Where a class website project fits the national curriculum

A class website project is one of the easiest ways to evidence the digital literacy strand of the computing curriculum, but the statutory wording never uses the word "website". That gap is why the project sometimes gets treated as a nice extra rather than curriculum coverage. Below are the exact statements a website project evidences in each UK nation, so you can drop them straight into a planning document or a subject leader's file.

England: national curriculum computing programmes of study

The statutory programmes of study were published by the Department for Education in September 2013 and remain current. A website project sits in the information technology and digital literacy strands rather than the programming strand.

Key Stage 1

Pupils should be taught to:

• "use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content"
• "recognise common uses of information technology beyond school"
• "use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private; identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies"

A two-page site about the class, a topic or the school covers the first statement directly: pupils create content, organise it into sections and retrieve it again each lesson.

Key Stage 2

Pupils should be taught to:

• "select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information"
• "use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content"
• "use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable and unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact"

The first statement is the one your website unit answers most fully. Pupils research a topic, choose and edit images, write for a reader and combine it all into a single published product with a stated goal.

Key Stage 3

Pupils should be taught to:

• "undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using, and combining multiple applications, preferably across a range of devices, to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data and meeting the needs of known users"
• "create, re-use, revise and re-purpose digital artefacts for a given audience, with attention to trustworthiness, design and usability"
• "understand a range of ways to use technology safely, respectfully, responsibly and securely, including protecting their online identity and privacy"

"A given audience, with attention to trustworthiness, design and usability" is a website brief in all but name. Set a known user, year 6 visitors, parents, a local club, and the assessment writes itself.

Key Stage 4

At Key Stage 4 the national curriculum only asks schools to "develop their capability, creativity and knowledge in computer science, digital media and information technology". Website work appears in the qualifications instead: OCR Cambridge National in Creative iMedia includes an interactive digital media unit, and the Pearson BTEC Tech Award in Digital Information Technology assesses user interface design principles and project planning in its first component. A website project makes a strong bridge unit in year 9 for either route.

Scotland: Curriculum for Excellence

Coverage sits in the Technologies experiences and outcomes, under organisers including using digital products and services in a variety of contexts to achieve a purposeful outcome, searching, processing and managing information responsibly, and cyber resilience and internet safety. Useful codes to cite are TCH 2-01a at Second Level, "I can extend and enhance my knowledge of digital technologies to collect, analyse ideas, relevant information and organise these in an appropriate way", and TCH 3-01a at Third Level, "I can explore and use the features of a range of digital technologies, integrated software and online resources to determine the most appropriate to solve problems".

Wales: Digital Competence Framework

The DCF runs across the curriculum in three strands: Citizenship, Interacting and collaborating, and Producing. A website project lives in Producing, whose elements are planning, sourcing and searching, creating, and evaluating and improving. The review and redraft stage covers evaluating and improving, and the discussion about what may and may not be published covers identity, image and reputation in the Citizenship strand. Within Curriculum for Wales it sits most naturally in the Science and Technology Area of Learning and Experience.

Northern Ireland: Using ICT

Using ICT is a statutory cross-curricular skill built around the 5 Es. A website project maps onto them cleanly:

• Explore. Researching content from safe and reliable sources.
• Express. Creating, developing, presenting and publishing ideas using a range of digital media.
• Exchange. Peer review and teacher feedback on a draft site.
• Evaluate. Reviewing the site against the success criteria and improving it.
• Exhibit. Publishing the finished site and showcasing the learning.

Putting the statements into a lesson plan

You do not need one lesson per statement. A six-lesson website unit covers them in sequence: analyse real sites, plan on paper, build a home page, add a linked second page, refine design and readability, then proofread, submit and review. Quote the key stage statement in the unit overview and use it as the wording for your success criteria.

• Purpose and audience stated on the plan, matching the known user in the KS3 statement
• Content selected and combined from more than one source or application
• Two or more pages linked by a working menu
• Design choices justified in terms of readability and usability
• No personal details published, with the e-safety discussion recorded
• A redraft made after feedback, evidencing revise and repurpose

You do not have to write it from scratch either. The free resources page has six-lesson unit plans for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3, a printable pupil planning sheet and a one-page curriculum map you can hand to a subject leader.

Evidencing it without the admin

The practical barriers are usually the reason a unit like this gets dropped: pupil email addresses, lost passwords and no safe route to publishing. PagePal removes all three. You create a class, paste in pupil names and print the logins, work saves as pupils type, and nothing goes online until you have read it and approved it, which is also your evidence for the safety statements. See how it works, browse twelve project briefs or start free with 10 pupil accounts.

Sources

• Department for Education, National curriculum in England: computing programmes of study, key stages 1 to 4, published 11 September 2013.
• Education Scotland, Technologies: experiences and outcomes, and Technologies benchmarks.
• Welsh Government, Digital Competence Framework guidance, and Curriculum for Wales, Science and Technology.
• CCEA, Using ICT cross-curricular skill and the 5 Es.