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St Laurence Catholic Primary School

St Laurence
Catholic Primary School

Computing

Computing prepares pupils to participate in a digital world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technology. Pupils use ICT tools to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information responsibly, creatively and with discrimination. We believe that all children should be given opportunities to engage in a broad computing curriculum that ensures they are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology. We are well-equipped with IT infrastructure including laptop trollies, ipads and interactive whiteboards in all classrooms.

Curriculum Statement for Computing

Intent

At our school we want pupils to be MASTERS of technology. Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in students' lives. Therefore, we want to model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want our pupils to be creators not consumers and our broad curriculum encompassing computer science, information technology and digital literacy reflects this. We want our pupils to understand that there is always a choice with using technology and as a school we utilise technology to model positive use. We recognise that the best prevention for a lot of issues we currently see with technology/social media is through education. We recognise that technology can allow pupils to share their learning in creative ways. We also understand the accessibility opportunities technology can provide for our pupils. Our knowledge rich curriculum has to be balanced with the opportunity for pupils to apply their knowledge creatively which will in turn help our pupils become skilful computer scientists. We encourage staff to try and embed computing across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible. We want our pupils to be fluent with a range of tools to best express their understanding and hope by Upper Key Stage 2, children have the independence and confidence to choose the best tool to fulfil the task and challenge set by teachers.

Implementation

Staff make use of progression documents to best embed and cover each element of the computing curriculum. The knowledge/skills statements build year-on-year to deepen and challenge our learners. The computing curriculum is delivered in two ways. Some weeks, computing is covered using an explicit timetabled computing session. Other weeks, when there is not a timetabled session, computing is covered by using technology to demonstrate learning in other subjects. For example: If a class were covering World War 2 in Year 5/6, and we are exploring how the Second World War started, I could set the children the task of creating a video explaining this. Even though this would be a History lesson, we would be covering a fair few computing objectives therefore if we need to spend more time on other subjects that week, we are still covering computing without having a timetabled computing session. This way computing is embedded to allow learning to be more accessible and allow learners to be more creative in demonstrating their learning. Impact

We encourage our children to enjoy and value the curriculum we deliver. We will constantly ask the WHY behind their learning and not just the HOW. We want learners to discuss, reflect and appreciate the impact computing has on their learning, development and well-being. Finding the right balance with technology is key to an effective education and a healthy life-style. We feel the way we implement computing helps children realise the need for the right balance and one they can continue to build on in their next stage of education and beyond. We encourage regular discussions between staff and pupils to best embed and understand this. The way pupils showcase, share, celebrate and publish their work will best show the impact of our curriculum. We also look for evidence through reviewing pupil’s knowledge and skills digitally through saved projects on Purple Mash, pupil’s work folders and observing learning regularly. Progress of our computing curriculum is demonstrated through outcomes and the record of coverage in the process of achieving these outcomes.