Information Communication Technology

"Information and Communication Technology (ICT) prepares pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technology." (National Curriculum 1999)

ICT is not a core subject but it is a core skill. It is unique in that all National Curriculum subjects require pupils to be given the opportunities to apply and develop their ICT capability.

ICT capability should help promote initiative and independent learning and can be defined as an ability to use ICT tools and information sources to analyse, process and present information, and to model, measure and control external events.

Aims

At Cranleigh Prep school we have two dedicated ICT suites and are striving to develop effective and creative use of Information and Communication Technology across the whole curriculum. We hope to provide pupils (and teachers) with the opportunity to become autonomous users of ICT, developing appropriate learning (and teaching styles) which reflect the opportunities that ICT has to offer.

The following is a summary of what we consider to be the primary benefits that ICT can offer our pupils:

• it can provide a flexible and engaging interactive resource to support learning across all curriculum areas

• it can offer the chance to work collaboratively with partners in the wider community

• software can offer an integrated learning process, which can be tailored to the needs of individual pupils

• the Internet provides a rich, multimedia resource for all curriculum areas

• the Internet can provide opportunities to connect learning with real life events around the world

• it provides pupils with a new way of interpreting, processing and presenting information, which can be used in cross-curricular projects

• ICT offers pupils the chance to learn the skills that will be essential to their working life

We also aim to provide our pupils with the ability to reflect on their use of ICT and to decide on its most appropriate application.