ICT plays an increasingly important role in the lives of both students and their teachers. For students newly arrived from overseas, ICT can be used to help them integrate and to enhance their English-language skills.

Planning for inclusion

The ICT national curriculum is the starting point for planning a school curriculum that meets the specific needs of newly arrived pupils. The national curriculum inclusion statement outlines how teachers can modify, as necessary, the national curriculum programmes of study to provide all pupils with relevant and appropriately challenging work at each key stage. It sets out three principles that are essential to developing a more inclusive curriculum:

• setting suitable learning challenges
• responding to pupils' diverse learning needs
• overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils.

Teachers need to consider the full requirements of the inclusion statement when planning for individuals or groups of students. There is a specific reference to ICT in the examples under ‘Providing equality of opportunity’ (see section B ‘Responding to pupils’ diverse learning needs’).

To overcome any potential barriers to learning in ICT, some students may require:

• help to compensate for difficulties in processing at speed large amounts of textual information by being provided with access to selected materials or having more time to find things out
• support and strategies to help them interrogate and develop information presented in text and tables
• specialist software or equipment to communicate through other languages, signs or symbols and to be able to exchange and share information with others through the use of computers.

Setting suitable learning challenges

The national curriculum programmes of study set out what most pupils should be taught at each key stage but teachers should teach the knowledge, skills and understanding in ways that suit their pupils' abilities. For some groups of newly arrived students this may mean choosing knowledge, skills and understanding from earlier or later key stages so that individual students can make progress and show what they can achieve. Teachers may want to assess students to find out whether they have the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding as identified in the ‘Prior learning’ section of the scheme of work being followed.

To support the development of students’ skills in ICT, it is particularly important to establish their degree of competence. Many state schools in economically developing countries have little or no access to ICT. Students coming directly from these countries may well have never used a computer or other ICT resources.

On the basis of an assessment of students’ needs and abilities, teachers will need to consider whether the breadth and range of study identified in the programme of study that is followed by the rest of the class provides suitable contexts for a newly arrived student to learn the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding which underpin their effective use of ICT.

It is also important to consider a student’s competence in speaking, reading and writing English when planning suitable learning challenges. Teachers need to assess the reading demands of websites that students will use. The 'Initial assessment' and 'Assessment for learning' areas of this site provide guidance on this.

An induction programme for new arrivals who have no prior ICT experience might include:

• ICT skills support
• basic word-processing skills
• sound-recording and/or music software which lets students participate without language barriers
• using ICT as a source of information
• using ICT as a research tool
• using the internet
• being paired with a buddy.

Graphic organisers, mind maps and concept maps are a pictorial or graphical way to organise information and thoughts for understanding, remembering or writing about. They are powerful tools that can be used to enhance learning. They are particularly useful for students learning English as an additional language (EAL). An increasing amount of software is available (see useful weblinks).

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Responding to pupils' diverse learning needs

Teachers are expected to plan their approaches to teaching and learning so that all students can take part in lessons. This will include the planning of work that is accessible for students with EAL, as well as work that extends their language skills.

This may mean students using their first language in ICT lessons. Engagement and access to ICT can be impeded if a student’s first language is not appropriately supported. The DfES guidance Access and engagement in ICT: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language applies the principles of the key stage 3 national strategy to the teaching and learning of ICT for EAL students.

The guidance suggests strategies to help teachers provide access for students at different points of learning English. It is important to support them to develop both their understanding and use of the English language and to enhance their learning in ICT lessons.

English-language computer programs such as Listen and learn English can purchased for use by students who are learning English. Such programmes are interactive and fun to use alongside in-class EAL support. Students are also able to practice speaking English, listening, reading and understanding together (see 'Using ICT to support EAL pupils', downloadable from the Becta website). This website lists a number of such English-language teaching programs.

Schools can purchase word-processing packages in different scripts, but will also have to purchase keyboard adaptors or new keyboards to use with different scripts.

Teachers might wish to provide students with bilingual technical language lists. If these are provided it is important that students understand the associated concepts and the functions which are preformed. If using the DfES/QCA schemes of work the key words can be drawn from the ‘Language for learning’ section of the unit of work being followed by the class and/or from the Framework for teaching ICT capability: years 7, 8 and 9 (pages 67–69). It is important to remember that some words might not translate, for example ‘mouse’, and in some cases an attempt to do this could lead to confusion. 

Collaborative learning involves students working together in small groups and helping each other learn. This is a good way of developing a student’s vocabulary. There are opportunities to develop language through playing and writing games. The 'English as an additional language' area of this website provides guidance on this.

Students (and their carers) newly arrived from overseas may use ICT for particular purposes. For example they might want to access web-based newspapers and journals from the home country. Students might want to produce work in their own language or to send emails with digital photographs to friends and relatives in the home country. Videoconferencing has been used very successfully in some schools to support new arrivals in communicating with their home country or with others in this country. Sharing experiences is very important to some refugee students. It may be possible to integrate these different needs into the curriculum.

What is the potential in the ICT curriculum for valuing diversity and challenging racism?

The national curriculum programme of study provides the starting point for valuing diversity and challenging racism in the classroom. On the Respect for all in ICT site you will find references to the programmes of study for key stages 3 and 4 that offer such opportunities. There are also suggested activities that are examples of good practice. They provide effective learning opportunities for students to value diversity and challenge racism. They focus on helping students understand and appreciate aspects of cultural difference, context and change while challenging and extending their perceptions of themselves and other people.

Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils

A recent QCA report, Information and communication technology: 2002/2003 annual report on curriculum and assessment, notes that ‘secondary ICT departments lag behind all other subjects in their regard for the need to differentiate their curriculum to accommodate pupils with different learning needs.’ Students who have no prior experience of ICT and are learning EAL are extremely disadvantaged in such circumstances.  

Some new arrivals will be unfamiliar with enquiry-based learning. In some economically developing countries class sizes are often larger and learning is often more teacher-centred, emphasising the acquisition of knowledge. Some students may find enquiry difficult and may not have research skills.

Computers in the home

Some newly arrived families will be on low incomes, for example asylum seekers, who are not allowed to work in the UK, and may not have access to a computer and internet link at home. If students are required to use ICT as part of homework, schools should consider:

• directing them towards free community ICT provision. Many public libraries offer free ICT provision and internet access to school pupils
• directing them towards the local City Learning Centre (if there is one)
• setting up an after-school or lunchtime ICT club.

Examples of good practice

A primary school in southern England uses its computer suite for an after-school computer club for parents and carers. Albanian-speaking parents were encouraged to attend, with their children, on a designated evening. Refreshments were provided and parents were allowed to access the Albanian-language press from the internet. At the same time, teachers dropped in and were able to talk to parents about their children’s education.

Eritrean, Ethiopian and Somali pupils who attended a homework club in north London used ICT to produce bilingual school word lists for new arrivals. These were then given to primary and secondary schools in the area.

Barriers to learning for newly arrived students that affect all areas of the curriculum are likely to be:

• emotional, particularly where they have fled from conflict. The 'Supporting emotional well-being' area of this site provides guidance on this
• cultural. The 'Culturally diverse and inclusive curriculum' area of this site provides guidance on this
• linked to their degree of previous educational experience and their level of literacy in their first language. The 'Children with little or no prior education' area of this site provides guidance on this.

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Useful weblinks

Please note: QCA is not responsible for the content of external sites

BBC: Webwise – the beginners' guide to the internet
The BBC provides a free online course to help users master the internet. This may be of particular use to new arrivals with no prior experience of using the internet.

British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta)
Becta aims to support the development of ICT in education throughout the UK. In the 'Inclusion' area you will find material to support your teaching including a list of websites to support different languages. Becta has produced a number of information sheets which translate common ICT terms and computer-related phrases from English into other languages.

Becta: How to use ICT with learners of English as an additional language (EAL)
This area of the Becta website offers a range of support and guidance to classroom practitioners. You can search by subject or by EAL to find guidance about how to make the curriculum more accessible to pupils. There are software suggestions and links to other websites. The downloadable document Using ICT to support EAL pupils provides a list of other resources and useful weblinks that relate to ICT uses with EAL pupils.

DfES: Access and engagement in ICT: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language
This downloadable publication has a great deal of useful information on how ICT can support pupils’ English language development. It lists strategies that schools can adopt to help pupils acquire the technical English used in ICT. It also describes ways that ICT can help English-language learning. Although this guidance is aimed at key stage 3, teachers of 14–19 students may find some of the content useful.

DfES: City Learning Centres (CLCs)
There are over 100 CLCs operating in Excellence in Cities areas across the country. These provide state-of-the art ICT-based learning opportunities for the pupils at the host school, for pupils at a network of surrounding schools, and for the wider community. South Camden CLC is an example.

South Camden City Learning Centre
The centre is open to schools and local community groups in Camden.
The centre offers opportunities to use new ICT technologies, gain qualifications, share good practice and develop confidence and skills.

DfES: Key stage 3 national strategy: ICT
This is a direct link to the ICT section of the key stage 3 strategy website. Publications and resources are available to order or download. The complete text of the Framework for teaching ICT capability: years 7, 8 and 9 is also available to read or download. The chapter on inclusion has a section on teaching EAL pupils.

The Graphic Organizer
This is an American website but is informative and includes useful examples of electronic graphic organisers.

Global-leap
The Global-leap website is a resource for teachers around the world, enabling them to get help, advice and support to develop videoconferencing in the curriculum, and to find videoconferencing partners and to book interactive videoconference lessons.

Hounslow Language Service
This site has a wide range of teaching resources including bilingual stories and word lists.

Mantra Lingua
Mantra Lingua produces a range of resources in dual languages.

Mantra Lingua: Multilingual talking dictionary
This CD-ROM allows you to see the word written in different scripts and hear it spoken aloud. Seventeen topics cover everyday words used at school and in the home. Pages can be printed out to provide dictionaries for the whole class. Available in four editions:

• General CD: Arabic, Bengali, French, Somali, Urdu
• East European CD: Albanian, Czech, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croat
• European CD: French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish
• South Asian CD: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Panjabi, Tamil.

Mantra Lingua: My life story
This is a dual-language 36-page pack written by U Mahmout and A Thompson. The pack is designed for use by bilingual pupils at different levels and ages to write about their lives. It can also be used for newly arrived pupils in key stage 2. Topics include about me, my family tree, my country, my school, feelings about school, events and people, timeline of my life, hopes for the future, and jobs and careers. The book is available in the following languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Czech, French, Portuguese, Serbo-Croat, Somali, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu.

Mantra Lingua: Words for school
An illustrated dictionary of essential words that students need at school, from ‘toilet’ to ‘classroom’, ‘teacher’ to ‘welfare assistant’. This book can be used by children and all those involved in their care at school and at home. The book includes translations as well as transliterations. It is available in the following languages: Albanian, Bengali (Sylheti), Chinese, Czech, French, Gujarati, Panjabi, Portuguese, Serbo-Croat, Somali, Spanish and Turkish.

Mantra Lingua: Phrases for school
A dual-language book containing all the essential phrases to get the teacher and student through a school day, for example ‘Where is your homework?’ It includes translations as well as transliterations and is available in the following languages: Arabic, Bengali (Sylheti), Chinese, Gujarati, Panjabi, Portuguese, Somali, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese.

National curriculum in action
This website uses pupils' work and case study material to show what the national curriculum in ICT looks like in practice.

National curriculum online
National curriculum online helps you search each curriculum area to locate the opportunities and also provides a search facility for you to locate resources that might help your teaching.

National Grid for Learning (NGfL): Inclusion
Resources to support specific learning needs. This includes a section on English as an additional language.

NGfL: ScreenTurtle 2
ScreenTurtle is designed to be quick to learn, yet still offers all the Logo features needed in most classrooms. It does not expect students to learn a whole new syntax – FORWARD, FD and AHEAD all do the same thing. They can UNDO commands, PAINT with the mouse, even keep notes without using a word processor. And printing is as easy as typing PRINT SCREEN or PRINT WORDS. It is useful for EAL students as the system still works if words are slightly misspelt or include capital letters. ScreenTurtle focuses on the exploration of shape, space, number, vectors and bearings. It suits all ages and abilities.

Omniglot
A guide to writing systems and written languages. It includes numerals in different scripts and the appropriate fonts.

Portsmouth Ethnic Minority Achievement Service (EMAS)
Use the ‘Search EMAS’ facility to see what support there is for teaching ICT to pupils learning English as an additional language.

QCA: Information and communication technology: 2002/2003 annual report on curriculum and assessment
QCA annual subject report drawn from a wide range of evidence. 

QCA: Respect for all in ICT
This site provides ideas of how ICT can be used to challenge racism and promote diversity.

The paperboy
This website features newspapers from around the world. You can also find The magazineboy website from here.

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