MANAGING ICT
This government has yet to properly
acknowledge
the role of technology in education, but as the Pupil Premium kicks in, could this be starting to change? Valerie Thompson from the e-Learning Foundation comments
in the House of Lords, Lord Hill, the schools minister, said: “The effective use of technology clearly supports good teaching and helps raise standards.” It has taken some time to get government ministers
I
to recognise the huge opportunities that technology offers. What was particularly welcoming was an understanding from the DfE around the issue of home access and the digital divide. In a written response to questions put by Lord
Willis, chairman of the e-Learning Foundation, the minister gave schools the go-ahead to use the Pupil Premium in this area – and made clear that the government would not be telling schools how to spend the money. He said: “The Premium will give schools the
flexibility they require to help those pupils who need it most, including providing information and communication technology.
N RECENT months we have seen an encouraging change in attitude from the Department for Education (DfE) over the role that technology can play in improving standards, stimulating innovation and closing the attainment gap. In the recent debate on the Education Bill
ICT and the Pupil Premium
“Overall there is a strong body of evidence linking
the effective use of technology to improvements in education. Schools that take a systematic and planned approach to using technology to support education achieve better outcomes with technology than other schools. Strong patterns of impact are also found from pupils’ use of technology to support study at home.” The minister also revealed that the government is
looking further into this subject and discussions are ongoing in the DfE with key stakeholders. So, although
FOR BETTER CHILD HEALTH SCHOOL NURSES MORE
A properly resourced school nursing service is required to help schools meet the government’s health and wellbeing objectives.
Research published in the British Journal of School Nursing (BJSN) shows that more school nurses are needed to meet these objectives and ensure school children receive the health care and support they deserve. Therefore
the BJSN has launched a campaign to increase the number of school nurses.
For more information on the campaign visit
http://moreschoolnurses.co.uk Support the campaign or send us your views at:
bjsn@markallengroup.com 10
SCHOOL NURSES FOR BETTER CHILD HEALTH
MORE
it has been a frustrating year, we should be encouraged that the government (or at least some of the ministers) now seems to understand how important technology is to a 21st century education.
The Pupil Premium and the digital divide
Schools will already be thinking about how to allocate their Pupil Premium funds in order to close the attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils. Plans are in motion to publish new performance
tables at the end of 2011 that will show the attainment gap between disadvantaged children (aka children on free school meals) and their more affluent peers for every school. In 2012, schools will have to publish information for parents to see what they have spent the Pupil Premium funding on. So with the pressure on, and no guidance from
the DfE, how can schools ensure they select the right interventions that will make the biggest impact? Earlier this year, the Sutton Trust published A
Toolkit for Schools to use when deciding how to deploy their Pupil Premium funds. Based on published research evidence, 11 strategies are identified as having high or moderate impact. Many of these can be greatly enhanced in terms
of cost of implementation and accessibility with the effective use of technology and that in turn means everyone needs good access. The strategies that work included the following.
Access to ICT This is particularly effective when teachers actively use the technology to support learning.
Homework This is a moderate impact measure but one easily implemented by teachers making good use of home access to computers, and more willingly completed by pupils when technology is involved.
Parental involvement This is consistently associated with a pupil’s success at school. Technology can be used to provide accessible programmes to help those parents who lack the knowledge, skills or confidence to express interest and engagement with their children’s learning.
One-to-one tutoring This offers pupils the opportunity to catch up with their peers through intensive remedial tuition.
Effective feedback When deployed well, effective feedback can have very high impact for very low costs. It is also another way to get more benefit from the learning platform.
Meta-cognition Helping learners plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning can have high impact, especially among low achieving pupils. Parents can also benefit from having a better understanding in order to support their children’s learning.
Assessment for Learning AfL is a low-cost intervention that aims to ensure pupils have a clear understanding of what it is they need to learn. Technology through a school virtual learning
environment or even using mobile devices can be used to make this readily available to pupils.
Peer-assisted learning Often through collaboration, this strategy can often be seen in action daily in classrooms and offers high impact for low cost. Technology offers the scope to widen the basis of collaboration beyond the classroom.
Making funds go further Each approach has a valid role to play in closing the attainment gap. But when pulled together and deployed in an integrated way, the toolkit suggests that their combined effect could be highly significant and cost effective – enabling schools to make their precious funds go much further.
Home Access
Good personal access to ICT at home as well as at school allows a child the opportunity to engage with homework that is interesting and relevant. It supports stronger parental involvement by giving parents the opportunity to enjoy better links with the school. And it provides children with the technology resources (a computer and the internet) to benefit from online one- to-one tutoring. A learning platform can provide the positive
feedback that pupils need (an approach that generates very high impact) and programmes that engage parents with a “learning to learn” context directly address meta- cognition strategies that will deliver high impact. The observation that ICT and one-to-one tutoring
are high-cost options are mitigated when the ICT is acquired through an e-Learning Foundation programme where parents who can, make a contribution. Schools typically collect 50 to 80 per cent of the cost of provision from parents. Online tutoring significantly reduces the cost
associated with more traditional face-to-face tutoring, and is more accessible and convenient in terms of the time and place it occurs.
Back to school
Finally, we are all aware of the learning loss that some pupils experience through the long summer break. There has been lots of talk about reforming the summer holiday period, and some schools have done just that. However less radical solutions are also available
through an effective and sympathetic partnership with parents aimed at how their children can keep learning through the summer without it feeling like school! Good home access enables access to online
educational resources that can have a huge role to play in maintaining the good progress the children have made during term time. If you need help to make that a reality in your school
then get in touch! Further information
To read the Sutton Trust’s Pupil Premium Toolkit for Schools, visit
www.suttontrust.com/public/ documents/toolkit-summary-final-r-2-.pdf and for more information on the e-Learning Foundation, go to
www.e-learningfoundation.com
SecEd • September 15 2011 SecEd
• Valerie Thompson is chief executive of the e-Learning Foundation.
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