Desirable Features of UICT

Please Note: From the school year 2010/11, the following change has been made to the Portfolio Requirements regarding Desirable Features:

For Moderation, a Pupil Portfolio must show evidence of coverage of a number of Desirable Features:

  • Levels 1 & 2: Must show coverage of a minimum of four different Desirable Features.
  • Levels 3, 4 & 5: Must show coverage of a minimum of five different Desirable Features.

Pupils in primary school may experience a range of activities as part of cross-curricular ICT. This range of ICT activities can be grouped into the following areas:

  • Animation
  • Desk Top Publishing
  • Exploring Programming
  • Moving Images
  • Music Technology
  • Online Collaboration
  • Presentation
  • Researching
  • Spreadsheets
  • Web Design
  • Working with Images
  • Working with Sound
  • Working with Text

Desirable Features

Some of you are already providing opportunities for pupils to develop skills in these areas. Others may wish to extend the ICT experiences they are providing for their pupils by incorporating some less familiar areas of ICT into their planning for learning and teaching.

Download Desirable Features

For each type of ICT activity a set of non-statutory guidance statements known as Desirable Features has been produced which corresponds to the UICT Levels of Progression.

The Desirable Features set out the type of evidence you should look for when observing a pupil and assigning a level to a piece of work. However, when coming to a holistic judgement of the pupil’s level of UICT competence, you should ensure that the Desirable Features are used in conjunction with the UICT Levels of Progression.

You need to ensure that you plan for coverage of the UICT Requirements across the 5 ‘E’s. In particular, you should provide opportunities, wherever possible, for your pupils to work collaboratively online (Exchange) and to showcase their work digitally (Exhibit). These opportunities should be included as set out in the Desirable Features.