Embedding ICT in the Curriculum

What does embedded mean?

Children should be able to use ICT in their learning without needing separate 'computer' lessons. In the same way that children should know when to use a calculator in maths, ICT should fit seamlessly into the curriculum. Ideally children should not need to leave their classroom in order to use ICT. The use of laptops, classroom computers, the IWB, digital cameras, data loggers, electronic toys etc should all be part of everyday lessons. ICT does not need to become a trip to the 'computer room'.

At Robert Hitcham's we have just started using an online resource called iTeachers. It is a complete ICT scheme of work and software training tool for primary school teachers.

iTeachers is a suite of over 200 video tutorials - iLessons - combined with drag and drop planning grids - iPlans- designed to revolutionise how you teach your entire ICT curriculum.

*give teachers lacking in ICT confidence the skills and ideas to teach cross-curricular ICT.
*ensure that ICT across the school is fully embedded into the curriculum.
*help schools to get full value for money from their existing ICT investment.
*save teachers hours and hours of trawling the internet as well as hours of planning time.
*raise standards of ICT teaching and learning.

The tutorials are great. They would be useful for both teachers and children to look at.

See sample lesson plan

See demo of the site

We would recommend that you have a look at this site. ICT really should be embedded into the Primary curriculum and I am sure that iTeachers could help you do this. At Robert Hitcham's we are looking at making links between our existing curriculum plans and the ICT resources in iTeachers.

Our School Website

The Robert Hitcham's website has been running for about 10 years. It was created and built by Andrew Trythell - who left the school Summer 2007. It has become one of the largest and most popular school websites in the World!

6 of the most popular sections on the Hitcham's website appear on the top list of a google search - see images.

Type the word 'mosque' into google and the Hitcham's website comes 2nd on a list of over 5 million references! Skeletons is 5th, Habitats is 3rd, Synagogues 8th, Indian Art 4th and Phonics 3rd.



We know that the site gets nearly 1.5 million 'hits' a year. During term time there are over 5000 hits per day and on average about 30,000 a week. People have visited the website from 113 countries.

20% of the visitors to the website come from google. In other words people using a search engine to look for teaching / learning resorces are referred by google to our website. Most of the others are referals from other education websites such as 'teachingideas'.



We are able to track the popularity of the website and particular sections / pages thanks to a detailed tracker from a company called 'Hitmatic'. This information is helping me understand which parts of the site are worth adding to / updating. I can also use these popular pages to make links to other new sections of the site - which I hope will become equally popular.

The popularity of the website depends mainly on the quality of the resources so it is important to keep these up to date. It is fascinating to know that so many people from around Britain and the rest of the World make use of our website and reassuring that the work put into creating the content of the site is worthwhile.

Creating your own School Blog

It is very quick and easy to set up your own school blog.

It is a free service hosted by 'Google'

Go to the google homepage and create an account.

Your username for a blog will be an email address - best to use your school admin or school personal address.

Create your own password and a name for the blog.

Look at the next steps for personalising the settings

of your blog followed by 'posting' to your blog.

ICT Register

Sir Robert Hitcham's is a member of the ICT Register - a unique database which captures ICT and eLearning expertise in cutting edge schools and learning centres across the world.

The Register website (click on the logo) has case studies, articles and links to each of the schools on the register.
See the entry for Sir Robert Hitcham's


Every year the ICT Register holds a conference. This year it was at Loughborough University on January 29th.


I have put a link below to a presentation by guest speaker Russell Prue about how ICT is rapidly expanding. It is vital that schools appreciate the impact that ICT is having on children's lives and how we need to prepare them for a future dominated by ICT.



Shift Happens

See Russell's website