BETT 2012 - Interesting Products

Have a look at my post about today's trip to BETT at my blog. 

Requests for change - 5 steps to budgeting heaven!

Many people in the education world spend this time of year walking for miles around an indoor arena and collecting assorted pens, mouse mats and business cards. This is BETT time of year in London.

If you manage ICT in your school BETT can create pressure on your purse strings. You are highly likely to get many requests for new educational gadgetry from your colleagues, and you may even be tempted to purchase a few things yourself. How can you objectively plan to ensure value for money and not end up spending your precious budget on unnecessary things?

Ofsted's subject-specific guidance for inspectors

Ofsted updated their subject-specific guidance yesterday with specific changes to English, science, history, religious education, modern languages, physical education and music guidance. We last published Ofsted guidance in 2010, but there was an update released at the beginning of 2012.  This article refers to the ICT-specific guidance.

Is my school open today?

If you work in an LGFL school you have access to a service called Opencheck. By registering your school's status on the LGFL website your school can then be seen on the area wide map available on www.opencheck.lgfl.net.   It looks like this:

What is even better is you can run a feed directly back into your own website updating both the area wide map as well as your website in one go. 

5 questions you should ask your students

Leading a Student Home Access audit

Do you know what your students’ know about technology? Really know? Of course you might know about what you have taught them in ICT lessons – that they are capable of creating a spreadsheet that draws a complex (and colourful) pivot-graph about how your class travels to school or that they can animate plasticine with ease. But what do they do when they are not at school?

A student access survey should ideally be conducted annually and can focus on a stratified sample of students. The results will help you plan your ICT curriculum (especially important in the current environment); plan your whole-school online learning strategy and also ensure your eSafety education focuses on the issues that are relevant for your students.

Redbridge ICT courses and events for this term

Fronter Administrator

Wed 23/01/2013 09:00-15:00

If you have a technician or ICT leader in your school who does not have administrator rights on the Fronter system then they need to attend this course. This course covers all the basic system administration functions and gives you ongoing access to the Fronter support desk.

A new year and a new focus: introducing the ICT-RMC

Our blog template has been refreshed and geared up ready to go for 2013. This year we will be journeying through the Redbridge Management Calendar (ICT-RMC). The Redbridge ICT team has reviewed and analysed all the possible ICT management activities that schools are likely to need to do in any given year. Rather than producing one very long list of management tasks we have sorted all these activities into the calendar months when that activity should be actioned. What's even better news is not one month has more than 3 management tasks! If you work in a UK primary or secondary school and you are involved in ICT leadership just follow along and be inspired to action as each post is published – what could be easier than that?

ICT Mark changes - a summary

Firstly - it's definitely still here which is great news. For those who don't know ICT Mark has become the benchmark for schools to review their ICT management against looking at the 6 key elements of:

1. Leadership and management


2. Planning


3. Learning


4. Assessment


5. Professional development


6. Resources

The self-review framework website, and the assessment process, were both part of Becta's work - with the management of this contracted to Naace. Since Becta has left the stage it has been confirmed that the ICT Mark will now be endorsed by the Department for Education. A recent email to schools from Naace includes the phrase "Naace is delighted to announce that it has received a concession from the Department for Education to continue to administer and quality assure the ICT Mark for Schools". This means that the transfer process is incredibly seemless.

There are a few changes, however, which are worth highlighting.

• The cost of initial assessment has changed to three bands £400, £550 and £650 depending on the size of the school.


• From 1st June 2011 a method will be put in place for some schools to renew the ICT Mark by conducting a remote assessment. This should reduce the cost for renewing schools and can be used up to 6 months after the expiry date. It looks like to be eligible for this remote assessment the school will need to evidence that they have continued the self-review process and have documented progress on the identified areas of improvement.


• Schools who have prepared for ICT Mark renewal with support from a Licensed ICT Mark consultant will result in a reduction in fees depending on the report the consultant passes on to NAACE.


• The ICT Mark has long been the benchmark of good practice. Naace are developing a further accreditation stage for schools who demonstrate excellent practice.

Details concerning all these changes are available on the ICT Mark pages on the Naace website.
Redbridge has an Intermediary Model arrangement enabling assessments to be done at significantly lower prices. If you are in a Redbridge maintained school please get in touch to find out how you could benefit from this.

Alex Rees
alex.rees@redbridge.gov.uk