One way of helping children to gain access is to use a cascade method. e.g. children have a list on the wall and then when they have finished their task fetch the next children etc/

To introduce a topic to the children I always try to give a whole class input. There are some cheap ways of connecting Acorns and PC's to a television and this is useful.

I have found that getting 6 children a day, in pairs or threes, on the computer is manageable and allows me to get through the whole class.

In order to give children individual access I have set up a system which runs alongside the ongoing IT input. The children are in a hotgroup for a week and during that week they have access to the computer to do any writing that they choose to do. This is then kept in a folder by the machine and also put into the children's work. I have also started a rotational access during Literacy hour putting the children in twos to work on drafting or to use CD-ROM to look at texts where they are available.

Hope these ideas are of some help.

Darren Nickerson