ICT is a new subject. Until the Dearing review it was merely one of the five components of the former national curriculum subject “technology”. However, ICT is now a fully fledged national curriculum subject itself, with its own programme of study, level descriptions and schemes of work.

Given its newness, it is not surprising that it has taken some time for clear, effective models of how to teach it to emerge. I visited a secondary school a few years ago and found myself suffering a complete communication breakdown with a group of 12-year-olds. I decided my line of discussion was too abstract, so asked the group: “Who knows what a database is?” A nervous girl answered: “They’re what you do the weather with.” Sure enough, the school’s curriculum plan for ICT identified clearly that information handling was being taught as part of a unit of work in geography.

The notion that those Year 7s might, without prompting, recognise that databases are a powerful tool which could support their work in other subjects struck me as a tad optimistic. In breaking the programme of study down into its component parts the key message - the ability to apply ICT in a variety of contexts - had been lost.

Another secondary school had timetabled all key stage 3 pupils for ICT for an hour a week. I asked the ICT co-ordinator what they covered in Year 7. He replied: “Word processing.”

“Anything else?” I asked.

“No, just word processing - there’s an awful lot of those pull-down menus to work your way through.” I had a dreadful image of him telling his class:

“Today we do right justification.”

Again, something crucial had been lost. ICT is more than a disconnected set of techniques. Pupils with real ICT capability understand what they are doing in a way that allows them to use new applications in a practical way. See how quickly a capable 12-year-old can take what they have learned in one context and apply it to something completely new. Pupils who understand the concept of cutting and pasting from their work with word processors and graphics packages quickly adapt to new demands, such as digital video-editing.

Schools have made huge strides since the time of those stories. Government investment has increased the available resources and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority schemes of work have helped schools develop an approach to teaching ICT which suits their circumstances. The polarised debate between the hardline “cross-curricularists” and the advocates of “slots’’ has largely died down, with most embracing a sensible mix of the two approaches.

In the past year, Becta (the British Education and Communications Technology Association) has visited several primary schools as part of its fieldwork programme. These schools have all been achieving good results in the KS2 tests and have received good Office for Standards in Education reports on their ICT provision.

They all approach teaching ICT in a systematic way. A few have implemented the schemes of work without modification. ICT techniques are taught through short, focused activities, which link to longer, more open-ended tasks. These tasks are embedded in the curriculum in a way that gives real meaning to what has been learned. Short tasks aimed at teaching the key functions of a word processor, such as editing and highlighting, might lead into an extended writing activity based on a historical account.

In some cases, the short tasks were carried out by the whole class at the same time in a computer suite, with the extended writing task being done as group or individual work on a computer in a classroom setting. What was clearly noticeable was that the children were able to concentrate on their writing, rather than struggling with the technology. The techniques they needed had been dealt with. When a group had difficulties, the teacher was able to prompt, for example, with a simple: “Remember how we made the letters larger in the headlines activity?” Longer discussion with the group was reserved for more important matters to do with what was being written.

Other schools have taken the spirit of the scheme of work and translated it into something more in tune with their whole-school approach. In one primary school recently I watched children using the computers to locate Japanese prints on an American museum’s site. There was a clear focus on the children’s ICT skills and their abilities to locate the information they needed. The lesson provided a natural lead-in to further, clearly related cross-curricular work on art and artists, in line with the school’s thematic approach.

Secondary schools are adopting a range of approaches. Some still teach ICT through other subjects. They are making it work by being clear about the teaching objectives of individual activities and how they relate. In addition, recognising that ICT is an essential set of skills, knowledge and understanding, schools are increasingly providing courses leading to qualifications in ICT in its own right.

For many schools, however, the challenge of producing an integrated curriculum, rather than a disconnected set of activities, is proving too great. Many teach ICT through a mix of focused activities in timetabled lessons that link creatively to extended activities in other subjects. This can give the best of both worlds. The school knows that all pupils are being taught ICT in a systematic way. ICT teachers know that what they are teaching will feed into learning elsewhere. Other subject teachers can concentrate on developing what the pupils have learned into stimulating lessons without taking time out to teach basic skills.

Niel Mclean is director of learning at the British Educational Communications and Technology Development Agency www.becta.org.uk