Computing

Curriculum Statement: Computing

‘Excellence, Truth and Grace’

Computing Intent

 

At Middleton Parish Church School, we believe that computing is an essential life skill, and strive to equip our children with the knowledge and skills to become confident and competent users of technology. We want our children to become digital creators, using technology to support other areas of their work and lives, and to understand the responsibilities of being digital consumers on their time, relationships and wellbeing. Children will demonstrate excellence, truth and grace in many ways through our computing curriculum: supporting each other to ensure that computing equipment is handled appropriately and with care in order to keep it in good working order; be understanding of the fact that the internet is a powerful and wonderful resource when used correctly, and will have a deep-rooted knowledge of how to keep themselves and others safe online and become good digital citizens; able to show resilience when tackling complex problems, making mistakes and learning from them.

 

We follow the National Centre for Computing Excellence scheme of work, which offers coherently planned units of work to support teachers in developing pupils’ computing knowledge and skills within the three fundamental areas: computer Science, Digital Literacy and Information Technology. Children will learn to draw upon prior learning when revisiting the core strands (Computing Systems and Networks, Creating Media, Data and Information and Programming) and develop an understanding of new concepts. Through computing, children will become efficient in the process of logging in and out of a laptop, saving and retrieving their work and navigating the internet. They will experience using a range of computer software and hardware such as PCs, iPads, digital cameras, data loggers, floor robots and microcontrollers, becoming increasingly more competent in their use, and selecting the appropriate device, program or app for a specific purpose.  Online Safety is a key priority, and as they progress through school, children will develop their understanding of why this is important and become increasingly knowledgeable of how to keep themselves safe online – something that is also highlighted on our annual Safer Internet Day.

 

Children will not only recognise that being computer literate is key for later life, but in a wide range of careers also. They will utilise opportunities to practise their computing skills in other areas of the curriculum, e.g. word processing a final draft of a piece of writing such as a newspaper report, creating a bar chart in maths, or using an app to compose a piece of music.

 

Computing Implementation

 

At Middleton Parish Church School, computing is taught as a discrete subject using the National Centre for Computing Excellence scheme. The units of work are based on a spiral curriculum, meaning each of the core strands is revisited regularly (at least once in each year group), and pupils revisit each core strand through a new unit that consolidates and builds on prior learning within that theme. This style of curriculum design reduces the amount of knowledge lost through forgetting, as topics are revisited yearly. It also ensures that connections are made even if different teachers are teaching the units within a theme in consecutive years. Our computing curriculum follows a clear progression of skills which ensure all pupils are challenged in line with their year group expectations and are given the opportunity to build on their prior knowledge.

We are aware that for some children our approach needs to be adapted to meet their needs. Each lesson is sequenced so that it builds on the learning from the previous lesson, and where appropriate, activities are scaffolded to so that all pupils can succeed and thrive. Scaffolded activities provide pupils with extra resources, such as visual prompts, to reach the same learning goals as the rest of the class. Exploratory tasks foster a deeper understanding of a concept, encouraging pupils to apply their learning in different contexts and make connections with other learning experiences.

 

Computing Impact

 

Every lesson includes formative assessment opportunities which are listed in the lesson plan and are included to ensure that misconceptions are recognised and addressed if they occur. They vary from teacher observation or questioning, to marked activities. These assessments are vital to ensure that teachers are adapting their teaching to suit the needs of their pupils, and they are encouraged to change parts of the lesson, such as the amount of time spent on a specific activity, in response to these assessments. The learning objective and success criteria are introduced at the beginning of every lesson, and at the end, pupils are invited to assess how well they feel they have met the learning objective using thumbs up/sideways/down. This gives pupils a reminder of the content that has been covered, as well as a chance to reflect, and is a chance for teachers to see how confident the class is feeling so that they can make changes to subsequent lessons accordingly.

 

Teachers carry out summative assessment of pupils, based on:

 

• The work that pupils complete (marking)
• Conversation and discussion notes
• Photographs of pupils’ work
• Pupils’ end of lesson self-assessments

Through the work pupils produce, as well as observation of children in lessons, it will be evident that by the end of their time at Middleton Parish, the majority of pupils will be able to create a range of media using a variety of programs, programme different devices to perform a range of clear tasks, present data in a range of progressively more complex ways, have a deep-rooted understanding of computer networks and systems, and be knowledgeable of how to keep themselves and others safe online.

 

Curriculum - Computing.