Developing a digital strategy

"Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow."

Sun Tzu, 'The Art of War'

A school's strategy outlines its vision and includes a long-term plan for achieving this. It contains goals which reflect the philosophy of the school and its stakeholders. Once a strategy is established, goals can be prioritised in the knowledge that all actions taken according to this strategy contribute to a clear and established goal.

This approach makes selecting technology to use in school focused. It makes CPD goal-orientated and attending shows like BETT purposeful.

We will explore some of the things that a school might consider in its overall strategy. For each of these, we will consider the role that digital technology might play. In this way, the school's digital strategy becomes a supportive and vital part of the school's long term aims and vision.

Health/Happiness

Health and wellbeing are at the heart of everything schools do. Teachers act 'in loco parentis' and are expected to care for children to the same standards that parents would. All decisions that a school makes should begin with ensuring that pupils are physically and emotionally safe and that their wellbeing needs are met.

In terms of digital strategy, this includes keeping children safe through effective education about safe, discerning and healthy use of technology. It includes use of filtering systems and clear rules and routines to prevent incidents and monitoring tools to pick up the occasions when children get it wrong.

Communication and dialogue with pupils is key here. Pupils at all ages must understand that rules and systems are there to keep themselves and others safe. Frequent, age-appropriate discussions of scenarios as part of a well-planned PSHE and computing curriculum can help ensure this. E-safety is also increasingly becoming part of other subjects.

The discussion about rising levels of anxiety among young people should also prompt schools to consider ways that they can further support children with their emotional wellbeing. As part of the school's digital strategy, this will include education on the effects of social media, cyberbullying and healthy use of digital devices.

Admin

In schools, admin systems organise and structure the learning environment. This includes keeping track of attendance, monitoring progress, completing paperwork and planning, communicating internally and externally, organising equipment and preparing lesson materials. A school's digital strategy should look for ways to minimise time spent on admin tasks, which can otherwise mount up and detract from the time that teachers spend guiding children with their development. A digital strategy should also ensure that admin tasks are carried out effectively, producing outputs that are useful and of a high quality.

Teaching

A school's vision should include plans for the role of teachers in the classroom. What does teaching look like in the classroom? This will include how the teacher questions, models, includes all learners, encourages, challenges and explains. Technology may well play a part in many of these areas, depending on the age of the children being taught and the vision of the school. In many cases, whole-class teaching will be deemed effective, some all or parts of the lesson. Alternatively, children may receive instruction at their own pace using digital tools. It is likely a mixture of these approaches would be beneficial, although this depends on factors such as resources available and the age of the children.

Assessment and feedback

Assessment is at the heart of effective teaching. A teacher who carries out accurate assessment knows what to focus on in lessons, can help learners appreciate the progress they are making and highlight their next steps. A school's digital strategy may include ways that technology can be used to perform regular and effective assessment opportunities. This can include self-assessment by students or teacher-led assessment. Digital form tools like Google Forms offer quick ways for teachers to carry out assessments and for students and teachers to receive instant results.

Attainment

Effective teaching and assessment should result in high standards of attainment. Technology, when chosen carefully, can raise standards of attainment and this should be one of the goals of a school's digital strategy. Examples include use of data loggers in science, use of filming in sports or use of music technology.

Inclusion

The goal of SEND provision is to remove barriers and ensure that all students have equal access to learning opportunities. One of the most exciting aspects of technology in education is it potential for removing some of the barriers that children face to their learning, allowing them to fulfil their potential. A school's digital strategy will outline how digital technology facilitates the school's aims for SEND provision. This will include use of technologies that address children's individual needs. Some technologies might be able to meet differing needs, such as the provision of resources to be accessed at a child's own pace or tools to make reading accessible. Other specific technologies will be provided to meet needs and remove barriers.

Digital literacy

Just as schools have a duty to make children literate in terms of English or maths, they also now have a duty to ensure that children become responsible, safe, effective, creative and discerning users of technology. Literacy begins with discussions about technology, helping children to notice it in the world around them. By the end of primary-years, children should be able to talk with confidence about when it is appropriate to use technology and which technology is the most effective for the outcome they desire. Digital literacy is one of the three strands of computing, but is increasingly part of other subjects across the curriculum. A school's aims for the digital literacy of its staff and students should be part of its digital strategy.

A.I. literacy

AI has been part of children's lives for over a decade. AI-powered algorithms govern content that they are exposed to online, provide assistance in internet searches and word processing and control characters in games that they play. The widespread availability of generative AI tools since 2022 has added another dimension to children's experience of AI. Now, children can have realistic conversations with AI bots, can view content that is almost indistinguishable from human-generated content and can begin to harness the power of AI in solving complex problems. As with digital literacy, AI literacy begins with discussion, early AI literacy has been called 'AI awareness'. For young children, AI tools can offer outputs that are indistinguishable from a human output and this must be addressed. AI literacy at primary-level will be defined by a school's digital strategy, paving the way for children to contribute to a world where AI is increasingly prevalent and effective.

Media literacy

Digital media offers incredible creative opportunities to children in schools. Children can create content that can be seen by an audience globally. They can share their ideas through podcasts, short films, animations or documentaries, drawing inspiration from examples made in the professional field. As with AI literacy, media literacy starts with awareness. Children need to be taught that media is made by humans, often with goals in mind. They need to recognise that media can have powerful effects and can be persuasive. Media literacy was on one of five areas recognised as needing further attention by the 2025 curriculum review and as such, schools should address media literacy as they form their digital strategies.

Sustainability

Sustainability was another area recognised by the 2025 curriculum review as needing further attention in schools. On the one hand, sustainability might seem separate from a school's digital strategy. However, as I discussed in this blog post, technology provides exciting ways for schools to meet their sustainability needs.

Knowledge

I have seen it suggested that the availability of information digitally decreases the need for children to memorise knowledge and information. I could not disagree with this more. As Tom Sherrington highlights through analogy, knowledge is like the 'trunk' of a tree in the rainforest. Creativity and the application of this knowledge are represented by the foliage and stable conditions for learning are represented by the roots. This analogy highlights the need for all three aspects and avoids false dichotomies. As Greg Ashman points out, 'knowledge is what we think with'. A school's digital strategy might take into consideration how knowledge is presented or made available. Children might discover knowledge through using exciting digital tools, for example some of the tools I covered here. Schools might find that they wish to evaluate the knowledge taught, giving children access to more modern or more challenging knowledge. They may also re-evaluate opportunities for applying this knowledge, including using digital tools.

Thinking skills

In this blog post, I talked about the need to teach children metacognitive skills. Children who are aware of these skills gain greater ownership over their learning, appreciating the need to a logical approach and perseverance in solving problems and understanding why things go wrong. Digital technology offers useful ways for children to develop their thinking and metacognitive skills. Children can solve real-world problems, including working on project like Apps for Good, or by solving coding and robotics problems. Computational thinking, which is part of the computing curriculum, is an approach that can be expanded and adapted to subjects cross the curriculum. Thinking skills, their value and opportunities to develop these should be part of any school's digital strategy.

School identify

A school's digital strategy will contain some elements that are common across schools preparing children for the modern world. It will also contain elements relating to the ethos and priorities of the school, the school's vision and its unique perspective on education. Some of these things will be influenced by the location of the school, its history, the specialism of its staff and what the school offers to prospective students. In developing a digital strategy, schools must evaluate aspects of digital technology that should be common in effective education. Schools should also be confident to select technology depending on the aims and value that make a school unique and valuable in the community that they are established in.

Conclusions

In this post, we have considered some of the areas of school strategy that can be impacted by technology and would help shape a school's digital strategy. While technologies can change quickly, matching a school's digital strategy to the strategic aims and ethos of the school ensures that all decisions taken about deployment of technology are justifiable in terms of meeting long term aims. Approaches towards meeting this visions can change, but the course will remain constant and clear.

Developing Thinking through Chess

One of the most important parts of the computing national curriculum is its requirement to teach computational thinking. The curriculum states,

'A high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world.'

For key stage 2, this is expanded, requiring that pupils,

'solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts.'

Requirements for pupils to use repetition, selection and variables allude to the widely recognised stages of computational thinking:

• Decomposing a problem

• Looking for patterns

• Focusing on the most important information (abstraction)

• Designing an algorithm to solve the problem

• Testing and debugging

In this blog post, I wrote about the importance of metacognition. Children can be taught to follow thinking processes that they can use across subjects. These can include steps such as:

• Reading the instructions carefully

• Looking at the tools available to me

• Deciding what success looks like, including looking at examples

• Thinking about patterns

• Remembering where I have done this before

• Pausing

• Breaking the problem down into solvable chunks

• Thinking about things I get stuck with and ways to overcome these barriers

• Being considerate of others and the environment I am in

• Persevering when something is difficult

• Implementing and testing a solution

Teaching children about metacognition gives them greater agency over their work and increases their chances of succeeding.

Almost every aspect of children's primary education can benefit from following steps such as those outlined above.

Examples include:

• Writing in English or other subjects. Children read instructions, look at examples of similar writing and follow conventions (patterns), break the writing down (i.e. setting, character, description), read, evaluate end improve their writing

• Success in sport - children break games or movements down onto manageable steps and practise these

• Programming - children break a problem down in to programmable steps, write, test and improve algorithms to address aspects of this problem

Children who program, such as in App Lab (above) will be successful if they decompose tasks, look for patterns and test their algorithms.

Chess is an activity that lets children practise so many of the steps outlined above. The value of chess in developing thinking skills is that it is a visually simple environment, with few distractions or factors contributing to cognitive load.

Chess is even usually played in silence!

Children playing chess will play according to patterns in the opening, middle game and endgame, will think ahead and will scan the whole board to see the resources available to them and to their opponent. Success in chess depends on doing these things.

Computational thinking skills, including decomposition and pattern spotting are vital for success in chess.

Research on the benefits of chess

• How effective is chess in developing thinking skills, and other aspects of children's academic development?

  
  

• Is time spent practising chess justified in terms of its impact on children's academic performance?

Chess is a valuable activity regardless of the answer to these questions. Chess is a social activity and an enjoyable hobby and pastime. It brings children together, gives them an exciting topic to talk about and it is a part of the heritage of many countries.

However, I was (and still am) interested to explore the measurable impact that chess might have on aspects of children's academic performance thinking developing their thinking and strategic skills.

The website, chess.com reports many benefits to children from playing chess. As reported, these include development of critical thinking, memory, focus, patience and perseverance. Chess.com also states,

'Studies have shown that playing chess can positively increase academic performance especially in subjects like math, due to its emphasis on logical reasoning, pattern recognition and problem solving.'

The Frontiers in Psychology paper, 'The Effects of Chess Instruction on Pupils' Cognitive and Academic Skills: State of the Art and Theoretical Challenges', (link) by Sala, Foley and Gobet, reviews prevailing research on the impacts of chess on children academically.

This paper recognised PISA findings that suggest differences in mathematical proficiencies, vital for the technological development of countries, recognising that, 'there is a growing feeling that novel methods of teaching have to be developed to make mathematics instruction more effective.'

The meta analysis reported by this paper suggested that chess does seem to improve pupils' performance in mathematics and overall cognitive ability. Limitations of this studies were also recognised, including failure to adequately compare chess-treated groups with control groups.

This paper also reported on a study by the Institute of Education, stating that while it did not provide conclusive evidence against the impact of chess on cognitive skills, it also failed to establish its benefits.

Chess in Armenia

In 2011, Chess was introduced as a compulsory academic subject for all primary children in the Republic of Armenia.

In 2012, research began on the effectiveness of this program and in 2014, results were published in a 136-page booklet, which is viewable on the FIDE website.

This booklet is entitled, 'Chess in Schools', edited by Vahan Sargsyan, Anita Martiosyan and Varduhi Sargsyan. contains a summary. It is a collection of essays and findings by experts in chess, education and psychology. Some interesting findings include:

• 4th grade students learning chess were found to have reported a higher degree of efficiency in differentiating the main elements of structure and were able to use abilities of dynamic attention and imagination, consequently their logical thinking developed. (Armine Khachatryan, PhD)

• Creativity is the person's ability to generate unusual ideas and find original solutions (Ruben Aghuzumtsyan, PhD)

• Early school age is a sensitive period for the development of creativity and chess lessons promote the development of creativity (Ruben Aghuzumtsyan, PhD)

• There is an impact on children's psychology though chess, but only if it is taught by teachers who help children see the beauty and wisdom of chess. (Ruben Aghuzumtsyan, PhD)

• Radislav Atanassov quotes Dr. Peter Dauvergne as stating, "Chess is the last best hope for this country to rescue its skiding education system and teach the young generation the forgotten art of nurturing an attention span."

Armenia is a fascinating example of a country that has recognised the value of logical thinking, creativity and concentration and addressed these through chess, which is also an important part of Armenian history and heritage.

The Republic of Armenia has made chess part of the primary curriculum since 2011

Teaching chess effectively

As the findings from the Republic of Armenia reported, the impact of chess on children's academic and cognitive development will be affected by the quality of chess teaching and the extent to which teachers highlight the patterns and beauty of chess.

This does not mean that only grandmasters can introduce children to chess in schools!

I would draw an analogy with teaching PE in schools. Effective PE lessons are taught by PE teachers who focus on one or two techniques or skills, give children time to develop these through focused activities, provide support and extension and allow for application in a larger game.

In the same way, teachers of chess in primary schools can focus on one or two skills in a lesson. This could be setting up the board, learning how to move individual pieces, opening principles, castling, discovered attacks, forks or checkmates.

Teachers should be confident to give children a few pieces and ask them to play 'mini games', just as would happen in PE lessons. This could be queen and king v queen and king, bishop v knight and so on. Teaching children the 'ladder checkmate' and asking them to practise this against each other is a valuable drill.

On the resources section of this website, I have included a chess progression of skills, which could form the basis of chess teaching. The website Chesskid, (https://www.chesskid.com/) also has a full program of study and has published useful videos on their YouTube channel.

Conclusions

Chess, at its core, is the representation of a struggle, a problem to be solved. In this way, it bears many similarities to sports. Chess focuses entirely on the mental aspects of this challenge, giving children a valuable opportunity to practice these.

Chess is also an opportunity for children to develop a hobby that they can share with their teachers, friends and family members. Children should be encouraged to play chess at breaktimes, read books about chess and solve daily chess puzzles. Through these approaches, chess will become a celebrated part of community culture. Chess is an important part of the culture and heritage of so many places in the world and something that children will benefit from understanding.

In terms of thinking skills, chess an opportunity for schools to raise the profile of metacognition, which will lead to independence and agency in children. This metacognition will develop through shared language in subjects across the primary curriculum.

The 21st Century Classroom

What should the 21st century primary classroom look like?

To me, it's incredible that some of our children will live and work in the 22nd century. The world they live in will be shaped by the decisions we make today and the education they receive.

I have also been reflecting on the things that have remained consistent in education.

Prehistoric people would sit around a campfire and listen to stories, some of which would have conveyed important lessons for survival.

Aristotle's school of 335BC, the 'Lyceum' featured lectures and a library, although Aristotle would often lecture as he walked the grounds!

The 1880 Education Act, which made education compulsory for children aged 5 - 10, brought children away from dangerous work into the relative safety of a classroom, with desks, a curriculum and a teacher.

The human elements of education have remained constant for thousands of years.

One thing that all of these have in common is essentially storytelling, which I believe remains a fundamental human need. Listening to lessons, experiences and stories goes beyond the conveying of knowledge, although this is important. Listening to stories connects us and lets us learn from the communication of the storyteller and the reactions of other audience members. Listening teaches children patience and how to save their questions until an appropriate time. Fundamentally, it is an enjoyable, human experience.

Huge progress has been made in education since Victorian and ancient times. This is true in terms of understanding the differing needs of learners and the benefits of collaborative, creative work. I remember doing my PGCE and being shown a collaborative document, thinking how groundbreaking this was. To modern children, multimedia, creative, collaborative work like this is part of their everyday routine.

Children in 21st century schools learn about topics that would have seemed inconceivable to previous generations - scenes from Star Trek of children learning about 'warp theory' seem a natural progression from learning that now takes place about quantum mechanics, microbiology and the 21st century world.

The amount of knowledge and information available to children instantly is staggering, as is the ability of technology such as AI help students access and understand this.

Yet for all of this progress, when we are designing 21st century education, it is important not to lose track of the things we need as humans. These are things we have always needed and that we must ensure are present when we design present and future learning experiences.

Meeting children's needs in an increasingly digital world

According to a report by the European Centre for Environment and human health, quoting the 'Wellbeing, Space and Society' journal, 34% of children don't play outside on school nights and 20% of children don't play outside at weekends. https://www.ecehh.org/news/children-dont-play-outdoors/

A Save the Children report found similar statistics, citing research carried out by OnePoll, which surveyed 3000 adults and children and found that only 27% regularly played outside, compared to 80% of those currently aged between 55 and 64.

The report quoted Helen Dodd, Professor of Child Psychology at Exeter University, who said,

"To have just 27% of children playing out today compared to 80% in the past represents a huge change to the nature of childhood experiences. It's logical to expect this to have consequences for young people's development. As a society, perhaps we're not taking this seriously enough."

At the same time, screentime is increasing among children.

The government report, 'Screentime: impacts of education and wellbeing' reported a CHILDWISE survey that found children between 7 - 8 estimated they spent 2 hours 54 minutes looking at screens per day. This rose to 3 hours 12 minutes for children aged 9 -10 and 4 hours 12 minutes for children aged 11 - 12. The government report did not that there are educational benefits to screentime, such as educational content available online, but also highlighted the feeling of parents that they did not know what their children were doing online and the availability of harmful online content.

As reported by Specsavers, screens themselves can have effects on eyesight. Sleep is also a factor.

Screentime can also replace other physical activities that promote exercise, communication, resilience and creativity. It is important that when we are designing 21st century education, we plan for children to have access to digital tools that let them create, communicate and collaborate, tools that they use and enjoy positively and tools that remove barriers for learning, while also ensuring we provide children with opportunities to exercise, play physically and develop interpersonal and social skills.

What are the implications for this in terms of the 21st century school? I have highlighted two issues related to screentime - the physical effects of too much screentime and the need to ensure that children remain active, communicative and creative when screens are present. To address the second point, schools must ensure that screens are used to promote thinking and collaboration and effective creative work, while also providing opportunities for the development of physical and fine motor skills. There are some incredible creative opportunities available through use of digital technology, Book Creator for iPads, Canva for Education, Minecraft and programming are good examples. Coupled with opportunities for sport, craft work, physical games and puzzles, reading books and personal interaction, schools can achieve the best of the digital and physical worlds.

Enfranchised young people

In this blog post, I write about ways that technology can be used to develop agency in primary-aged children. Children should be aware of their own progress and needs in education. This makes them active participants in their learning, who understand and value their education.

Through a well organised virtual learning environment (VLE) like Google Classroom, or though online services like code.org, we can give children new levels of understanding and control over their learning. Children can access resources as they need them, including digital materials, videos and AI generated content. While they may still join in whole-class inputs and discussions, they have opportunities to learn according to their own individual learning goals, which they become increasingly aware of.

Project work can be highly motivating for children, giving them a sense of purpose and ownership over their learning. Through careful planning, schools can ensure that children learn and apply skills and knowledge through projects that children genuinely care about and are invested in. I would mention the Apps for Good project as one that has the potential to combine maths, writing, coding, design and science work, while also developing children's understanding of the environment and presentational skills.

The classroom of the future is one where children value and appreciate their education as a means of improving themselves and their society. For me, developing agency is such a big part of this and technology offers effective ways of facilitating this.

Required skills

What skills should children be developing in the 21st century? Do we teach these sufficiently in primary education?

In computing, computational thinking is an example of the recognition of teaching children skills alongside knowledge. Children learn to decompose a problem, look for patterns and use repetition, focus on important information and create a solution as an algorithm. I think this has potential for a thinking approach that is common across subjects. Thinking skills should involve children understanding growth mindset, that success in a problem involves repeated attempts, failure and resilience. Again, in computing, this is present though teaching debugging, and this approach could be extended into other subjects.

Communication and oracy were highlighted as needing greater attention by the recent 2025 curriculum review. Oracy is the foundation for successful communication in social, academic and eventually professional contexts. The 21st century school teaches children how to be successful orators, negotiators and listeners and gives them opportunities to practise these.

Schools can promote oracy through planning it into subjects across the curriculum, including computing as shown here. Oracy skills should be taught expressly and children given time to practise these. Classrooms and schools might be rearranged to facilitate oracy, including areas for presentations, discussion and collaboration.

Other skills recommended by the 2025 review as needing further development were financial literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy, as well as education on climate change and sustainability. The 21st century school ensures that all of these are developed through the curriculum, ensuing that children are ready to enter and participate in society.

Knowledge

One of my favourite quotes relating to education is 'knowledge is what we think with', attributed to Greg Ashman. This quote is often discussed to highlight the importance of applying knowledge through thinking. For me, it also emphasises that knowledge itself is important, as a structure for thinking.

With the speed and ease that knowledge is available, it is easy to think that the skills of searching for knowledge replace the importance of knowledge itself. For young children especially, this is far from the truth. The knowledge they learn in primary school helps them to make sense of and talk about the world around them, as well as think and form their own ideas. Children should be able to look at and talk about a castle, planets in the sky, books, numbers and examples of art and music. As Tom Sherrington explains through analogy, knowledge is the trunk of the learning tree, with creativity being the foliage and the stable conditions being the roots.

While the need for knowledge remains, the content of that knowledge might change in the 21st century. In the 2025 review, the government highlighted the need for greater education on climate change and sustainability. Other areas that children will need to understand more about include AI literacy, robotics, democracy, society and social justice.

Children of the 21st century will need access to nature for learning and their physical and mental health

Effective learning for all

Medical advances have given us a much greater appreciation of the needs of all learners and ways to overcome the barriers that they face. The expectation is that all learners have equal access to opportunities to learn, experience and enjoy education and contribute to society. This understanding has empowered children with special needs and benefited society as we tap into talent that might otherwise be missed.

At the same time, technology is developing to address an increasing number of needs. Technology, alongside other interventions and provision, means that in the 21st century, our goal is to empower and provide for all learners, whatever their background or needs.

While there is something human and necessary about a teacher addressing a class and guiding them in their learning, this is not the only model of learning available in the 21st century. Children can learn from resources made available by the teacher, from online services and libraries of knowledge, from each other and from reflections on their own learning and progress. The classroom of the 21st century might be teacher-led, but with children who know how to learn independent of the teacher when the teacher is focused elsewhere. These children continue to work, evaluate and improve, including through use of available technology.

Conclusions

On the surface, the classroom of the late 21st century might not look very different to the classroom of today, or in some ways, the classrooms of the past. Children will always need a human leader, role model and teacher. This need goes beyond providing effective education, it is biological. Children need someone to emulate, someone to nurture and care for them, someone who has experienced education and childhood themselves.

Paradoxically, in an increasingly digital world, schools may need to strive to provide more opportunities for human and physical interaction and guidance for children in developing skills relating to these. Schools might need to give children more opportunities to experience and interact with animals and nature and to learn to value and appreciate their natural environment.

At the same time, 21st century schools will embrace the powerful technological tools around them and teach children to use these positively. Children will learn to harness the power of tools that allow for new types of creativity, data collection, communication, collaboration and personalised learning.

It is time to clarify what we want the classroom to look like, and what we want to see happening there. This is our destination, which informs the choices we make about technology along the way.

Of course, all this is written from a 2026 perspective, it will be interesting to see how well it holds up in 2100!