ICT Mark Assessors Newsletter April 2009

News round-up

This newsletter carries a range of important information..please read carefully!

It has been great to meet so many of you at the regional conferences. We now have 300 registered assessors covering the whole of the UK. Interest from schools continues to build with between 30 and 60 schools currently going through the assessment process every month.

All of the schools that were previously NaaceMarked and subsequently assimilated into the ICT Mark have now expired. The first ICT Mark schools which were awarded in July 2006 are shortly due to renew. The ICT Mark office mail all schools due for renewal six months and three months before their expiry date.

Work continues with the migration of the Northern Ireland and Early Years matrices into the new self review tool.

We have an additional two trial avenues of communication set up for you. First there is now an ICT Mark Twitter account for you to follow "@ICTMark". Second we have set up a Ning forum for ICT Mark assessors. We can't guarantee to monitor and respond to all posts, but if it proves useful we will keep it going. The email invites for this are on their way to you and it could be a useful way to check out what others think about a bit of evidence etc- we have a vast depth of knowledge within our ranks.

Regional Conference 2008 update

We have processed and collated your work from the 2008 conferences and have appended the result on this page. The document is the work of a dialogue between professionals- it does not represent official guidance, and you may disagree with someone's comments. However on the whole it is an invaluable document which will be useful in preparing for assessment visits.

We captured some of the questions, answers and tips discussed and you will find a section covering these below. There is an existing FAQ on the SRF on the Becta website at http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=srf&catcode=ss_to_srf_faq_02.

One of our most frequently requested items was for additional information on ICT Mark schools that are currently expiring. Becta are working on the inclusion of date of award on their website (see Next Generation Learning section below). In the meantime we have published our list of approvals on this page. This list includes all schools that have been awarded the full ICT Mark (i.e. excluding the Assimilated schools).

Next Generation Learning Charter

Full details of the Next Generation Learning Charter are published on the Becta website at http://www.nextgenerationlearning.org.uk/ and the presentation that Becta showed to assessors at the recent conferences at http://www.naace.co.uk/811.

Additional information on the recognition procedure is currently being written for the Next Generation Learning website. The map will shortly be updated to include the date on the ICT Mark and will  have different coloured pins to show schools that are committed and those that have reached recognition level.

Next Generation Learning Charter Support Course

Naace has developed a Next Generation Learning Charter Support Course for personnel who are working with schools to support their progression through the Next Generation Learning Charter, with special emphasis on how to assist schools in achieving ICT Mark accreditation. Features of the course are:

• A blended learning approach;
• Support materials available for use in the Naace CPD area both on the day of the course and subsequent to the course.

The course is being delivered on behalf of Naace by the School House Partnership and the venue/dates are as follows.

• 15 June Leeds
  
• 17 June Birmingham
  
• 26 June London
  

Full booking information will be announced in the Naace Members Newsletter and to all those who have expressed an interest in this, or in assessor training (which is not currently being offered).

Important: Announcement of dates for the next round of Regional Conferences 2009

The following dates have been allocated for the next round of ICT Mark assessor conferences. Feedback from the 2008 conferences will be used to inform planning for 2009.  Please make a note of these now to avoid diary conflicts. Remember that attendance at an annual conference is a condition of continuing registration . We will write again in September with formal joining instructions.

• November 13 Bristol
• November 16 Llandrindod Wells
• November 19 Birmingham
• November 25 York
• December 2 Northern Ireland
• December 8 London

Procedures

We have been making a few changes to the way we handle school assessments. When schools have reached the threshold in the self-review framework and apply for the ICT Mark on the Becta site they will receive an automated response with links to two pages on the Naace site:

• www.naace.co.uk/821 for new schools, and
• www.naace.co.uk/822 for renewing schools.

The difference between the two is only the streamlined commentary which is offered to schools in their renewal messages. These give schools the information that they need to proceed, and the booking form. As soon as we receive the booking form we download and check the evidence and allocate the assessor.

Help our office!

• Schools make arrangements with an assessor for a date but then are not ready to proceed- please can you keep tabs on any school that you set a date for without us having formally sent you the evidence first?
  
• Schools apply for the ICT Mark but their evidence is not complete. We need the evidence three weeks before the date of assessment; if you are working with a school please ensure that they send us the evidence in good time.
  
• Assessors make arrangements for an assessment but do not tell us the date; as a consequence the school is not invoiced and the assessor cannot be paid.
• Schools and assessors write to us without telling us which school- the urn and school name in the subject line is really helpful for tracking our messages. Schools especially confuse the urn (can be checked on Edubase at www.edubase.gov.uk/search.xhtml?clear=true) with the LA/DFES number- all our record keeping uses the urn.
• Assessment reports received late: since we cannot tell a school the outcome of their assessment until we have checked and sent your report to Becta, and received their confirmation it is vital that we receive your report within five days of the assessment date.
  

16 tips for assessors (collected from assessors at the Conferences)

1. When you are allocated the assessment phone and talk to the head teacher to let them know you will be sending a draft agenda, and to answer any questions.
2. Contact the ICT Mark office without delay if you have any concerns about the evidence, or if you have an approaching provisional date but do not have the evidence.
3. Let schools know what is required well in advance; tell them they do not need to prepare lots of info- it is the conversations that are important.
4. Prepare a list of questions before the visit- the new forum could be a great place to share these.
   
5. Assessors must manage the agenda for an assessment; allow for slippage; be assertive with the senior management to keep to time.
6. It is a celebration, not an inspection; a professional dialogue.
7. You should normally focus on two areas, maybe three. Note possible strengths and weaknesses before the visit.
8. Ask to have some children lead you on the tour of the school; have dinner with the children.
9. Use a print out of the feedback sheet to record as you go through the assessment; check the school name for the certificate.
10. Record quotes (and sources).
11. Staff should be encouraged not to talk for the children when they are being interviewed.
12. Have to hand the criteria for ICT Excellence awards.
13. Write up your report as soon as possible, ideally the same day.
14. If your visit was moderated remember to run your report past the moderator before submission. Debate any differences of opinion with the moderator, but in the end the moderator’s recommendations must be accepted.
15. The points for development are a key feature of our work with schools; schools are paying for your consultancy and this section of the report should be comprehensive. and guide them in their next steps.
    
16. A school may ask for the notes made during the visit.

Questions and some answers from the conference

Pdf’s of the self-review framework should be available to assessors and schools.

• Once you have signed into the self-review framework, PDFs are available to download for all elements level descriptors.

Assessors should have feedback about the assessment and should be notified when a school is told of the outcome so they can celebrate with the school.

• When an assessor carries out a first moderated assessment the assessor is sent a copy of the moderator’s report. Assessors are now copied in to the email that notifies school of the outcome of their assessment.

Why don't assessors get to report on how their moderated assessement was for them?

• A new report procedure has just been launched for all moderated assessments.
  

Are there too many assessors? Work seems sparse for many people.

• The number of ICT mark assessments is increasing each month and there is increased activity in ensuring that schools renew their ICT mark when it expires.  The introduction of the recognition level in the Next Generation Learning Charter, as a step towards the ICT Mark, and the increased publicity and promotion around the Next Generation Learning Campaign , will drive up the number of applications for assessment. There are currently 300 assessors and about 400 assessments per year. Assessors are free to generate work in their own areas.

LA’s need consistent support from Becta for their work in promoting the self-review framework.

• Becta have a team of Regional Delivery Advisers who provide support to each of the nine regions (two in London) to provide support to LAs and RBCs. They offer support across all areas of Becta’s activity including helping them to encouraging schools to use the self-review framework to eventually achieve ICT Mark status. The Regional Delivery Advisers can be contacted at engage@becta.org.uk or 0800 877 8777 (8am to 6pm)

Streamlined process: because schools only have to comment at aspect level they may not properly engage with framework.

• Under the streamlined approach the school still has to engage with all elements in the framework. The approach is available as an incentive to schools to renew. Assessors should make engagement with the full online self-review framework a point for development: it is a powerful tool to be used to ensure the school continues to improve.

Assessors should have past assessment details for renewing schools- if there were points for development then these should be followed up.

• We are looking into this.

Aspects/statements should be numbered.

• This comment is noted and will be discussed when Becta review the self-review framework.

Is there a published route to becoming a lead assessor?

• The competencies for becoming a lead assessor are currently being reviewed; assessors will be invited to apply for the role in the future.

Is there an equitable way to share assessments?

• Schools are encouraged to allow Naace to choose their assessor. When Naace is free to choose an assessor the work is allocated equitably according to the area that assessors have opted to work in, giving priority to assessors awaiting their first assessment.Many assessors devote considerable time and energy in generating assessment work for themselves in the areas in which they operate.

Could we have an exemplar of a filled in assessment report?

• We have collected some examples and will be uploading them shortly.

Schools are saying that they don’t get an overview of where they are up to in their journey through the srf.

• This is currently being explored.

LA’s want information about where schools are up to in the self-review framework

• Message from Becta: We welcome further views on this.  Currently we are happy to share aggregated data with LA’s showing them an overall picture of their schools, but we are unhappy about sharing school’s data without the school's permission.  It has been an implicit idea that the schools will be more honest in their review, if they are confident the results will not be shared with thirds parties, LA’s Ofsted, SIPs etc without their permission.

Why does the only recognition of excellence beyond the ICT Mark need to be on a competitive basis?

• Most educational award schemes are conducted in a competitive way and the ICT Excellence awards are no exception. 

• Due to there being a limited amount of ICT Excellence Awards available to schools, they are awarded yearly on a competitive basis. This provides an alternative way of celebrating excellent and transformational levels of use of ICT in specific areas. The ICT Mark accreditation is an excellent non competitive process for schools who wish to be recognised for their good practice. Becta also offer other ways for schools to share excellence, e.g. Leading Leaders Network.

Your contact details

We have messaged all registered assessors requesting updates to the details that we hold and we have now completed updating the details both at both Naace and on the Becta website. If you believe any of the details to be incorrect please do not hesitate to contact us.

Our contact details

When contacting the office please use ictmark@naace.co.uk

The office telephone numbers are:

• ICT Mark Office (Christine) 0115 848 3446
• ICT Mark Project Officer (Chris/Claire) 0115 848 3140

We are always pleased to hear from you.