be encouraged to reflect on their
learning to set their own targets.  Students will receive end of unit practical tests that will require them to apply their newly acquired skills to a variety of scenarios to solve problems.  Students will also have an end of year examination in ICT in year 7,8 and 9.

How parents can help Students can always benefit from being confident in basic administrative processes such as copying and pasting files and organising files into folders.  If your daughter uses a computer at home encourage her to keep her documents organised by using appropriate and relevant file names and creating folders.  There are many developments in technology every week so it is always encouraging when students are staying up to date by watching the news or reading articles, therefore discussions with her on these issues are useful.  Moodle is also a fantastic source of information; encourage your daughter to check for the regular updates.  The school encourages parents to monitor their children’s homework diary and to also keep an eye on their daughter’s progress on the various National Curriculum objectives via the learning progress booklets that are issued.

We bring the KS3 curriculum to life in year 7 and 8 using the Smart ICT Skills Builder schemes of work and the school’s virtual learning environment, Moodle, to ensure students are taught the functional skills they require in ICT.  Year 9 gives students the opportunity to begin developing more advanced skills in developing systems using mini scenarios.  The scenario based approach provides students with a small taste of ICT at GCSE level as they are required to consider how they may use ICT to solve problems and then go on to use ICT to actually solve these problems.

Homework Students can expect to receive approximately 15 minutes of ICT homework per week.  This may be in the form of practising their newly acquired skills using our remote access facility or by considering the impact of ICT on society through carrying out independent research.  Homework is marked each week through a variety of methods including peer assessment, whole class discussion or by the class teacher.  Students will receive regular feedback on their progress as well as targets for improvement.

Testing and assessment Students are given a learning progress booklet at the start of the year as part of the government's assessing pupil progress initiative. They will use this to find out how to achieve the different national curriculum levels for each unit studied in ICT and to ensure they are on target. 
There is also opportunity for students to extend their learning independently as they will know how to achieve higher levels than their target. This booklet will be used as a self-assessment tool for the student but will also be used by the class teacher periodically to identify the level being achieved by a student and to set them a target for improvement.  Students will also

KS3 Curriculum Students are taught within their form groups and receive 1 hour of teaching per week.  Our exciting curriculum provides students with opportunities to develop their confidence and skills in the latest technologies including multimedia software, wikis, blogs and online forums as well as learning essential skills in the use of spreadsheet, database and control software.  An important aspect of the ICT curriculum is to encourage students to identify and consider the impact of ICT on different areas of society including business, medicine, local government and manufacturing.