COMPUTING

Intent

Our aim in computing is to enthuse, equip, and prepare our children for a rapidly changing world, where work and leisure activities are increasingly being transformed by technology. We aim to enable children to find, explore, analyse, exchange, and present information in a variety of creative ways, broadening their horizons. Our pupils must be prepared for the ever-evolving technological world, and we have designed our computing curriculum with this in mind.

The core of computing, as stated in the National Curriculum aims, is computer science. Pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. With this in mind, our curriculum aims to provide a wealth of experiences for pupils to develop their coding and computer science skills. Perhaps as important is the notion of ensuring our pupils become ICT literate and are able to creatively express themselves through developing and presenting their ideas. This is vital to ensure readiness for not only their next stage of education but also the world of work.

Despite being a subject-specific curriculum, we ensure that meaningful connections are made, particularly between computing and subjects such as science and maths. These explicit links aim to ensure that our computing curriculum is as relevant and meaningful for our context, acting as an inspiration and motivation for pupils to develop their skills in real-world, practical contexts.

Computing skills are a major factor in enabling children to be confident, creative, and independent learners. We intend to provide every opportunity available for children to achieve this across subjects and contexts, including their ability to troubleshoot and problem solve.

Implementation

At St Andrew’s, computing is taught in separate computing lessons. The computing curriculum is delivered through the Purple Mash scheme of work. Every lesson has been individually planned so that it can be effectively taught using the infrastructure we have in place at school and so that it can meet the needs of all our pupils.

Our computing curriculum has been closely referenced against the National Curriculum attainment targets in order to ensure progression and coverage. This ensures that we have effectively sequenced skills, knowledge, and context, resulting in pupils receiving a wide range of opportunities during their time at St Andrew’s.

Having separate computing lessons means that children are able to develop depth in their knowledge and skills over the duration of each of their computing units of work, which is carefully planned using our Purple Mash scheme of work. In computing lessons, the children will use either iPads or laptops in order to access a range of apps and software.