Computing - St Ann's Well Academy

At St Ann’s Well Academy, our curriculum aims to teaching computing effectively and well by providing a rich, broad and balanced computing curriculum fully mapped to the National Curriculum for Computing and Key Stage 1 and 2.

It offers pupils a computing education designed for mastery using research led computing pedagogies and covers all three strands of the computing curriculum: Computer Science Information Technology Digital Literacy (incl. e-Safety). Through their experience of our curriculum at our school, we intend for all pupils:

To develop all pupils’ computational thinking skills to behave like computer scientists through planning, writing and amending programs on a range of software.
To create a broad and coherent IT skillset to achieve a range of goals including creating digital artifacts, representing data and using the Internet.
To ensure all pupils become digitally literate by the end of their education, understanding how to navigate a range of programs and conduct themselves when using a computer.
To understand the positive benefits technology and can bring to our lives and the role computers will have in our future work.
To develop the understanding of how to use computers, the internet, and digital tools safely and responsibly and create positive behaviours online.

Implementation

Our PE curriculum is centred around the three key pillars of computer: Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy. Children are taught computing every half team covering a range of topics. Progression is clearly sequenced, and coherent, enabling children to know more, understand more and grow skills that build year on year. The children are taught specific skills and knowledge through strands of computing that flow throughout the curriculum: these strands are:

Digital Texts
Data Handling
The Internet, Websites and HTML
Computer Modelling, Animation and Simulation
Graphic Design
Email
Computer Programming

In each lesson, we aim to develop computational thinking in all of students, developing their skills to decompose, explain and solve problems. They will also understand the importance of how to use technology safely and understand how to be responsible online.

Foundation Stage children will:

Have hands on experiences with technology through their role play of familiar experiences. Adults in the setting will model the use of technology, explaining their method , it’s purpose and how to care for pieces of equipment. This will lead to children using technology independently for a given purpose.

Know that a range of technology is used within school
Understand that technology in school is used for different purposes including recording and gaining information
Be able to talk about technology at home they use and what they use it for
Be able to compare the past and present regarding technology which is familiar to them.
Be able to record their observations outdoors using ICT
Be able to record their own achievements using ICT
Know what to do if they feel unsafe online at home or school

As an EYFS we ensure that all pupils know how to use an iPad to access and use an App which we have found to be a reacquired skill.

In Key Stage 1 children will:

understand what algorithms are, how they are implemented as programs on digital devices, and that programs execute by following a sequence of instructions
write and test simple programs
use logical reasoning to predict and computing the behaviour of simple programs
organise, store, manipulate and retrieve data in a range of digital formats
Communicate safely and respectfully online, keeping personal information private, and recognise common uses of information technology beyond school.

In Key Stage 2 children will:

design and write programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts
use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output; generate appropriate inputs and predicted outputs to test programs
use logical reasoning to explain how a simple algorithm works and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs
understand computer networks including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the world-wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration
describe how internet search engines find and store data; use search engines effectively; be discerning in evaluating digital content; respect individuals and intellectual property; use technology responsibly, securely and safely
Select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information.

Impact

We track the impact of our Computing Curriculum through observing learning, speaking to our teachers and asking our children. We expect all children to:

To be confident and competence to take part in all computing lessons
To achieve at their age-appropriate level
To demonstrate a broad and coherent set IT skills that can be applied in other subjects.
To understand the positive benefits technology and can bring to their lives and the role computers will have in their future work
To have an understanding of to be safe online and how to be responsible with technology.

Aspirations For the Future

Pupils develop an understanding of how subjects and specific skills are linked to future jobs.

Here are some of the jobs you could aspire to do in the future:

Database administrator
Cyber intelligence officer
Data analyst
Robotics engineer
Software developer
App developer
3D printer technician
Website designer
Graphic designer