Computing

Intent: what are we trying to achieve with our curriculum?

At St Edward’s we aim to give our pupils the life-skills that will enable them to become ‘thinkers of the future’, embracing and utilising new technology in a socially responsible and safe way through an ambitious, challenging and relevant computing curriculum. Not only do we want our pupils to become active participants in the digital world, we also want them to be able to operate in the 21st century workplace and to know the career opportunities that will be open to them if they study computing.  We want children to become autonomous, independent users of computing technologies, gaining confidence and enjoyment from their activities. We want the use of technology to support learning across the entire curriculum and to ensure that our curriculum is accessible to every child.  Not only do we want them to be digitally literate and competent end-users of technology, we also want them to develop creativity, resilience, problem-solving as well as computational thinking skills.  We want our pupils to have a breadth of experience to develop their understanding of themselves as individuals within their community but also as members of a wider global community and as responsible digital citizens.

Implementation: how is our curriculum delivered?

At St Edward’s, computing is taught in discreet computing lessons, mapped out across the years and timetabled weekly. Each year group are taught six units (one per half term) which comprise of six lessons. Our scheme of work for Computing is adapted from the ‘Teach Computing’ Curriculum and covers all aspects of the National Curriculum. This scheme was chosen as it has been created by subject experts and based on the latest pedagogical research. It provides an innovative progression framework where computing content (concepts, knowledge, skills and objectives) has been organised into interconnected networks called learning graphs.

The curriculum aims to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to thrive in the digital world of today and the future. The curriculum can be broken down into 3 strands: computer science, information technology and digital literacy, with the aims of the curriculum reflecting this distinction.

The units for key stages 1 and 2 are based on a spiral curriculum, where themes are revisited regularly (at least once in each year group), and pupils revisit each theme through a new unit that consolidates and builds on prior learning within that theme. This is to ensure connections are made across years as well as reducing knowledge lost through forgetting over consecutive years. Where appropriate, meaningful links will be made between the computing curriculum and the wider curriculum and pupils will be given plentiful opportunities to apply their skills.

Our Computing Curriculum is both inclusive and ambitious. Each lesson is sequenced so that it builds on the learning from the previous lesson, and where appropriate, activities are scaffolded 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.

In computing lessons, the children will use either the ipads or the computer suite in order to access a range of apps and software. ‘Unplugged’ lessons will also be taught so that the pupils understand the wider implications of computing. Pupils are also given many opportunities to apply their skills and knowledge to other areas of the curriculum, for example, when producing presentations, using QR codes or researching using the internet at several points across their weekly lessons.

Children’s progress is determined through opportunities for formative assessment within lessons. These are included to ensure that misconceptions are recognised and addressed if they occur. They vary from teacher observation or questioning, to marked activities. From KS2, each unit includes a summative assessment framework in the form of either a multiple-choice quiz (MCQ) or a rubric.

To aid the implementation of the computing curriculum, we have a variety of hardware available to all classes, including:

  • A computer suite with desk top PCs
  • ipads
  • Chromebooks

Each classroom is provided with:

  • A visualiser
  • A desktop PC (in additional to teacher’s laptop)
  • Interactive Whiteboard

All children are provided with Google Education Suite accounts and work can be accessed in school and remotely. Both technical and curriculum support is provided by our central technical team at NPCAT.

Impact: what difference is our curriculum having on pupils?

Our approach to the curriculum results in a fun, engaging, and high-quality computing education. The quality of children’s learning is evident in the pupil’s work and skills. Evidence such as this is used to feed into teachers’ assessment and future planning. The curriculum has been designed to allow teachers are to revisit skills and knowledge and build upon it, ensuring progression and bridging gaps, when necessary.

Much of the subject-specific knowledge developed in computing lessons equips pupils with experiences which will benefit them in secondary school, further education and future workplaces, as well as providing them with the tools to cope with the pressures of a fast-paced and ever-changing digital society. From research methods, use of presentation and creative tools, digital resilience and critical thinking, computing at St. Edward’s gives children the building blocks that enable them to pursue a wide range of interests, careers and vocations in the next stage of their lives.