Report of the meeting in England 23rd-27th October.

Items discussed.

  1. Review of the project’s aims and intended outcomes.
  2. Discussion of the British Education System.
  3. Sharing addresses/points of contact.
  4. Evaluating staff ICT expertise.
  5. Outlining possible areas for ICT enhancement in Geography and English.
  6. Formulating ideas to develop for next year’s submission.
  7. Proposed visits.
  8. Establishing timelines for all activities.
  1. Review of the project’s aims and intended outcomes.

A short summary of the concrete aims of the project took place. This focussed on the need for the project to be a school development plan rather than a school-based one.

The concrete aims of the whole project:-

To have a policy for the use and development of ICT in schools.
To raise the profile of ICT in the curriculum as a learning tool and in the administration of the institution.
To provide strategies to effectively manage the use of ICT in the classroom with the provision of exemplar teaching material.
That all areas of the curriculum will have identifiable activity of ICT.
To increase the number of teachers using ICT in the classroom by 10% per year of the project.
To provide training material for all staff in the use of ICT.

  1. Discussion of the British Education System.

A brief outline of the current education system was given. All pupils follow the National Curriculum till they are 14. Pupils are tested with Government Examinations at 7,11,14,16 and 18. These are called Key Stage 1,2,3,4 and 5 respectively.

Pupils are referred to by their National Curriculum Years i.e.

AgedNational Curriculum Year

117

128

139

1410

1511

1612

1713

All pupils follow a common curriculum until they are aged 14, when they can then pick from some options. They still study English, Mathematics, Science, Religious Education, ICT, Personal and Social Education and a Foreign Language

At the end of Year 11, they have their General Certificates Of Secondary Education (GCSE’s), and General Certificates Of Education (GCE’s) at the end of year 13.

Further information is given in the PowerPoint display on the CD.

  1. Sharing addresses/points of contact.

A database was set up and staff shared their addresses and telephone numbers. This will be returned for checking.

  1. Evaluating staff ICT expertise.

A document was given out called Basic IT Skills for Teachers.

I would all schools to use this with their staff. It gives a rough idea of the degree of IT competence in the main areas of ICT.

  1. Outlining possible areas for ICT enhancement in Geography and English.

In beginning this work, it was agreed that any work must use generic ICT software such as WORD, EXCEL, ACCESS, POWERPOINT, E-MAIL or the Internet. It must not be based on very specific software that is only available in one of the countries. It must also be able to be easily transferred into another country’s location.

Ian Peach discussed his present teaching scheme. From this, several areas were chosen for further development, as they were compatible with the other members’ curricula.

EstoniaEcosystems and Resources

PolandTourism

RomaniaWeather

UKGlobal Fashion

For the English area, only one topic was decided for ICT enhancement, this is ‘Going on Holiday’. It is aimed at developing all aspects of communication, written, listening and writing.

Estonia will work on planning a trip to another country’s capital.

Poland will prepare flash cards and pictures of holiday scenes – to learn and reinforce vocabulary.

Romania will look at the use of newspapers and local tourist information to find out what’s on.

UK will prepare video scenes with dialogues for booking basic holiday requirements – flights – hotels – transport –etc.

  1. Formulating ideas to develop for next year’s submission.

This will look at both ART and MATHEMATICS, and in particular the ways ICT can be used to prevent pupil disenchantment.

  1. Proposed visits and establishing timelines for all activities.

We agreed to always transmit work and correspondence to all partners.

Dates / Activities
15/11/02 / Send a draft form to be used for all teaching units outlining methodology. Institutions to survey staff ICT competence. UK to send institutions a database for storing and reporting on ICT competence in their schools.
22/11/02 / Institutions send to UK amendments to form.
29/11/02 / Institutions send Indrek all the information he needs to start up the website.
29/11/02 / Institutions send a rough draft of their ideas for Geography and English.
6/12/02 / Institutions send comments on the draft ideas for Geography and English.
10/12/02 / John Murphy to send draft of 2003/4 project.
??/12/02 / Used to develop the teaching units.
8/01/03 / Co-ordinators’ meeting in Poland. Arrive on 8/01/03 – leave on 12/01/03. To finalise the 2003/4 submission, run through the aims of the teacher exchanges and to bring for discussion teaching schemes. Also to indicate areas/staff for ICT training.
??/02/03 / Institutions try out their teaching schemes. Date for new submission
??/03/03 / Institutions finalise their teaching schemes.
22/03/03-
28/03/03 / Geography teachers to Estonia. Visit report to John Murphy on this visit by Romania.
29/03/03-
4/04/03 / English teachers to Romania. Visit report to John Murphy on this visit by Poland.
29/06 – 2/07/03 / Co-ordinators’ meeting in Estonia.

I believe that this is a true representation of what we discussed. If you believe that I have missed something out, send me an e-mail.

Lastly, I would like to thank you all for making our first meeting a success.

John Murphy

C:\My Documents\socrates\Report of the meeting in England 23rd.docCreated by John Murphy