Smart ICT Skills Builder VLE Pack (Year 8)

School: St. Saviour’s and St. Olave’s School
Number of ICT Teachers in department: 4
Number of pupils in school: 800+

The content is both practical and theoretical and challenges students to reach their best potential. Students enjoy the interactive video introductions which give them a goal to work towards, whilst the helpful tutorials have encouraged them to use the VLE more and work independently!

Staff in the ICT department have been using the VLE more too as the product is simple to install, lessons are planned out and they cover the national curriculum objectives very well.

We have been using the books for many years but for students wanting to access the resources from home, the ICT Skills Packs were any excellent option. Students who miss lessons due to illness and other reasons can access the resources from home and not feel left behind.

The Packs are also brilliant for personalising tasks, depending on specific class requirements. This is especially handy for special needs students – lessons can be  easily adapted for them and they are able to use the Skills Builder video to help them if they find something hard to understand or remember. It is also useful for the learning support teacher as they can access the resources prior to the lesson.

Smart ICT Skills Builder VLE Pack (Years 7, 8 and 9)

School: St. Wilfrid's R.C. College, South Shields
VLE: Frog
Reviewers: Billy Bone and Paul Dann, ICT Teachers

Billy Bone

Smart Learning is the best Key Stage 3 software that I have used so far in ICT. The pupils find your VLE resource very easy and simple to use. I find the tasks are very in date and also really engaging for all pupils. I like how creative you are with your tasks, especially the Murder Most Horrid Unit for exploring databases in Year 7.

In the future I’d like to see some sort of automatic assessment with your resources, but I'd recommend the Smart ICT Skills Builder VLE Packs for any school.

Paul Dann

The course is very current and up-to-date which helps the students respond to it.  The resources are well prepared and easy to understand. The Flash movies are engaging and a good way to introduce each Unit. I think the course is put in a fun way to help students to stay engrossed.

The only negative comment I have is that sometimes there are too many tasks or resources to complete in one lesson.

VLE - FROG

Teacher comments

Unit 8.1 – Smart ICT Skills Builder VLE Pack (Year 8)

Delivering Unit 8.1 Environmental Tourists via the VLE based resources made delivery of a unit of work a smooth and simple process. The fact that students could access prior work and revisit or catch up on missed work gave them the opportunity to make good progress.

The consistency of the presentation of material meant that both across shared classes and across the subject, students were able to make independent progress and share ideas outside of their class group. Having homework related on the VLE in the tutorials gave the opportunity to integrate this with the ability to set homework as lessons in the FROG VLE.

Likewise the standardised assessment at the end of the unit meant that the assessment task could be set and collected via the VLE across the whole of the year group. Mapping to APP has meant that following the assessment this has been able to be integrated into the departments APP database system and allow quick and simple feedback to the students during the school's review window.

Pupil comments

Pupil A Sophie ****
“I actually like the content I was ill for two weeks and I didn’t sit there doing nothing I was able to long on to our schools VLE and continue with my work as normal”.

Pupil B Bradley *****
(In isolation but has ICT access)
“I wanted to do nothing in the bridge (the isolation unit), but I still had to work for the entire time as the lesson was on the VLE, so I was forced to work”.

Isolation staff
“Working in the bridge all day with the ICT department using VLE content pack I was able to get the pupils working as in a normal lesson, and not having to chase around for work”.

Packs in general
As soon as the class gets used to working from a VLE website the delivery of a lesson is much easier as they are able to load the lesson straight away, also with lessons having either help videos, interactive guides or games for a plenary, it has livened up the department lessons.

Installation
Technician
“The installation is simple simply copy the CD to the directory and unzip”.

Trainee teachers
SCITT Mrs S Howard
“I have been working in a school before hand where I was given nothing; this school had supplied me with a complete Scheme of work with all resources and associated lesson plans, this was awesome as it made my workload lighter, when I came to assign the work I had exemplar work along with how it matches APP”.

School Name: Sturminster Newton High School

This is a good digital learning resource that relates to our programme of learning activities.  It allows us to easily establish the relevant curriculum learning outcomes the content is relevant, accurate and appropriate for our students.

This resource is able to meet the needs of all our students, it is easy to navigate, and it enhances the personal learning experience as an individual or as part of a group. It offers user diversity, and it avoids bias and stereotyping which is evident within the unit introductions and video animations.

It is a good quality resource which is visually appealing to the learner without detracting from the educational effectiveness; it is stimulating interaction that the learner enjoys using for learning.  As each Unit is different it has an appropriate mix of media for students to view and use. The resources allow the students to experiment and work can be saved into the students own area and redone if necessary. 

For the teacher there are lesson plans and resources that can be used if you are having technical problems.
For assessment there is a tracking sheet in the Teacher resources included to aid progression based on what the learner has understood using the work produced.  It provides specific feedback zones at the end of each unit, it gives information on progression. It allows for regular opportunities for peer and/or self-assessment. It also clearly identifies different levels against learning objectives along the learning pathway and on completion.

The VLE Pack also inspires learners to be creative and inventive giving students opportunities to use and experience different technologies that they are not used to using. It allows for a different way of teaching, that is interactive with the students and for the students to be interactive with each other.

School Name: Dormston School
Number of ICT Teachers in department: 5
Number of pupils per year: 210

We have tried many online resources but found this one to be the best.  As all ICT staff teach the lesson from the Smart ICT Skills Builder VLE software, it allows pupils to access the same lesson content from home as they see in the classroom. 

Pupils work at their own pace and have access to all the resources. Many of the pupils like the ‘Openers’.  Some of these are quite funny, such as Unit 7.6 and it really does set the scene for the lesson. The resources allow pupils to become more independent learners and they become more engaged with their learning. 

All the ICT learning objectives are covered in the VLE Pack and the content is also mapped to APP, Functional Skills and PLTS. The content is customizable which means that if you’re not happy with the resource, it can be changed to suit your learners’ needs.  Many other resources are rigid and inflexible and you are forced to teach content which may not suit the class or the needs of your learners.