Be analytical. Be innovative. Be safe.

Intent

Our intent is to deliver the content outlined in the Computing programmes of study within the national curriculum, augmented with powerful knowledge carefully selected to build upon our pupils’ starting points of cultural capital.

To this end, we use the Teach Computing curriculum. This is a research-based, inclusive and ambitious curriculum which builds on prior learning and clearly outlines the key knowledge and vocabulary for each stage in the learning sequence.  The aim is to embed the knowledge and skilled needs to prepare children for life in an increasingly digital world.

By the time they leave St Aelred’s, children will have gained key knowledge and skills in the three main areas of the computing curriculum: computer science (programming and understanding how digital systems work), information technology (using computer systems to store, retrieve and send information) and digital literacy (evaluating digital content and using technology safely and respectfully).

The objectives within each strand support the development of learning across the key stages, ensuring a solid grounding for future learning and beyond. Throughout each area, our aim is to equip children to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world.

Implementation

At St Aelred’s, we follow the National Centre for Computing pedagogical approach, which consists of 12 key principles underpinned by research: each principle has been shown to contribute to effective teaching and learning in computing. Each of the 12 principles can be found within the curriculum and can be found throughout the units of work at every key stage.

In-depth description of the 12 principles can be found here:

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Our curriculum provides opportunities for the development of key concepts of computational thinking such as logic, evaluation, algorithms, patterns, decomposition and abstraction. Teachers will model and encourage approaches that develop these skills, such as tinkering, creating, debugging, collaborating and persevering. Modelling is particularly beneficial to novices, providing scaffolding that can be gradually taken away.

The implementation of our curriculum ensures a balanced coverage of computer science, information technology and digital literacy. The children will have experiences of all three strands in each year group, but the subject knowledge imparted becomes increasingly specific and in-depth, with more complex skills being taught, thus ensuring that learning is built upon.

The core of computing is computer science, in which pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programmes and systems in a range of contexts. Our curriculum also ensures that children become digitally literate at a suitable level for the future workplace as active participants in a digital world.

At St Aelred’s, we believe that Computing is a core subject. We follow the Teach Computing Curriculum to ensure our pupils build upon the key knowledge and skills required in the National Curriculum cumulatively, empowering them to be ready for the next stage.

Teach Computing say this about their curriculum:

“Our curriculum contains everything you need to teach computing at key stages 1 to 2 and goes beyond to key stage 4.

All of the content has been created by subject experts, based on the latest pedagogical research and teacher feedback. It also provides an innovative progression framework where computing content (concepts, knowledge, skills, and objectives) has been organised into interconnected networks we call learning graphs.”

Impact

By the time pupils leave St Aelred’s, we aim to develop pupils who:

• Are responsible, confident and creative users of technology, who apply computational thinking beyond the Computing curriculum. 
• Become digitally literate and are active and confident participants in a digital world. 
• Know how to stay safe whilst using technology and on the internet, minimising risk to themselves and others. 
• Understand and follow agreed E-Safety rules, and know who to contact if they have concerns, including the use of report buttons. 
• Have repeated practical experience writing computer programs in order to solve problems, including logic & algorithms. 
• Use search options effectively; understanding the need to evaluate the relevance of content.  
• Ask and answer questions through collection, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information. 
• Understand how digital networks work & the services they provide.