Computing

“I have come so that you may have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10

Subject Lead - Mr M Turner

Intent

The National Curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all children:

Can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation.
Can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems.
Can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems.
Are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.

At St John’s Catholic Primary School, our overall aim for our Computing Curriculum is to enrich the child’s learning experiences and skills so they can develop fully. We also want to ensure that teachers develop confidence and competence to utilise Information and Communication Technology in the effective teaching of all subjects so that our children have all their learning enriched. Our curriculum aims to offer opportunities for pupils to develop their ICT capability and their understanding of the importance of information and how it is handled. We want to ensure that they develop their skills in using hardware and software so as to enable them to manipulate information and to be creative. We aim to allow them to explore attitudes towards ICT, and to determine its value for themselves, others and society, including having an awareness of its advantages and limitations. At all times, we hope to educate our children in safe use of ICT and encourage them to develop good Health and Safety attitudes and practice in association with the use of ICT equipment.

Implementation

Our computing curriculum is planned to be taught and developed in a way that is linked to each year group’s themes and topics, whilst ensuring that the Computing objectives of the National Curriculum are covered and progress is evident across years.

There is a clear curriculum map which sets out the objectives, skills and knowledge covered at each stage of the year and shows exactly how the children progress throughout each key stage. Skills are taught and practised explicitly in computing lessons and applied in other subjects. Resources such as Laptops, iPads and Dash Robots can be booked by all classes and used in order to enhance the children’s learning of programming and computing software.

Impact

As a result of our curriculum, children at St John’s Catholic Primary develop a good understanding of computing and programming and the impact that technology has in our lives. They demonstrate a clear progression of knowledge and skills in computing and have an understanding of how technology is used in the world around us. They will have developed in their skills and language of coding. In addition, our children will also be able to verbalise the importance of e-safety and will be educated to enjoy safe use of the internet, whether it is through social media, emails, texts or searching for information.