Computing
Intent
At The Avenue Primary School, we understand that technology is everywhere and plays a pivotal role in our learners lives. Our aim is to prepare our children to use technology in the ever-changing digital world and the 21st century workplace by teaching them to use it positively, responsibly and safely. Opportunities to gain knowledge and develop skills will be given to children throughout their school life as our computing curriculum follows a progression of skills in digital literacy, computer science, information technology and online safety which will be revisited often to ensure that learning is embedded.
We intend to utilise technology in school to not only develop key skills such as computational thinking and gain understanding of computers, but for opportunities to share work and learn creatively, as well as provide accessibility opportunities for pupils who need additional support to engage fully in all areas of the curriculum. We strive to provide a relevant, challenging and enjoyable curriculum for all pupils, as well as using it as a tool to enhance learning throughout the wider curriculum.
We firmly believe in the importance of teaching our children about online safety. As technology develops, so does the need for a better understanding of how to use it in a responsible manner. The education of our pupils in online safety is therefore essential to ensure our children are equipped with the skills to recognise risks online, to be critically aware of the materials and content they access online, along with guidance on how to accurately validate information accessed via the internet.
Computing plays a significant part in everyone’s daily life and at The Avenue, we believe that our children should be at the forefront of new technology. We endeavour for all our children to leave school as being masters of technology.
Implementation
We provide high quality computing lessons that follow the National Curriculum through our scheme Purple Mash. The Purple Mash scheme is taught in discrete units of lessons that follow key themes. Lessons within each unit build upon each other and always link to knowledge and skills from the previous units. Knowledge and skills are revisited regularly as children journey through the school to ensure they are fully embedded. The key themes that are covered through the Purple Mash scheme are:
• online safety
• coding and computational thinking
• spreadsheets
• internet and email
• art and design
• music
• databases and graphing
• writing and presenting
• communication and networks
Within these themes, children will develop the understanding and practical skills to successfully and safely use technology in a variety of ways; from solving problems, to creating algorithms or representing data. All lessons are adapted to the needs of the class and regardless of age, ability or additional needs, we aim for all children to flourish and gain confidence in computing. In addition, we teach about the importance of online safety every year. We teach our children how to use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; how to recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviours and how to report concerns about content and contact.
At The Avenue, we recognise the need to continually maintain, update and develop our resources and to make progress towards a consistent, compatible system by investing in resources that will effectively deliver the strands of the national curriculum and support the use of Computing across the school. This includes:
• Interactive whiteboards with sound in every classroom.
• Class sets of laptops, available for use throughout the school.
• Class set of iPads, available for the use throughout the school.
• A set of Beebot devices for programming activities.
• Class set of microphones for recording.
• Class sets of headphones.
Impact
The impact of our Computing and online safety curriculum is measured in a number of ways. Our children will be able to discuss their learning and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through a range of ‘Show what you Know’ activities. These may include pupil conferencing, looking at saved work on the computer, models, pictorial representations or images/videos of children’s practical learning.
Our computing and online safety curriculum ensures that when our children leave The Avenue Primary School, they are digitally literate and equipped to use technology competently, effectively and safely. Confidence in this subject will enable our children to become independent and competent in key life skills such as problem-solving, logical thinking and evaluation which will ensure they are ready for secondary school and beyond.
