Intent

Our computing curriculum is broad and balanced, and progressively builds on skills, knowledge and conceptual understanding year on year.  It equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Our computing curriculum is wrapped around our core values of respect, responsibility and investigation. Our curriculum will also ensure that our pupils are digitally literate and are able to express themselves effectively and engage safely in this digital world.

Implementation

We use the National Curriculum as a starting point, and deepen further using adapted projects from Oak Academy. Projects are flexible and have been adapted to consider the needs, strengths, and community context of our children. Our pupils will be taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Our pupils will apply this knowledge and understanding, to create programs, systems and a range of content. Our computing projects are timetabled either as weekly sessions, or as block projects, depending on the content. The sequencing of projects ensures that children have the substantive knowledge and vocabulary to comprehend subsequent projects fully. 

Impact

Enjoyment of the computing curriculum promotes achievement, confidence, and good behaviour. Pupils have a strong desire to embrace challenges and to be resilient learners. Children’s knowledge and skills develop progressively as they move through the school, not only to enable them to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum but to prepare them to become responsible digital citizens and competent users of a range of different technologies in secondary education. Teachers ensure all pupils make good or better progress and can recall previous knowledge well. Children are assessed during every lesson, which enables our teachers to plan the next steps for each child.  

Staying safe online

Digital Literacy is the ability and skill to find, evaluate, utilise, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet. In developing our pupils as digital citizens, we need to make sure they know how to use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly. 

Our online safety discussions in Assembly, RHed and Computing focus on:

• The subject of ownership, permissions and the use of digital resources
• Recognising acceptable and unacceptable behaviour
• Identifying fake social media accounts, understanding how personal data is collected and shared online, spotting online scams like phishing messages or fake competitions, and recognising deepfakes
• Creating stronger, more secure pins and passwords. 

Attainment targets

In Key stage 1, pupils will be taught to:

• understand what algorithms are; how they are implemented as programs on digital devices; and that programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions
• create and debug simple programs
• use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs
• use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content
• recognise common uses of information technology beyond school
• use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private; identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.

In Key stage 2 pupils will be taught to:

• design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts
• use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output
• use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs
• understand computer networks including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the world wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration
• use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content
• select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information
• use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact.