Newsletter – March 2010

Issue 17

ICT Curriculum Support

ICT Capital Refresh
In addition, all primary schools will receive

O
ver the coming months, all primary PCs
two Easi-view visualisers to support work
that are Dell GX280s or older will be
across the curriculum. They are desk-based
replaced with new PCs running Windows
cameras that
7 and Office 2007 as part of the refresh. That
allow
represents 73% of the total primary estate.
teachers to
PCs that are newer than GX280s still have life
share
in them and will be upgraded to run with
whatever
Windows 7 and Office 2007. The change to the
comes in
new operating system will bring benefits other
front of the
than ensuring that we are using the latest
lens - an
technology in our schools in that it works far
object,
more efficiently than XP or Vista and should
document or
enable us to reduce our carbon footprint.
even a
person - on a large screen as either a photo or
To obtain most efficient use of the desktops, it
video image via their digital projector. So they
is essential that we replace the servers which
can be used with or without whiteboards.
are now coming up to 5 years old. This will be
done for all primary establishments.
A review of the secondary PC estate has
highlighted large numbers of old PCs. To
In addition, we have allocated funds to
commence a programme of updating there, a
support ICT Corporate Services’ Infrastructure
capital allocation will be made to begin a
Team to update key items of equipment that
process of refresh in the secondary schools and
will benefit all primary establishments: a core
will enable the replacement of around 300
switch for Municipal Buildings, new switches
PCs.
for all primary schools, funds for rewiring, new
cabinets and power supplies and kits to help
At Antonine PS, a pilot is being undertaken to
with bandwidth upgrades.
enable wireless to be flooded across the whole
of the school. To date we have been able to
We have been able to commence the upgrade
use wireless laptops to access the Internet
of bandwidth to our establishments. All
using what is commonly known as “Class in a
secondary schools have improved bandwidth
Box” approaches whereby the laptops and
and before the end of this financial year
wireless access point are taken from classroom
Carronshore PS, Comely Park PS, Grange PS,
to classroom as needed. However, this
Head of Muir PS, Stenhousemuir PS, Victoria PS
exercise at Antonine is beneficial because it
and Westquarter PS will all have improved
gives our corporate colleagues an opportunity
bandwidth. Early in the new financial year we
to learn how to integrate wireless with the
should see St Margaret’s PS, Camelon
council network – this is something we have
Education Centre, Moray PS and Beancross PS
not been able to do before. The work is
upgraded. Discussions continue with ICT
nearing completion and early indications are
Corporate Services regarding the scheduling of
that extensive use of wireless within a school
other upgrades not only for the next financial
is not stable with XP as the operating system
year but for 2 or 3 years taking us to 2014.
but very robust with Windows 7.
Page 2 of 8
ICT Excellence
Awards
he 2010 ICT Excellence Awards are now
T open for entries until 24 March 2010. All
Falkirk schools are encouraged to enter.
The Becta ICT
Excellence
Awards are
open to
schools in
England,
Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland. These awards aim
to identify and reward whole school
excellence in ICT in various categories.
Winning schools receive a cash prize.
(http://stage.awards.becta.org.uk)
Several Falkirk schools entered in 2009 and
Head of Muir Primary School were successful in
being shortlisted from all the schools in the
UK. Ann Kilpatrick, ICT Co-ordinator at Head
of Muir Primary School, kindly shared how they
found the process so as to encourage others to
enter this year.
“Head of Muir Primary School entered the
‘Learning Experience’ category and in this the
Becta judges were looking for ICT to be
embedded into the whole curriculum and
innovative and creative ways of using ICT. As
ICT develops it is no longer enough to simply
have ICT in your curriculum and to use your
whiteboard as a teaching tool - they are
looking for the impact it has on learning within
your classroom, school and community.”
“They ask when visiting if the school has used
the Self review framework – available at:
www.becta.org.uk/schools/selfreviewframewo
rk . This is an excellent tool for focusing your
thinking and helps you to look at where you
are and where you would like to go with ICT.
This is best completed over a period of time by
a group of staff from throughout the school.
Each section could be saved when completed
and re-visited at a later date.”
ICT Curriculum Support
“The sections covered in the ‘Learning
experience’ category are:
• Curriculum
• Learning and Teaching
• Assessment
• E-safety
• Professional development
• Inclusion
• Communication throughout the school
and with parents
• Impact of ICT on pupil outcomes”
“We then heard at the end of March that we
had been shortlisted and the date that the
judges would visit. The visits start in May and
go through until June. Our visit was on 11th
May which gave us approximately 3 weeks to
prepare for the visit after the Easter holiday.
We were asked to keep this information
confidential.”
“With the second email came a timetable for
the visit:
• Introductions to Head teacher and ICT co-
ordinator
• Context setting meeting with above
explaining the development of ICT within
the school
• General tour of the school to include all
stages of the school included in the
application.
• Classroom visits
• Meeting with group of pupils - (we used
the web group)
• Meeting with group of staff members
• Further discussion with Head teacher/ICT
co-ordinator”
“The onus is on the school to show the judges
evidence of anything they deem is
appropriate. This should be concise and
selective as they only have a short time. We
ensured that all classes were using ICT in a
different way during the visit – linking the
activities to our submission. Included in our
evidence was our SIP, with ICT developments
 Page 3 of 8 ICT Curriculum Support

highlighted, our ICT policy, samples of weekly
planning, highlighting activities involving ICT
and any pieces of work which reflected good
use of ICT. The judges were very friendly and
they were very accommodating. We were
notified of the outcome of our visit during the
summer holidays, when we were also sent a
press release to notify everyone of having
been shortlisted.”
school) - and should be encouraged for use at
home too.
In a primary school when staff log on to a
computer they will see a blue screen, while
pupils logging on will see a green screen, so at
a glance it is easy to check that pupils are
not using a computer inadvertently left logged
on by a staff member.

Go now to http://stage.awards.becta.org.uk Whether primary or secondary, all staff get

and start the process to enter your school for access to extra facilities, the access to these
this year’s awards. being set by the use of the staff username to
the computer. The level of access to the
internet is varied – staff get access to sites to
E-Safety which pupils will not get access. If a member
of staff finds themselves unable to access a
website which they know to be a useful

M
ost teachers will encourage pupils to
teaching resource, only staff are presented
use online resources when undertaking
with a screen which enables them to directly
curricular work either in school or at
request access. Likewise if staff find a
home. So it is important for all staff to
resource which they believe should be blocked
reinforce safety messages to all pupils. The
from access by pupils in school then staff can
safety of our pupils online is the responsibility
report this via the ICT Service Desk link from
of all staff. Online safety skills are skills for
their PC or by sending an e-mail to
life. If our children can make sensible and
logcall.servicedesk@falkirk.gov.uk
informed choices online they can get the most
from the internet and stay safe whilst doing
The Thinkuknow website has an excellent area
so.
for teachers. There you’ll find films,
presentations, games, lesson plans and posters
So what resources are there to help staff?
covering a range of issues including cyber-
bullying. All of these resources encourage
Highly recommended are the e-safety online
young people to have fun with new
resources which can be found on the very first
technology, whilst staying in control of the
page of the Falkirk VTC
risks. Importantly, they also teach young
(www.falkirkvtc.org.uk) which is the very first
people where to go if they have any concerns.
page primary pupils will see when logging onto
the internet in schools. These include age-
Schools are encouraged to include links to e-
specific interactive activities at
safety resources on their own school websites.
www.thinkuknow.co.uk - so pupils from
primary 1 to S6 will find material here
relevant to them presented in ways designed
to appeal to the different age groups.

The Falkirk VTC website also has a Google

search box on the first page. This
automatically uses the Google Safe Search tool
(in addition to the Council web filters within
Page 4 of 8
In addition the Thinkuknow website has
resources to support parents in keeping their
children safe online and it is recommended
that these are highlighted regularly in school
newsletters to parents.
www.thinkuknow.co.uk
Looking for support
in using ICT across
the curriculum?
T
he first Glow group created for everyone
to access in Falkirk Council was one to
show how ICT can be used across the
curriculum in primary schools. The Glow
group can be found once you've logged into
Glow by clicking on the Falkirk Council button
on the left-hand side, then click on the Glow
Groups tab along the top. And then scroll
down to "Falkirk Primary ICT Co-ordinator
Support."
ICT Curriculum Support
There you will find online resources for use
across the curriculum. This Glow group also
provides an example of how a teacher might
make use of Glow as place to store their own
teaching resources, and a single place to
gather together and access resources
elsewhere online.
This Glow group also provides examples and
explanations of how to use various tools and
resources in a Glow group. These include
Wordle text images, Auto-collage Maker to
make photographic collages, blabberize to
create a speaking image in Monty Python-
esque animation style, and rss2java to take
feeds from other blogs, websites or podcasts
and convert them for use in Glow so that links
appear automatically. Web tools which are
useful to teachers are regularly added to this
Glow group. There are also many links to
curricular-specific resources, including the
presentations created by ICT Curriculum
Support on using the software on PCs in Falkirk
primary schools.
If any member of staff does not have a Glow
account, then please advise them to place a
helpdesk request via
logcall.servicedesk@falkirk.gov.uk requesting
a Glow account to be set up.
Internet Filtering
Changes
O
ver the past few months Education
Services in partnership with ICT
Corporate Services have been deploying
new Internet Filtering software to our
education establishments. The new provider,
Sophos Web Security, will allow for more
efficient web filtering and reporting, as well
as providing new anti-virus and anti-spyware
protection.
All Nursery and Primary schools have been
transferred to the new system, with 5
Secondary schools recently added. The
 Page 5 of 8 ICT Curriculum Support

to request the re-categorisation or unblocking

remaining schools will be transferred during
their desktop standardisation programme over
the coming months.
Some of you using the new system may have
noticed some new functionality when using the
Internet. Teaching staff now have the ability
of a website when they reach a blocked page.
You may also see a “Blocked Request” image
appearing within small areas of other sites you
are able to access. This indicates that an
advert or popup within the site is blocked, but
should not interrupt normal access to the site.

Requesting Access to Blocked Sites

I
nternet filters are necessary to protect children and young people from accessing inappropriate
websites. However, if you believe that a website has been blocked in error, please follow the
instructions below:

On the screen, click on the ‘submit request’ icon.

Enter your comment stating why you think that access to the site should be granted and, if
necessary, change the category to which the site belongs (see the example below). Click on the
‘submit request’ icon.

You will be prompted to return to your previous page and the request will usually be dealt with in a
matter of hours.
Page 6 of 8 ICT Curriculum Support

The VTC and Curriculum for Excellence

The Staff area of
the VTC continues
to be updated
regularly. If you
have any
Curriculum for
Excellence
resources, plans,
or case studies you
would like to
share, please
contact Margaret
Vass at ICT
Curriculum
Support.

The Homepage now contains information about Glow and includes links to areas within Glow that
have been designed to help you get started.

The VTC and Glow

During the next few weeks and months, there are plans to regularly spotlight good uses of Glow in
various Scottish authorities. The links provided will show examples of how Glow groups have been
set up to improve learning and teaching in a variety of stages and curricular areas.

The Staff area of the VTC can be accessed at:

http://www.falkirkvtcstaff.org.uk/
Page 7 of 8
ECDL
Congratulations
ongratulations to Louise Machray,
C teacher at Hallglen Primary School,
who is the latest to have successfully
completed the ECDL through completing the
ECDL for Educators course offered at Camelon
Education Centre. The ECDL is a qualification
administered by the British Computer Society,
the UK Chartered Institute for IT, which is
recognized in over 140 countries and
represents a global benchmark in end-user
computer skills. If you are interested in
working towards the ECDL then contact your
CPD co-ordinator for details of the ECDL for
Educators Course
offered at
Camelon
Education Centre.
Seemis
F
or those of you who use Click+Go
regularly and feel the need and/or
interest in getting further training, then
you may like to have a go at a short on-line
survey trying to find out your requirements.
The survey can be found at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GWCHLP5
It will only take you a few minutes to
undertake it and it will be available to
access until Friday, 2nd April 2010.
By completing the survey you will be helping
us to schedule targeted training into the new
school year knowing that it is meeting
people’s needs.
ICT Curriculum Support
Additional preparatory work and training is
taking place in the near future for a number
of other processes available using Seemis:
• Secondary schools developing their
timetables using Click+Go
• Piloting of the new tracking and
monitoring module at Bo’ness Academy
and Grangemouth High School (see
following article from Steve Dougan)
• Staff of the Registrars’ offices preparing
FME using Click+Go
• Education Services’ staff undertaking
training in EMA
• Training in the management and
maintenance of staff records in Click+Go
Seemis - Tracking &
Monitoring
T
he new tracking and monitoring system
offered by Seemis is being piloted in
both Bo’ness Academy and
Grangemouth High School and which should
be available to all secondary schools from the
summer onwards – once the national piloting
has been completed. The following describes
the work undertaken and progress to date in
Bo’ness Academy.
“We have been piloting the new tracking &
monitoring module Since January 2010 at
Bo’ness Academy. After the initial fun of
setting up the tracking periods and resolving
one or two glitches we have found the system
very simple and quick to use. An initial one
hour training session was given to all staff
along with a modified instruction manual. All
staff from the ICT experts to the less
experienced have found the system very
straightforward and easy to use.
 Page 8 of 8 ICT Curriculum Support

See below the new look of Tracking &
Monitoring in the Seemis pilot project.
• It is user friendly with a spell check and
sizing guide which work!
• On the printed report there is a summary
for parents showing all basic, key
Information
• There is the opportunity for teachers to
print their own condensed reports (very
useful for parents’ evenings)
• Teachers can monitor how their pupils
are performing in other subject areas

It is our intention to roll out the following

aspects of the system throughout the
remainder of the session:

• S5 SQA exam predictors

So far we have concentrated on the reporting • CAT analysis
element of the module and have successfully • Tracking comparators
produced S4 and S2 parental reports. • Intervention strategies
• SQA NAB entries
Over the coming months we will look in more
depth at the tracking & monitoring aspects. At the present time we have enjoyed using
Advantages to the school have been: the system and look forward to it being fully
integrated into Click+Go”.
• It keeps all pupils data in one system

ICT Curriculum Support Team contact details

With the arrival at Camelon Education Centre (CEC) of more staff from McLaren House, there has been
some re-organisation of staff locations and so the ICT Curriculum Support Team will no longer be
found in room 3 on the top floor. However, apart from Margaret Vass, all their telephone numbers and
email addresses will remain the same although the fax number has changed:

ICT Curriculum Support

Camelon Education Centre
Abercrombie Street
Camelon
Falkirk
FK1 4HA

Name: Telephone: Email: New room:

Jan Baxter: 01324 501987 jan.baxter@falkirk.gov.uk EY1
Isabelle Gunn: 01324 503767 isabelle.gunn@falkirk.gov.uk 5
Stuart Lennie: 01324 503765 stuart.lennie@falkirk.gov.uk 17
Margaret Vass: 01324 503764 margaret.vass@falkirk.gov.uk 17
Robert McLeary: 01324 501984 robert.mcleary@falkirk.gov.uk 15
Laurie Lee Moodie: 01324 503760 laurielee.moodie@falkirk.gov.uk 15
Malcolm Wilson: 01324 503766 malcolm.wilson@falkirk.gov.uk 17

Fax: 01324 503718