Information and communications technology is fundamental to schools in the 21st century and anyone who doubts that need only look at the amount being spent on it. Under the government's two flagship initiatives, Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and the Primary Capital Programme (PCP), ICT accounts for £200m this financial year - some 10 % of their overall budget.
Ensuring that the money is wisely spent falls, in part, to Partnerships for Schools (PfS) which oversees both programmes, as well as academies, and whose team of ICT consultants, education directors and architects work with local authorities to draw up building plans. For Russell Andrew, PfS director of education and planning policy, cutting-edge digital technology is integral to the ambitions of the capital programmes.
"ICT sits at the very centre of what we want to do," he says. "Our aim is to provide educational impact and enable young people to reach their full potential. Sometimes ICT is the starting point of our discussions with local authorities."
In the next year PfS expects that 200 schools will open with better broadband connectivity, e-learning web portals and information systems and flexible learning spaces that allow students to access more cutting-edge technology than ever before.
Becta, the government's education technology agency, has set down minimum standards for ICT which all contractors involved in BSF projects must meet. Its advice to BSF schools and local authorities is to define clearly at the outset how ICT will support learning. Nina Woodcock, Becta's head of capital programmes, says: "Our view is that it's very important for schools and local authorities to have a clear ICT vision, not in terms of the number of computers or the technology but of the learning outcomes you want to achieve."
If the school's aim, for example, is to provide access to technology across the curriculum - in any subject and at any time - then the design brief for ICT would need to include making wireless available in all classrooms and providing a sufficient number of PCs, laptops and handheld devices available for use. Colin Penfold, director, partnerships and commissioning for Becta, will be presenting a seminar on the subject at Bett 2010.
Lessons have been learned over the course of the BSF programme and the implementation of ICT has adapted to reflect best practice. The major changes, according to Woodcock, are that ICT is no longer lumped together with overall design and build but is treated as a stand-alone, five-year contract that includes provision of hardware as well as ongoing replacement and maintenance.
In addition, local authorities, schools and ICT providers now work in close partnership and some contract terms are being relaxed to allow private contractors room to innovate. One of the most successful link-ups has been the joint venture between Sheffield city council, schools and IT contractor Civica, which recently won a PfS award for Most Effective ICT Partnership. Judges were impressed by the "high level of innovation shown in the managed learning environment, which is being well used by staff and pupils."
The private sector has also brought new expertise to the management of information in schools. Logica , for example, is bidding for a number of BSF projects where it hopes to deploy technology it has developed to track student records of attainment. Richard Hadfield, head of Logica's education and skills divisions, says: "In future, learning won't just be confined to the school site. Students aged 14-19 might spend three days in school, a day in college and a day in work-based training. ICT has to be able to track that."
Visitors to Bett will be able to see first-hand how ICT is shaping BSF. The Future Learning Spaces zone will showcase flexible classrooms and innovative ICT, including soundproof plexiglass pods for small group work. It is organised by PfS and the show's organiser, Emap, and supported by headline sponsor Ramesys in partnership with design engineer Atkins.
Steve Smith, director of learning for Ramesys, explains that visitors will not see products in isolation but will be presented instead with a whole building approach to ICT that includes building management systems, energy saving, security, access control and cashless catering.
"The buzzword this year is interoperability," he says - different technologies working seamlessly together, in other words.
