Whole school ICT strategic planning

The pace of change that has accompanied the Government's plans for ICT in schools has been unparalleled. Some of this change has been in response to specific directives; other change has been because schools have grasped the nettle themselves and advanced through their own entrepreneurial visions and ideas. Whatever the causes, schools must plan in order to meet these challenges, and to trace the impact their ICT vision has on student performance and the school as a whole.

Whilst the school's vision for integrating ICT is the driving force, its underpinning practices and procedures, allocation of resources, overall general management and focused determination are all essential to achieve real success. It is also important to ensure that the skills, knowledge and attitude of staff will complement any change – where there are gaps, adequate provision needs to be made to reduce them. The learning needs of staff are therefore driven by the needs of their current posts, their individual aspirations, and the future needs of the school.

Strategic ICT planning, ie having a clear direction of where you want to get to and then planning for how it will be achieved, provides a systematic way of keeping track of the overall vision by working to a series of predetermined goals and targets. The vision can thereby be viewed as a journey from the present to the future. More information on strategic ICT planning can be found in Module 1.

Once the strategic vision has been developed, the 'how' of achieving it in both the long and short term will need to be considered. Staff training and development is usually a vital feature within an ICT strategic plan since, without the correct skills and knowledge, staff may be unable to play their part in turning the vision into practice. A separate ICT training and development strategic plan, therefore, can be created from the whole school ICT strategic plan to identify and plan for the main elements of training which will need to be pursued over the same period.