Computing
Overview of the Subject:
Computing at Spire aims to develop our children’s understanding of the online world. We want to equip our children to become active but safe and responsible participants in the ever-changing digital world. We are aware that our children’s access to technology and online platforms can vary due to exposure at home. We are also aware of the barriers and stereotypes that exist within the computing industry. Therefore, at Spire, we aim to inspire all children to develop their ability to become computational thinkers and computer scientists for the future through our curriculum. Our computing curriculum aims to develop a broad range of skills: it helps the children understand different forms of technology; it develops coding skills; we help children to evaluate the benefits and risks of technology; and we support children to be able to evaluate safe sources of information.
Subject Information:
Intent:
At Spire Junior school we hope to prepare our children for a future in an environment which is shaped by technology. We intend to build a computing curriculum that ensures that by the time the children leave Spire Junior School, they 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).
Computing skills are taught both discretely and through cross curricular links to help support other areas of learning across the school. The school has sets of iPads and Chromebooks, each class has access to these devices every week. In addition to this, to enable high-quality computer science lessons the school has a set of Crumbles and MicroBits to allow the children to programme. Using these devices, our computing curriculum is fun, engaging and of a high quality. When learning in computing has been completed and when iPads have been used to support other areas of the curriculum, this is evidenced on Seesaw – a digital platform where pupils can share and create work.
Implementation:
Our curriculum at Spire is carefully planned and organised so as to promote a deep understanding of the projects and concepts that we cover through quality- first teaching. We do this by equipping our pupils with the skills and qualities they need to thrive both within the curriculum and within the wider-world.
The implementation of the curriculum ensures a balanced coverage of computer science, information technology and digital literacy through the use of two-year cycle as to cater for our mixed year groups. As a school we use the NCCE scheme of work and adapt it as and when required. Also, where possible these skills are linked to our topics. 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.
In order to develop the children’s understanding of Internet Safety, we access the Project Evolve curriculum, which has an array of resources to support the UK Council for Internet Safety’s Framework. Project Evolve is taught alongside computing, following a long-term overview and is recorded on Seesaw.
Impact:
Through the use of monitoring and feedback of Computing, we aim to ensure that the teaching and learning in Computing is of a high quality and that the children are prepared to use different forms of technology and have exposure to programming through various methods. They will be fully equipped with the key skills and knowledge needed to use technology effectively and safely. The impact of Computing is also monitored through the use of pupil interviews, seeing if the children can discuss computing, their year group theme and relevant terminology and skills that they have learnt.
Our approach to the curriculum results in a fun, engaging, and high-quality computing education, and we hope that our pupil interviews will reflect this. However, the quality of the children’s learning can be accessed via Seesaw, a digital platform, where pupils can share and evaluate their own work both in discrete computing lessons and cross -curricular. Evidence such as this is used to feed into teachers’ future planning, and by using the NCCE units we ensure progression is built on each year. Children will be equipped, not only with the skills and knowledge to use technology effectively, but most importantly – safely.
What do computing lessons look like?
A Computing lesson at Spire starts with the teacher explaining the learning intention using the NCCE PowerPoint, this then moves on to the lesson’s aims and ‘I can’ statements that we hope to achieve by the end of the lesson. This is a good way to check what the children already know about the topic. The PowerPoints then have some retrieval activities, linking to previous learning and new learning to ensure that the two are linked together through the use of questioning.
Depending on the activities in the lesson, the children will either complete the NCCE activities on a worksheet, which is then later uploaded onto the children’s Seesaw accounts. However, the children may need to use a device, whether that is an Ipad or a Chromebook, to complete their work. The children are then asked, where possible, to screenshot the work that they have created, for example, on Scratch and upload the picture to Seesaw. If working on Chromebooks, we ask the children to evidence their work by taking a photo on the iPad and uploading to Seesaw. This ensures that the work completed is evidenced. The children are asked to type which term and lesson their work corresponds with for example, Term 1, Lesson 4 using the textbox tool on Seesaw.
Long-term subject overview:
What else is happening in computing?
On Safer-Internet day, the children at Spire Juniors will take part in a whole-school project where the children create ‘guides’ on how to keep safe online linking key areas of learning to their work, such as sharing information online, how to make a safe password and how to detect if a website is safe.
Computing at home