Mike Isted

Please be aware that new Supplementary guidance for the inspection of ICT in schools was published last Friday.  This is an excerpt of an email from Greg Morgan, Head of Digital Learning, ERW.

Link to download pdf documents.

The main headlines are:

1. Each inspection report from September onwards will therefore include a paragraph on pupils’ standards in applying ICT across the curriculum in 1.1, as well as recording evidence in 1.1.4.
2. Inspectors don’t expect printed work, but will sit with pupils in front of a computer, so that the pupils can access their work. (Similar approach to listening to pupils reading in Literacy)
3. If there is no evidence of Data Handling or Modelling, Estyn will ‘consider Unsatisfactory for ICT’, which will have a direct knock-on effect on the whole inspection process in that particular school.
4. The table of Progression in ICT, on page 2 is clear.

Each appendix at the back of the document, are really useful, also:

• Appendix 1: Possible range of ICT skills in the Foundation Phase
• Appendix 2: Possible range of ICT skills in key stage 2
• Appendix 3: Possible range of ICT skills in key stage 3
• Appendix 4: Possible range of ICT skills in key stage 4
• Appendix 5: Questions for listening to learners in the Foundation Phase and key stage 2 for ICT
• Appendix 6: Questions for the senior manager overseeing the work of the co-ordinator(s) for ICT
• Appendix 7: Questions for the ICT skills co-ordinator
• Appendix 8: Prompts for evaluating the effectiveness of transition between primary and secondary schools
• Appendix 9: 2.1 Provision for skills
• Appendix 10: Developing ICT across the primary and secondary curriculum based on the Skills Framework for 3 to 19-year-olds in Wales (WAG, 2008)

This is a useful list, available to the school Admin for Hwb+, but does cause a little confusion.  This post aims to clarify some of these issues!

The list is available through the Admin tab, then clicking on ‘User Credentials’ (lower left on page).  It appears to show all the usernames and passwords of members of the school Hwb+ site, however this is not quite the case.  Let me explain…

What the list actually represents is a historical record of usernames and passwords when they were made members of the school.  This means:

• The list will contain users who may no longer have access e.g. pupils who have left.
• Passwords shown on the list may no longer be current, as they may have been changed.  Note that passwords can be reset by the school Admin on the ‘Admin’ page (lower right on page).
• Pupils and staff joining from a different school may have a blank password field.  If you do not know their old password, it is easiest to reset it (see previous point).
• To find users more quickly, the list can be filtered and sorted by hovering over the column headings and selecting from the drop down menu (just like in Excel).

Notes for more advanced users:

• Whilst it is possible to add items of your own to this list, it does not set up new accounts.
• New accounts are set up automatically from data in Teacher Centre (Primary Schools) or SIMS (secondary schools).  Pupils should be set up every few days, staff at the end of every month.