Information Communication Technology (ICt)

At the end of Key Stage One all children at the British Schools of America will be able to programme and control devices such as simple robots. They will create pictures using tools like flood, highlight, select, copy, and paste as well as copying professional pictures. Locating information from CD-Roms is also important in these early years. Children will learn how to search, choose key words, link ideas and isolate information. They will display date in various pictograms as well as becoming familiar with a simplified word processor.

At the end of Key Stage Two all children at the British Schools of America will have become competent in the use of E-mail and navigating the World Wide Web (with appropriate security) to assist studies and for enjoyment. They will have placed information in databases and spreadsheets choosing their own criteria for organisation. Presenting this information in more complicated charts and graphs is also included in this topic.

The children will also learn how to programme and control robots and other devices.One of the last topics the children will look at is multimedia presentation; they will develop their own using a variety of software together with scanned or written work.

During Key Stage Three pupils become increasingly independent users of ICT tools and information sources. They have a better understanding of how ICT can help their work in other subjects and develop their ability to judge when and how to use ICT and where it has limitations. They think about the quality and reliability of information, and access and combine increasing amounts of information. They become more focused, efficient and rigorous in their use of ICT, and carry out a range of increasingly complex tasks.

All children have a minimum of one hour a week in the computer lab. Older children may complete this on block while younger ones will work in three shorter sessions.

As well as the set lessons with ICT as the focus, the children use computers to assist their learning in other subjects. Using the WWW or CD-Roms to research topics, scanning a picture to compliment typed work are possible examples. The additional computers in each classroom are used here.

Lessons in ICT always build on previous experience; teacher's develop understanding and deal with misconception on a lesson-by-lesson basis. They will constantly monitor children's development for future input. The practical side of this is interpreting children's questions, studying their work to see who is ready to move on and to where. At the end of each topic teachers make a more formal assessment of the child's progress, a record is kept of this. At the end of each term a written report highlights the strengths of children and areas that are in need of development. Parent-Teacher conferences give the opportunity to further inform on children's individual progress.

Each of the schools has purpose furnished computer laboratories or laptop computers which are all networked and running off a server. Most classes also have their own computer with appropriate support hardware. We are constantly developing software and hardware with the aim that children will always have access to the most up to date resources possible. All pupils have access to computers and the Internet (with appropriate security).