited FITS provider, and will be repeating the FITS Practitioner course 4 times this academic year.



  • 11-12 November 2010

  • 23-24 February 2011

  • 3-4 March 2011

  • Cancelled: 31 May - 1 June 2011

  • Replaced with: 16 - 17 June 2011

This course is a 2 day course for ICT technicians and network managers responsible for supporting the school's network. It provides a range of strategies and management approaches to ensure the delegates run an effective support service for their school.







The benefits shown are recorded by schools who have already completed FITS training.


FITS is based on the industry standard ITIL framework and it is a certificated course with a formal exam on the second day. The examining board is SQA and the resulting professional qualification for successful candidates is NQF level 4.




It costs £200 per Redbridge delegate and you can book online using the http://www.redbridgepdc.org.uk/ website.




Alex Rees

Friday 15 October 2010

Course info: eSafety awareness

On the http://www.redbridgepdc.org.uk/ website listing this course is repeated on three mornings this academic year:
  • Wednesday - 1st December
  • Tuesday - 1st March
  • Tuesday - 14th June
The course is being coordinated by the Local Safeguarding Children's Board enabling education and non-education professionals to attend together. To book on this course you need to use this link to the Redbridge i LSCB training catalogue, and complete this nomination form to register on the course entitled: "Safeguarding Children in a Digital World:e-Safety & Cyberbullying".

The "Safeguarding Children in a Digital World" course is ideal for eSafety Coordinators in schools or other organisations to give a strong grounding in all the key eSafety issues.
On the afternoon of each of these days there will be the opportunity to stay on and formally do the Child Exploitation and Online Protection training, which allows you to use police made education resources with young people. The course is entitled "Half day CEOP Thinkuknow Training Course". It is a requirement of the police that all who attend this course must be able to present a valid CRB form or a warrant card, and current id with a photograph on it.




For further information about these courses please follow the links above, contact the LSCB directly or get in touch with me on the email address below.

Alex Rees






Wednesday 13 October 2010

Fronter training in Redbridge

We have once again pre-arranged Fronter trainers to be in Redbridge throughout this academic year. They are running courses on Fronter Administration (Basic/Intermediate/Advanced) and Webfronter - the tool that enables schools to create public websites using the Fronter system. (It is always valuable to have several trained administrators in a school to provide backup in case of illness.)

Most of these courses are charged to schools at the subsidised rate of £95 per delegate. To book onto them please use the Teachers' Centre website http://www.redbridgepdc.org.uk/.

Alex Rees
alex.rees@redbridge.gov.uk