Intent
Our aim for Computing at Eythorne Elvington Community Primary School is to enable children to communicate in an ever-changing world of technology. In an ever changing technological society we believe computing is a pivotal part of students education. We model and educate our pupils to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We ensure that computing as part of our whole school is broad and balanced by encompassing computer, science, information technology and digital literacy. Whole school termly focus allow us to fully immerse all pupils into channels of computing and see progress in all sessions. By being whole school in this way, we can focus in on varying elements in great detail particularly through whole class teaching but also in assemblies and other whole school events.
In line with our whole-school Curriculum Intent, teachers will enthuse and inspire pupils in computing bringing the learning alive through practical, hands-on learning experiences. This is done through ensuring children experience the uses of a range of hardware, software and physical computing . Computing has deep links across the curriculum we make sure the computing is embed across the curriculum to ensure children have opportunities to be creative.
As always, our core school values will be seen through the subject. Pupils will be encouraged to have the confidence to become computational thinkers and the creativity to change the world. The will find enjoyment in the learning of computing and have ambitions to be as successful as they can be within all of their work in this subject and ready them for their lives in an ever-changing technological society.. Pupils will need to demonstrate perseverance when tackling new concepts and debugging when programming. Working both alone and particularly in small groups, pupils will need to pull on their ability to show empathy when considering the differing ability of peers.
Implementation
Our Computing curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum states that “a high quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world”. To ensure that pupils develop a secure knowledge that they can build on, our Computing curriculum is designed in a spiral format allowing all pupils to revisit topics throughout the course of a school year capturing and revisiting prior knowledge as they go. Our curriculum is geared around the three strands of the national curriculum.
Computer Science | Digital Literacy | Information Technology
To support our understanding and delivery of computing we follow the Teach Computing scheme offered through the NCCE which breaks the curriculum down further into 10 key taxonomy strands:
Algorithms | Computer Networks | Computer Systems | Creating Media| Data and Information | Design and Development |
Effective Use of Tools | Impact of Technology | Programming | Safety and Security
When covering each of these strands, the content will be carefully organised across each cohort through a long term plan which is closely monitored by the subject leader. Content knowledge, key questions and progressive vocabulary is a key focus in all plans. At Eythorne Elvington, to ensure the quality and delivery of this teaching is as strong as possible we have the subject leader deliver all sessions across the school. This also allows for clear progression from EYFS through to Year Six. It also enables us to pull on a common thread throughout the school in a given term and further add to this through whole-school assemblies and other initiatives.
Review | Teach | Practice | Apply
All learning will start by reviewing prior knowledge and establishing prior links. This will be scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make connections. Within whole class teaching, staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. Children will continue to be engaged and inspired through the delivery of Computing which allows them to be exposed to a range of hardware and software plus both compute science and information technology approaches. Through practice elements of each lesson, children will look to secure their understanding through high quality teaching from staff as well as lots of in-class discussions. Pupils will then look to apply their computer technology understanding and apply skills through well thought out, effective and engaging outcome opportunities.
Learning will be supported through the use of knowledge organisers that provide children with scaffolding that supports them to retain new facts and vocabulary in their long term memory. Knowledge organisers are used for pre-teaching, to support home learning and also as a part of daily review. Whole school, fortnightly quizzes will be used to assess understanding and highlight any gaps to be addressed. Learning is reviewed also on a termly basis, after a period of forgetting, so that teachers can check whether information has been retained. Computing assessment is ongoing throughout the relevant cross-curricular themes to inform teachers with their planning lesson activities and differentiation. Key Stage Two children will all sit an end of topic quiz to help secure their understanding and identify gaps.
Impact
Computing at Eythorne and Elvington is planned and implemented to ensure children have a good understanding of knowledge, skills and vocabulary that ensures they achieve age related attainment at the end of key stage. Clear links to prior knowledge and whole-school themes for clear progression will help towards ensuring there is a consistent and systematic approach to the teaching and learning of Computing at Eythorne Elvington. End of topic “showcase” projects will demonstrate pupils understanding over the course of the term and will be used as a means of celebrating their progress and cementing the skills and knowledge that they have acquired. Termly assessments will take place to track children’s progress against age related expectations for Computing; this progress of the computing curriculum is demonstrated through end outcomes. We will evidence our work using a project based programme alongside Tapestry which will help showcase our children value and enjoy the curriculum as they can share their “showcase” projects using Tapestry.