HGfL: ICT: Assessment

Children use and apply their ICT knowledge, skills and understanding confidently and competently in their learning and in everyday contexts. They become independent and discerning users of technology, recognising opportunities and risks and using strategies to stay safe.

Guidelines for ICT Assessment Updated

Assessing ICT work is an integral part of teaching and learning and central to good practice. It should be process orientated - reviewing the way that techniques and skills are applied purposefully by pupils to demonstrate their understanding of the concepts of ICT. As assessment is part of the learning process it is essential that pupils are closely involved.
Assessment can be broken down into;

Current national expectations for pupil progress in ICT state that at the end of Key Stage 1 the average child will be operating at level 2 and at the end of Key Stage 2 level 4. Levels 5 to 6 represent expectations for most 14 year-olds.

Levels

Progression in ICT

The key characteristics of each level are described below. It is useful to have these characteristics in mind when assessing and planning work.

Level	Key characteristics	Level descriptions
Working towards Level 1	Pre-explorative, working with increasing engagement	Pupils are aware that some ICT is used in everyday life and beginning to talk about ICT. They show some awareness that input devices have an effect on screen, making choices and beginning to notice what happens. They are beginning to use text, images and sound to share ideas and can to some extent use simple software to model real life activities.
Level 1	Explorative use and building familiarity	Pupils explore information from various sources, showing they know that information exists in different forms. They use ICT to work with text, images and sound to help them share their ideas. They recognise that many everyday devices respond to signals and instructions. They make choices when using such devices to produce different outcomes. They talk about their use of ICT.
Level 2	Purposeful use towards specific outcomes	Pupils use ICT to organise and classify information and to present their findings. They enter, save and retrieve work. They use ICT to help them generate, amend and record their work and share their ideas in different forms, including text, tables, images and sound. They plan and give instructions to make things happen and describe the effects. They use ICT to explore what happens in real and imaginary situations. They talk about their experiences of ICT both inside and outside school.
Level 3	Develop ideas and solve problems	Pupils use ICT to save information and to find and use appropriate stored information, following straightforward lines of enquiry. They use ICT to generate, develop, organise and present their work. They share and exchange their ideas with others. They use sequences of instructions to control devices and achieve specific outcomes. They make appropriate choices when using ICT-based models or simulations to help them find things out and solve problems. They describe their use of ICT and its use outside school.
Level 4	Combine and refine information from various sources; interpret and question plausibility	Pupils understand the need for care in framing questions when collecting, finding and interrogating information. They interpret their findings, question plausibility and recognise that poor-quality information leads to unreliable results. They add to, amend and combine different forms of information from a variety of sources. They use ICT to present information in different forms and show they are aware of the intended audience and the need for quality in their presentations. They exchange information and ideas with others in a variety of ways, including using e-mail. They use ICT systems to control events in a predetermined manner and to sense physical data. They use ICT-based models and simulations to explore patterns and relationships, and make predictions about the consequences of their decisions. They compare their use of ICT with other methods and with its use outside school.
Level 5	Combine use of ICT tools in an overall structure; critically evaluate fitness for purpose/accuracy	Pupils select the information they need for different purposes, check its accuracy and organise it in a form suitable for processing. They use ICT to structure, refine and present information in different forms and styles for specific purposes and audiences. They exchange information and ideas with others in a variety of ways, including using e-mail. They create sequences of instructions to control events, and understand the need to be precise when framing and sequencing instructions. They understand how ICT devices with sensors can be used to monitor and measure external events. They explore the effects of changing the variables in an ICT-based model. They discuss their knowledge and experience of using ICT and their observations of its use outside school. They assess the use of ICT in their work and are able to reflect critically in order to make improvements in subsequent work.
Level 6	Increased efficiency and integration; greater range and complexity of information	Pupils develop and refine their work to enhance its quality, using information from a range of sources. Where necessary, they use complex lines of enquiry to test hypotheses.They present their ideas in a variety of ways and show a clear sense of audience. They develop, try out and refine sequences of instructions to monitor, measure and control events, and show efficiency in framing these instructions. They use ICT-based models to make predictions and vary the rules within the models. They assess the validity of these models by comparing their behaviour with information from other sources.They discuss the impact of ICT on society.
Level 7	Scope, define, implement and refine systems	Pupils combine information from a variety of ICT-based and other sources for presentation to different audiences. They identify the advantages and limitations of different information-handling applications. They select and use information systems suited to their work in a variety of contexts, translating enquiries expressed in ordinary language into the form required by the system. They use ICT to measure, record and analyse physical variables and control events. They design ICT-based models and procedures with variables to meet particular needs.They consider the benefits and limitations of ICT tools and information sources and of the results they produce, and they use these results to inform future judgements about the quality of their work. They take part in informed discussions about the use of ICT and its impact on society.
Level 8	Design and implement systems for others to use	Pupils independently select appropriate information sources and ICT tools for specific tasks, taking into account ease of use and suitability. They design successful ways to collect and prepare information for processing. They design and implement systems for others to use. When developing systems that respond to events, they make appropriate use of feedback. They take part in informed discussions about the social, economic, ethical and moral issues raised by ICT.
Exceptional Performance	Design, implement, test, documentment and evaluate systems for others	Pupils evaluate software packages and ICT-based models, analysing the situations for which they were developed and assessing their efficiency, ease of use and appropriateness. They suggest refinements to existing systems and design, implement and document systems for others to use, predicting some of the consequences that could arise from the use of such systems. When discussing their own and others' use of ICT, they use their knowledge and experience of information systems to inform their views on the social, economic, political, legal, ethical and moral issues raised by ICT.

National Curriculum in Action (NC Action)

NC in Action uses pupils' work and case study material to exemplify discrete and cross-curricular ICT in practice.

Pupil Self Assessment & Pupil Voice Updated

The pupils' view of their work is an integral to the assessment process. The resources below are designed to assess progress and attainment after the completion of a significant piece of work, such as an independent task. They could also be used as a tool to find out individual achievement when children have been working collaboratively. There is no requirement to assess in this way after every ICT activity.

Pupil voice helps to ascertain what the children think they know (breadth and depth of the curriculum) and provides insights to pupils' perceptions of the value and purpose of ICT. In addition it provides information about behaviour and attitudes including enthusiasm and motivation. Pupil voice is also a tool to establish the nature of home use of ICT and help address the ‘digital divide’. It gives ownership of learning to the pupils and raises the profile of ICT in the school.