Thornton Hough Primary School

“Learning for Life”

Computing Curriculum

Intent

At Thornton Hough school we want our children to love computing. We want to show pupils the links between knowledge, skills and real life employment opportunities and have no limits to what their ambitions are. We want our children to grow up wanting to be software engineers, video game designers, web developers or IT consultants. We want them to embody our core values and encourage them to dream big!

We work closely with IT consulting agency hi-impact to ensure that our computing curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their digital capital progressively. We have made it our aim to ensure that children experience engaging, memorable computing lessons in our school. We want our children to leave our school with cherished memories and the ability to embrace the opportunities they are presented with in relation to computing and IT. The computing curriculum promotes curiosity, one of our key values, and a love and thirst for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our children to become independent and resilient – like all curriculum areas in our school.

We want to equip them with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the computing National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. We enrich their time in our school with memorable, unforgettable experiences and provide opportunities that may normally be out of reach – we believe that this will pique our pupil’s interests and passions. For example, this year we have teamed up with specialist teachers from hi-impact Consultancy in order to deliver engaging and exciting sessions based around computing. The children will enjoy a range of fantastic, hands-on sessions and will have the chance to work with a variety of equipment to tackle computing-based challenges by participating in some fabulous practical activities, that we have embedded into the curriculum.

We are passionate about embedding our values based curriculum into all our learning, including Computing, as our core values are placed at the heart of everything we do. For example, in the Spring term the whole school will celebrate ‘Safer Internet Day’ to reiterate the importance of staying safe online and being kind and respectful to people as we would do in ‘real life’. This is underpinned by a comprehensive plan for teaching e-safety all through the year.

Implementation

During 2020 a complete audit of the computing curriculum was conducted. On the back of the findings from this audit, the computing curriculum has been carefully built and the learning opportunities and key milestones for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills.

We focus our teaching on the three main areas of computing. These areas are revisited in a variety of different ways each term where pupils are given the opportunity to progressively build their skills and knowledge. We believe that computing is taught best when the 3 main areas are taught little and often every term rather than completing stand-alone units that focus on one area of computing for an entire half term. We believe that this way of teaching allows children to more readily use their prior knowledge and understanding to help them to further develop their computing skills and also gives them opportunities to consider where their learning will go next.

We also have a set of core or functional skills that each year group must achieve by the end of the year. These are so that pupils can work with any device, learn to type effectively, save and print information. For example, in Year 1, in order to develop the children’s skills in computer science across the year, the children begin by using an online coding program in Autumn Term. They then move on to using a variety of coding apps during the Spring term before moving on to use Blue bots and a more complex app to help them to develop skills in sequencing and debugging directional instructions for an online character in the Summer Term. As well as this the children also access ‘Code Studio’ each half term. This is a progressive web program which helps to build pupils programming and coding skills year upon year. In addition to this, we work alongside computing experts from hi-impact Consultancy to provide specialist computing teaching to pupils across the school and frequently revisit online safety through explicit teaching, themed days and national celebrations such as ‘Online Safety day’.

Computing subject-specific endpoints assigned to each year group have been developed and shared with all staff. These characteristics underpin all work in computing and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject-specific vocabulary for staff and pupils. This also allows for Key Skills to be built upon each year and for progression to be demonstrated for each year group. Computer science is taught explicitly for up to an hour every two weeks in every class. This helps to ensure sufficient time is allocated to computing and that computing subject matter can be revisited frequently. Computing is also taught in a cross-curricular manner whenever possible and teachers should identify this clearly in their planning. We believe that by crafting our curriculum this way, we improve the potential for our children to retain what they have been taught, to alter their long-term memory and thus improve the rates of progress they make. We have a staff base who are secure in their subject knowledge and are confident to deliver high-quality computing lessons to their pupils that build upon prior teaching and prepare them for the next stages of their learning.

Impact

At Thornton Hough school we use both formative and summative assessment information in every computing lesson. This is based on our progression of key skills. Staff use this information to inform their short-term planning and short-term interventions. This helps us provide the best possible support for all of our pupils, including the more able pupils. The assessment milestones for each phase have been carefully mapped out and further broken down for each year group. This means that skills in computing are progressive and build year on year.

Our staff use an electronic-based assessment tool to complete computing formative assessment grids to systematically assess what the children know as the topic progresses and inform their future planning. These formative assessment grids then inform summative assessment judgements for each topic.

Assessment information is collected frequently and analysed as part of our school monitoring system. This process provides an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the quality of education in computing. Monitoring in computing includes: staff audits, work sampling, lesson observations and/or learning walks, and conversations with staff, pupils and parents about the computing curriculum. All of this information is gathered and reviewed. It is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly. The children are thoroughly enjoying their computing curriculum and are keen to communicate to staff how much they are enjoying their computing lessons!

If you wish to support your child at home to further develop their skills in computing, please click on the links below:

Programming (coding) is important for children as it will help improve their mathematics and writing skills, it will give them valuable life skills, which will be used eventually in the workplace. Develop your child’s skill by learning the basics of coding; you do not even need a computer! Problem solving, thinking creatively, and it helps them to develop resilience.

Online safety

Online safety is an integral part of children’s education in today’s digital world and is embedded in their learning at school. We also want to help our parents and children improve their own understanding of e-safety issues so they can learn to use the internet and all digital media in a safe and secure way. Please see our E Safety Policy under the 'Policies' tab and our E safety section of the website for more information.