Computing Intent

At St Peter's CE Primary, we follow ‘The Teach Computing Curriculum’. This curriculum was developed by ‘The National Centre for Computing Education’ (NCCE) and funded by the ‘Department for Education’.

We aim to provide a high-quality computing education that prepares our children to become socially responsible and active participants in an ever-changing digital world. Our computing curriculum fulfils the requirements of the National Curriculum and the Education for a Connected World framework and focuses on a progression of skills in computer science, information technology, digital literacy and online safety. We recognise that computing has strong links with other areas of the curriculum; we endeavour to use technology to enrich many areas of our curriculum. 

Our computing curriculum will enable children to become digitally literate and competent users of technology who have a good understanding of themselves as individuals within their community as well as members of a wider community and as responsible digital citizens. Our pupils will develop a good understanding of their digital footprint; they will understand how to communicate effectively using technology and they will recognise the importance of being compassionate and caring of others within a digital world. Computing sessions will inspire, motivate and challenge children; they will allow children to develop their creativity, resilience, problem solving and critical thinking skills. Our children will recognise that technology is exciting as it is ever-evolving; they will develop passion and a thirst for knowledge, recognising that they have the potential to impact on the future digital world.

National Curriculum Computer Science Aims:

• All pupils can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation.
• All pupils can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems.

National Curriculum Information Technology Aim:

• All pupils can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems.

National Curriculum Digital Literacy Aim:

• ­All pupils are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.

Education for a Connected World Framework Aim:

Through using this framework, we aim to educate our pupils to live knowledgeably, responsibly and safely in a digital world.

We will focus on eight different aspects of online education:

1. Self-image and Identity
2. Online relationships
3. Online reputation
4. Online bullying
5. Managing online information
6. Health, wellbeing and lifestyle
7. Privacy and security
8. Copyright and ownership

Implementation

The units for key stages 1 and 2 are based on a spiral curriculum. This means that each of the themes is revisited regularly (at least once in each year group) and pupils revisit each theme through a new unit that consolidates and builds on prior learning within that theme. This style of curriculum design reduces the amount of knowledge lost through forgetting, as topics are revisited yearly. It also ensures that connections are made even if different teachers are teaching the units within a theme in consecutive years. 

The Teach Computing Curriculum is structured in units. For these units to be coherent, the lessons within a unit must be taught in order. However, across a year group, the units themselves do not need to be taught in order, with the exception of ‘Programming’ units, where concepts and skills rely on prior learning and experiences. 

Impact

Each class is assessed every term on each unit using the Teach Computing Assessments. A judgement is then made by teachers whether children are on track or not on track.

Special Books are used to showcase children's work and responses to lessons.