The Technology in Schools Survey 2024-2025

In November 2025, the Department for Education published the Technology in Schools Survey 2024-2025.

1,634 schools participated in the survey, including 795 school leaders, 1,211 teachers and 489 IT leads.

The survey provides a good basis for reflecting on the rationale for incorporating technology into primary education.

Findings and commentary

These are some aspects of the review concerning digital strategy in primary education with commentary, exploring implications.

Secondary schools were more likely to have a digital strategy in place than primary schools.

A digital strategy is an extension of the school's overall ethos and strategy. The school's digital strategy identifies how digital technology can facilitate some of the school's wider aims. A digital strategy which evaluates the current situation, identifies a long-term goal and then breaks this into steps is crucial. Children's needs at primary age are different to those of secondary children and this will be reflected in the content of the school's strategy.

45% of primary teachers felt that the school clearly communicated the school's digital strategy, an increase from 26% in 2023.

Schools should communicate digital strategy to staff, as well as to students and parents. This will be done at different levels, but all parties should have an awareness of how technology should be deployed during the year and what long term goals are.

87% of teachers said that there was a school policy that guided them in using technology in lessons. Most (56%) were guided by this policy, but also able to make their own decisions about technology use.

A school's digital strategy should reflect the ethos and aims of the school. It should also reflect the needs and specialisms of its staff and students. All staff should be aware of the overall aim for using technology in school to ensure that technology is used with clear goals in mind and at a high level.

67% of primary leaders and 53% of primary teachers felt that technology had made a positive impact on pupil attainment. 2% of leaders and 3% of teachers said technology had made a negative impact on attainment. 80% of leaders and 66% of teachers thought that technology would raise attainment in the next 3 years.

The term, 'technology' here is obviously very broad, and could include teacher admin tools, lesson presentational tools and pupil devices. What is important is that effectiveness of use of technology is constantly reviewed, measured against attainment across the curriculum. Technology has the potential to improve learning on any subject, but this does not mean it should be used in every lesson, or be a focus. Particularly at primary-level, children need to develop communication skills, confidence and resilience and in some cases, face-to-face interaction will be the preferred method for developing these things. Practical activities are fundamental across the curriculum, including use of concrete resources in Maths, games and PE and practical Science experiments. Of course, technology has the potential to enhance even practical activities, but teachers will need to think carefully about its deployment in primary settings.

67% of teachers had undertaken training in educational technology in the last 12 months. The most common topics were pupil safety (36%), new software (31%) and generative AI. (29%).

73% of leaders reported that availability of CPD was a barrier to the increased use of technology.

Considering the E-safety issues that are arising, including use of mobile phones by young children, cyberbullying and unsupervised use of technology outside school, 36% seems low for teachers being trained in safe use of technology. Training in use of technology does not need to be provided externally, although this can be beneficial. Schools can use the excellent resources provided by organisations such as Project Evolve and the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE). Schools and teachers should invest in quality CPD that has been chosen in accordance with the school's digital strategy. This could be external CPD, or CPD provided by organisations such as Google or Apple. Schools and staff should also be encouraged to network through organisations like Computing at Schools and STEM Learning.

44% of teachers reported using generative AI for school activities. It was most often used for lesson planning (35%) and used by 7% for lesson activities and 5% for marking.

Part of schools' digital strategy should include how AI can be used to achieve this strategy. If lesson planning is identified as something that the school wishes to improve, it may be that AI tools can help achieve this. Likewise, schools may wish to improve marking and feedback, pupil agency or accessibility of resources. Fundamentally, it is important to start with the aims before considering whether AI, or other technologies are the right tools to achieve these.

22% of school leaders had an evaluation plan in place for evaluating the effectiveness of technology. 26% were developing an evaluation plan.

The PICRAT model is an excellent tool for schools to use in evaluating effectiveness of technology. Effectiveness should also be measured against the school's overall aims and wider performance indicators.

42% of primary teachers said that pupils use end-user devices in less than 10% of lessons. Only 3% said that pupils use end-user devices in 76%-99% of lessons.

It is clear that in primary lessons, most pupils do not use devices routinely in the majority of lessons. This may be because at primary level, other skills take precedence, such as communication and fine motor skills. It is also likely due to availability of devices, as well as the time that pupils spend logging into devices and opening work etc. It is to be expected that as pupils become older and approach secondary age, they will start using technology more for their work. I would argue that even young children can benefit from having easy access to devices to use simple tools like Voice Memo on iPads to record their ideas, or Google Classroom to access resources independently and quickly.

Technology was most used to support the following learning activities: homework by 86% of teachers, collaborative learning by 82% of teachers and reading comprehension strategies by 74% of teachers. Some of this usage was considered to be 'sometimes/rarely'.

Terms, 'homework' and 'collaborative learning' encompass such a wide range of potential activities that it is difficult to draw many conclusions about how technology is being used, even by discussing these as learning activities. What homework and collaborative learning both have in common is that children may be working independently from a teacher. Technology may be being deployed to give children agency in their work, with opportunities for teacher feedback and discussion later. This model of learning, similar to 'flipped learning', and models of learning which develop children's agency, curiosity and problem solving are areas that have potential benefits from use of technology.

The biggest factor reported by school leaders in deciding whether to invest in technology was budget available (91%). The second biggest factor was evidence of good practice in schools (75%).

Any investment in technology should take place after considerations around the school's priorities, ethos, strategy and then digital strategy. Once these are established, money can often be spend very wisely, to a large effect. Schools will need to provide infrastructure and devices, but beyond this, many educational services are provided for free. The initial discussion about strategy and subsequent training are what will help schools spend money effectively.

The highest priority among primary teachers for investment/training over the next three years was supporting pupils with SEND (51%).

It is fantastic that awareness among teachers of how technology can be used to remove barriers to learning is now so high. The mantra, 'what is needed for some is beneficial for all' also applies here; deployment of technology has the potential to remove barriers for all children in lessons.

Concluding thoughts

The Technology in Schools survey 2024-2025 provides an important and thought-provoking reflection of how technology is being used in schools. This is particularly timely, as schools weigh up deployment of could-based services, AI tools and virtual learning environments.

Successful use of technology in schools stems from clearly defined school strategies, linked with awareness of the potential benefits that technology can provide. Schools must establish their priorities, being aware of opportunities and challenges linked to digital technology. Time spent exploring and discussing these, networking with other schools and receiving selected, targeted training will pay off and lead to effective and purposeful use of technology in school.