Click to go to Introduction
  Effective ICT work in schools will be the consequence of good leadership and effective coordination. Both are necessary factors for success. ICT is not a subject that can be delegated to an ICT Coordinator. In practice the leadership and coordination roles will complement one another and work so as to seek to drive the school towards a shared vision.
Headteachers, curriculum deputies, ICT Coordinators and subject leaders will each demonstrate a leadership role with ICT.


School leaders should seek to drive developments towards a vision of the school as a centre of excellence in using ICT for teaching and learning. The DfES refers to this vision as 'The School of the Future'. The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) describes the 'School of the Future' as the 'E-confident School'.

Characteristics of the E-confident School
High levels of staff confidence, competence and leadership
 Availability and access to technical support
 Re-engineering teaching, learning and assessment.
 Leading and managing distributed and concurrent learning
 Effective application within organisational and management processes
 Coherent personal learning development, support and access - for all staff
 Secure, informed professional judgement
 Appropriate resource allocation to ensure sustainable development
 Pupils/students with high levels of ICT capability
 School as the community learning and information hub

Good leadership in ICT (at all levels) will be demonstrated through:
  having a clear understanding about the nature of ICT as a subject, and a learning medium
  understanding why ICT is potentially the most powerful learning medium yet developed
  having a clear vision of what the school should achieve with ICT over time
  being able to demonstrate how investments in ICT are impacting on learning and attainment
  achieving the balance between teaching ICT skills and applying them to learning
  knowing the key components to an ICT strategy that must be in place for ICT to succeed.

Effective coordination in ICT will be demonstrated through:
  managing developments according to the school development plan for ICT
  maintaining good communication with SMT, heads of department, teachers and technicians
  identifying solutions to obstacles to ICT developments
  keeping SMT and teachers aware of key developments in ICT
  supporting staff development in the use of ICT across subjects
  evaluating progress in developing ICT and publicising pupils' achievements in using ICT

This section looks at some issues to do with leading and coordinating ICT in Schools.