“A detailed plan for achieving success” is the Cambridge Dictionary definition of strategy.
Our planning guidance
This section provides guidance on developing a strategy to increase and improve the use of digital in educational settings. All guidance links to the Digital Schools Award Scotland (DSAS) and aims to support school improvement principles.
Create your own digital strategy with our planning tool
Use this link to download a copy of our digital strategy SIP planning template (Word format)
Book a digital strategy call with our team
Guidance on writing a strategy
Be clear on the purpose
The first action in developing your strategy should be to clearly state the aim of the strategy – what should it achieve? Try writing a sentence of twenty words or less that states a successful outcome for your setting.
Use this link to visit the Plain English Campaign guides page
Making connections to existing and relevant work
Consider why your setting needs a digital strategy. What will improving the use of digital help you to achieve?
It might be worth considering national priorities, such as:
- meeting learners’ needs
- health and wellbeing outcomes
- the poverty-related attainment gap
- employability skills
- tracking children’s progress (particularly in literacy and numeracy)
Will a more effective use of digital impact any of these outcomes? Revisit your strategy aim (20 words or less) and check these are aligned.
Details
Below is an example of a school improvement planning document – a detailed plan for achieving success. It contains:
- a rationale
- outcomes
- measures
- interventions
These should include information or data that makes clear:
- baseline measure of current levels of skills or confidence
- how impacts or outcomes will be measured
- names against actions; this provides accountability
Other sections of this site contain guidance that could be effective for informing outcomes, measures and interventions:
- Find out more about developing educators’ digital skills with this link
- Find out more about effective use of digital with this link with this link
- Find out more about the digital skills that should be taught as part of the curriculum with this link
Your setting may be developing aspects of all of these at the same time but consider the clarity of your strategy this time. Which one(s) are fundamental to achieving your aims? Do all staff have the essential digital skills to undertake different pedagogical approaches? Do they have the skills and knowledge to teach digital skills to children and young people?
