Town Close House

We teach I.C.T. at Town Close House School so that our children will become both confident and competent users of I.C.T. I.C.T. is directly changing the world around us and all of our children will have a need to use I.C.T. at some stage throughout their lives. As such, we see it as our duty to ensure the children are best equipped to meet the challenges that they will encounter. The work the children encounter will support and enhance work done in other areas of the curriculum as well as providing pupils with the opportunity to learn about the uses of computers in everyday life.

Our aims in teaching Information Technology are that the children will:

enjoy using I.C.T. and tackle all applications with confidence and a sense of achievement;
develop practical skills in their use of I.C.T.;
develop the ability to apply these skills to the solving of relevant and worthwhile problems; and
understand the capabilities and limitations of I.C.T. and the implications and consequences of its use.

I.C.T. is taught by the class teachers from Reception to Year 2 in either one of the Pre Prep computer rooms or in the Prep computer room. From Years 3 to 8 the children are mainly taught in an air-conditioned computer room by the Head of Department. All computers in the School are on our site wide network, made up of both hard-wired and wireless components, and benefit from filtered access to Internet.

The School has extensive I.T. resources across all departments, all of our teaching rooms have Interactive Whiteboards and the vast majority of teachers have a School Laptop. All resources are replaced on a rolling programme and are tended to by our I.T. Support Team. The children have access to various groups of computers and laptops both within and outside their lessons.

The I.C.T. curriculum is designed around both the QCA syllabus of work and ISEB syllabus. The children learn specific skills and then develop these through activities and projects. Children develop skills in word processing, desk top publishing, spreadsheets, database skills, using the Internet safely and efficiently, emailing and graphics. Further details about the projects the children complete can be sought from your child’s class teacher or the Head of I.C.T.

The School Intranet has been designed to encourage the children to have access to exemplary pieces of work and links to selected websites across the School curriculum. The Intranet is currently available to the children within school although we are looking to extend this provision to outside the school network.

A regular Touch Typing course, over a period of four weeks, is held every term before and after school for children to attend.

Staff training has been a major focus for the School over the past few years. All staff have attended in-house sessions with some going to external venues as well.