Computing Curriculum
Computing Curriculum Statement
‘A high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Computing ensures that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.’ National Curriculum.
At St Clare’s Catholic Primary School we are committed to providing our pupils with rich and varied computing experiences. We want every child to be happy and enthusiastic learners of Computing and to be eager to achieve their very best. Computing is an invaluable life skill in the digital world in which we now all live and at St Clare’s we aim to prepare our learners for their future by giving them the opportunities to gain knowledge and develop skills that will equip them for an ever changing digital world. Knowledge and understanding of Computing is of increasing importance for children’s future both at home and for employment.
Our Computing curriculum focuses on the areas of programming, understanding technology, keeping ourselves safe when using technology and using data handling and multimedia software.
Intent
The national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils can:
- Understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
- Analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
- Evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
- Be responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in students' lives. Therefore, we want to model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want our pupils to understand that there is always a choice when using technology and as a school we utilise technology to model positive use. We recognise that many of the negative issues associated with technology and especially incorrect use of social media, can be best prevented through education and intervention at an early age. We recognise that technology can allow pupils to share their learning in creative ways. We also understand the accessibility opportunities technology can provide for our pupils. We encourage staff to try and embed computing across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible. We want our pupils to be fluent with a range of tools to best express their understanding and hope by Upper Key Stage 2, children have the independence and confidence to choose the best tool to fulfil the task and challenge set by teachers.
Implementation
Our computing curriculum is delivered in two ways. The first is through delivering lessons in which pupils are taught new skills as discrete computing lessons following the Teach Computing scheme. Secondly pupils are given a wide range of opportunities to link these skills across the whole curriculum so that they can apply the skills learned and develop them across a range of subjects. This approach will develop pupil’s computing skills and enable them to see the purpose and need for them.
In every year group pupils are taught skill under the areas of:
- Computer Systems and Networks
- Creating Media
- Programming
- Data and Information
These skills are progressive and pupils build up their knowledge and skills as they journey through the school, referring to and building upon skills learned in previous years. Please see the Curriculum Journey document below.
A key part of implementing our computing curriculum was to ensure that safety of our pupils is paramount. 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 ‘Project Evolve – 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 their setting and beyond.
This learning is consistently referred to and reinforced throughout the year to help pupils understand how to keep themselves safe online at all times. We also deliver a whole school project on Safer Internet Day each year where pupils participate in activities all about keeping themselves safe online.
Impact
The impact of our curriculum is that pupils at St Clare's will:
- Understand how to use technology safely, responsibly, and respectfully, recognising online risks and protecting their digital presence, as required by the National Curriculum’s focus on e-safety
- Be skilled in breaking down complex problems, using logical reasoning and computational thinking to devise solutions, in line with curriculum goals for problem-solving
- Confidently design, write and debug programmes
- Understand how computer networks and systems operate, including the internet and data sharing
- Effectively collect, analyse, and present data using digital tools
- Use technology creatively and collaboratively, producing digital projects and working in teams
- Leave with the confidence and adaptability to engage with emerging technologies, ready to continue their digital learning journey