Curriculum – Computing

Intent

What is taught?

At St Helen Auckland Community Primary School we recognise the importance of Computing in every aspects of daily life. As one of the foundation subjects taught in primary schools, we give the learning of Computing the prominence it requires.
We follow the National Curriculum for Computing, which aims to ensure that all children:

can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology

We teach Computing progressively using The Teach Computing Curriculum, which provides a comprehensive collection of materials to support all teachers in delivering the curriculum.

We teach the importance of using technology safely and we aim to develop children’s responsibility as digital citizens.

We aim to develop children’s understanding of how programs work and how they can be designed to achieve a set of goals. Within Digital Literacy, we aim to develop children’s basic IT skills.

Our Computing Curriculum lends itself to developing the following key skills for life (Learning Powers):

absorption
noticing
making links
reasoning
planning
meta-learning
interdependence
Implementation

Our long-term planning for computing follows the National Curriculum and Teach Computing Curriculum which provides breadth and depth of the computing curriculum.

Lessons are taught weekly,  in KS1 and KS2 for approximately one hour and use of technology is also used across subjects.

Computing in our school follows the ‘Teach Computing’ Curriculum and covers all aspects of the National Curriculum. This scheme was chosen as it has been created by subject experts and based on the latest pedagogical research. It provides an innovative progression framework where computing content (concepts, knowledge, skills and objectives) has been organised into interconnected networks called learning graphs.

The curriculum aims to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to thrive in the digital world of today and the future. The curriculum can be broken down into 3 strands: computer science, information technology and digital literacy, with the aims of the curriculum reflecting this distinction.

Formative assessment is used continuously to help identify children who are making less than expected progress or those who need an extra challenge. When children need extra support they have support from the teacher, teaching assistant and their peers.

In addition, programs and apps are carefully selected so that skills are built upon progressively and they are widely available outside of school so children have further opportunities to develop their skills, for example children have access to TTRockstars and Myon, as well as access to several programming apps on the ipads.

Teaching within Digital Literacy focuses on creating digital content within a variety of programs and apps with the aim of embedding and building on the basic IT skills children will require in the digital world.

An important part of implementing our computing curriculum was to ensure that safety of our pupils. We take online safety very seriously and we aim to give children the necessary skills to keep themselves safe online. Children have a right to enjoy childhood online, to access safe online spaces and to benefit from all the opportunities that a connected world can bring them, appropriate to their age and stage.

Children build online resilience through the use of the “Education for a Connected World” framework. The framework aims to support and broaden the provision of online safety education, so that it is empowering, builds resilience and effects positive culture change. The objectives promote the development of safe and appropriate long-term behaviours, and support educators in shaping the culture within school as well as outside of school.

Impact

Why is Computing taught in this way?

The computing curriculum is taught progressively from Reception to Year 6 to ensure that children develop the knowledge and skills required to achieve the end of Key Stage Two expectations which are:

Discerning in evaluating Digital content to keep themselves and others safe.
Confidently use multiple programs to create and embed content e.g. create presentations, documents and spreadsheets
Build complex procedures when programming

Children will use their computing skills across core or subject areas and will have a strong understanding of the importance of keeping themselves and others safe on the internet. They will have an excellent understanding of how using technology safely is important using the acronym SMART. Most importantly how and who to ask for help if they need it.

Children will be able to discuss their learning and remember what they have learnt during their half termly meetings with subject leaders.

Medium Term Planning:

Long Term Planning

Long Term Plan for Computing