Having looked through your current unit plans, you need to ensure that objectives that need strengthening or are missing are incorporated. You can do this by adapting your current units or creating new units, for example a unit on staying safe covering internet safety.
When creating new unit plans or adapting existing unit plans, it is important that the learning objectives are drawn from one or more of the substrands of the Framework for secondary ICT. When you group objectives, they should form a coherent learning experience including opportunities to revisit prior learning. If appropriate for the pupils, objectives can be drawn from those listed for older or younger age groups.
Your school's existing unit plans will have been developed with specific contexts in mind. During the process of review, it may be appropriate to consider whether these contexts have worked for the full range of pupils and whether to reinvigorate the resources used. Many new software applications and technologies are available, and new examinations offer a range of different modules. When considering your overall plans, it is important to consider progression across the key stages, and intended examination routes.
The process of creating new unit plans or revising existing ones will involve both mapping learning objectives and considering appropriate contexts and applications. Contexts easily date, and you should take the opportunity to consider age-appropriate and familiar contexts that will motivate and excite pupils, for example the use of new and emerging technologies within digital communication. The learning process is iterative, and unit plans should seek to ensure that concepts and processes are revisited continuously throughout the key stages.
Your analysis of your current scheme of work against the new programmes of study may have revealed gaps in your current provision. You will probably want to retain some of your existing units, adapt others or create new units to incorporate new learning.
The example case studies below show how two schools decided to select unit plans. School A was predominantly using the sample teaching units. School B was mainly using units that it had created.
There are many possible ways to adapt the sample teaching units, some of which are shown by ICT sample teaching unit overview with additional opportunities (39.5 KB). This file lists the Year 7 National Strategies sample teaching units, with codes for ordering. Added to the brief overview of each unit plan are possible ideas for extension, which would enable the areas revealed by the audit (ICT sample teaching unit curriculum map (52 KB)) to be covered, and support the writing of an amended scheme of work.
While reviewing its scheme of work (see School B curriculum map (41.5 KB)), the department found some specific gaps in the coverage of the programmes of study. In order to cover these gaps it was decided to add two short units to be taught at the beginning of the year. These would establish an introduction to ICT within the school, encourage good practices and teach online safety.
The level of detail in unit plans will vary from school to school. Detailed unit plans allow opportunities to foster coherence within a department while enabling individual teachers to develop and personalise their own lesson plans. The example ICT unit plan in the Resources section shows a high level of detail, including links to functional skills.
