ICT Studies
Mrs Knowles
ICT Teacher
Information technology is an integral part of our everyday lives. It is also an exciting aspect of education at Forest, highly interactive and very motivating. ICT engages all learners, challenging children’s thinking and taking their learning further.
The school is very well resourced for ICT. A secure computer network allows shared learning resources in the ICT Suite, with internet access and wireless connectivity. Each child has their own ‘log on’ folders. Each classroom has an interactive whiteboard and two computers, with access to a wide variety of cross-curricular software appropriate to their age group.
A modern ICT suite allows pupils to work individually on a computer, with audio and recording facilities. Digital cameras are used to record images and animations.
Once a week children from Pre-Prep to Year 6 attend ICT lessons with an ICT specialist teacher. The progression and continuity of ICT skills is developed in these lessons, through purposeful cross-curricular activities. Core topics cover desk top publishing, graphics, data handling, modelling, control and safe use of the internet. More innovative areas include multimedia, animation and website design.
In Pre-Prep the children have the opportunity to use a range of educational software and enjoy a wide variety of ICT activities to encourage confidence when using the computer.
As the children grow in confidence, during Reception their ICT skills are developed further and the children use software to support other subjects through the use of a different learning style.
By Year 1 the children explore their attitudes towards ICT, its value for themselves, others and society, and their awareness of its advantages and limitations.
In Year 2 the children continue to develop their skills in using hardware and software, so as to manipulate and present information.
In Year 3 the children study topics including MS Word text manipulation, using graphics and data bases.
In Year 4 topics covered include using the internet for research and safely using email. There is also a cross curricular project on the topic of "The Tudors".
During Year 5, amongst topics covered in this year, pupils learn to use MS Publisher and how to use MS Excel for calculations and producing graphs.
During Year 6 pupils learn to use MS Power Point. They also produce their own CV's, business posters and school magazines. There is a cross curricular project on "World War 2".
Technologies are always moving forward and as a school, we pride ourselves on being up to date. Through many recent initiatives the ICT department has taken learning at Forest Preparatory forward into the 21st Century.
