At High Halstow Primary Academy, we believe that the computing curriculum should promote enjoyment around using technology, encourage an appreciation for the subject and ignite a love of learning. The curriculum plans for progressive, well-resourced content which empowers our children to become independent and resilient learners. We intend to equip students with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the Computing National Curriculum, but prepare them to safely navigate the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of the outside world. We wish to encourage pupils’ flexibility in continuing to adapt alongside the ever-changing landscape of technology. We aim for our pupils to develop transferable skills which will assist them as they move throughout primary school, onto secondary education and to become lifelong learners.
The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme is key to helping us achieve this by providing a strong SMSC curriculum, with British Values and our core school values placed at the heart of everything we do. We ensure we equip our pupils with the skills and knowledge surrounding how to use all aspects of the digital world safely and what to do if something worries them.
In our curriculum, we aim to ensure that all pupils:
- can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including computational thinking, data representation and understanding of computer systems.
- can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated and varied practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
- are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and technology
- are digitally literate so that they are able to keep themselves safe online using practical skills and knowledge to prevent, identify and resolve potentially dangerous online interactions
Our pupils have the opportunity to work with a wide range of physical computing resources including Lego, iPads, Chromebooks and Beebots. Pupils in KS1 have 1:1 iPads and pupils in KS2 have a 1:1 Chromebook available for daily use. Staff promote and plan for the use of a wide range of software to ensure that our pupils develop transferable skills. Our whole school planning enables staff to weave computing into purposeful contexts and make meaningful links with other curriculum areas so that children understand computing as a part of all that we do.
Teachers routinely use progression maps to understand pupils’ prior learning, knowledge and skills in order to support pupils to secure and deepen their understanding.
E-safety is taught at every opportunity. Our PSHE and RSE curriculum supports the computing curriculum to reinforce the knowledge and understanding of keeping safe online taught to our pupils who are developing their digital literacy skills.
The teaching of the computing curriculum enables our children to use digital devices with confidence. Pupils are able to communicate their ideas using a range of media. Our pupils leave High Halstow Primary with competent digital literacy skills and the knowledge of how to keep safe online. Computing skills learned at our school enable pupils to be well-prepared for secondary school, further education and the modern workplace as critical thinking problem solvers who are adept at navigating today’s digital world.
The impact of our computing curriculum is measured by speaking to the children themselves and seeing their love of computing in lessons. Computing knowledge and outcomes are shared via Google Classrooms allowing dialogue, collaboration and feedback to be gained digitally as well as in person. Our Computing Ambassadors (pupils) feed back to the Computing Lead (teacher) with rigour on our computing curriculum, their classroom experiences and hopes for the computing curriculum of the future.