Computing
WE ARE NOW A CERTIFIED SCHOOL FOR NATIONAL ONLINE SAFETY
Computing at St Gregory's
At St Gregory's we understand that computers are part of everyday life for our children. We recognise the importance of providing opportunities to use computer systems across the curriculum. A vital part of our teaching includes supporting our children to access computers and the internet safely and responsibly - further information about this can be found on our Online Safety page.
Intent:
At St Gregory’s we intend that children should master Computing to such an extent that they can go on to have careers within Computing and make use of Computing effectively in their everyday lives, without being completely reliant on technology. Therefore, we want to model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want our pupils to be creators not consumers and our broad curriculum encompassing Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy reflects this. We want our pupils to understand that there is always a choice with using technology and as a school we utilise technology (especially social media) to model positive use.
We recognise that the best prevention for a lot of issues we currently see with technology/social media is through education. Building our knowledge in this subject will allow pupils to effectively demonstrate their learning through creative use of technology. Our children will be taught Computing in a way that ensures progression of skills, and follows a sequence to build on previous learning. Our children will gain experience and skills of a wide range of technology in a way that will enhance their learning opportunities, enabling them to use technology across a range of subjects to be creative and solve problems, ensuring they make progress. 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.
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. Our knowledge rich curriculum has to be balanced with the opportunity for pupils to apply their knowledge creatively which will in turn help our pupils become skilful computer scientists. We encourage staff to try and embed computing across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible.
Implementation:
Our scheme of work for Computing is adapted from ‘Purplemash Scheme’ Curriculum and covers all aspects of the National Curriculum. We use this as a cohesive scheme of work addressing the statutory aspects of the Curriculum. Computing is branched into three aspects: Computer Science; Information Technology; and Digital Literacy. This scheme has created a comprehensive progression document for staff to follow to best embed and cover every element of the computing curriculum. The knowledge/skills statements build year on year to deepen and challenge our learners.
The three aspects of the Computing curriculum
Computer Science:
Pupils are taught about how computing systems work and how to use this knowledge through programming. Children gain practical experience of writing and debugging algorithms and develop an understanding of computer networks and the World Wide Web.
Information Technology:
Pupils are taught how to use computer systems to create, organise and store digital content. Children are provided with opportunities to use search technologies safely and effectively and experience using a range of software and digital devices.
Digital Literacy:
Pupils are taught about how computing systems are used beyond school and learn the importance of being a responsible 'digital citizen.' Through our Online Safety programme children learn where to go for help when they have concerns about content or contact online.
Pupil Voice:
‘I really enjoy Computing because I am confident using technology’
‘We think that Computing is super important because now-a-days everywhere we go we see computers’
‘We enjoy using BeeBot, Kodable and Scratch Junior to get to the final part’
‘I enjoy 2Logo because I create my very own shape using coding’
‘I enjoyed Lego Robotics when I programmed to move.’
‘I know how to block and report because we learn this in our Computing lesson.’
‘I created spreadsheets to show my Science results when I collected data.’
- Computing - Primary National Curriculum
- Computing - Overview
- Computing - EYFS
- Computing - Progression of Skills
- Computing - Teaching Online Safety
- Education for Connected World
