COMPUTING AT EVELYN CP SCHOOL

Intent

Through our Computing curriculum at Evelyn Community Primary School, we aim to give our pupils the life-skills that will enable them to embrace and utilise new technology in a creative, as well as responsible and safe way, in order to flourish. We recognise that technological devices and software are an integral part of everyday life and that society is becoming ever reliant on technology to guide, innovate and develop practice in many sectors of work, education, and daily life.

We want our pupils to be able to operate in the modern and future workplace and we want them to know the career opportunities available to them within Knowsley, Merseyside and beyond.

We want children to become conscientious, independent users of computing technologies, gaining confidence and enjoyment from their activities. We want the use of technology to support learning across the wider curriculum and to ensure that our curriculum is accessible to every child.  We want children to be digitally literate and competent end-users of technology, and through our computer science lessons, we want them to develop creativity, resilience, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.  We want our pupils to have a breadth of experience to develop their understanding of themselves as individuals within their community but also as members of a wider global community and as responsible digital citizens.

Implementation

The computing curriculum at Evelyn has been tailored to focus and build upon four core aspects of Computing; Digital Creativity, Digital Literacy, Programming, and eSafety. We do so with matrices of skills and knowledge that allow children to make the necessary connections within their learning as they progress through the Computing Curriculum. We use these matrices to create a scheme of work for each year group building upon the skills acquired in previous years.

Our planning draws upon proven activities and ideas from Twinkl Planning, Barefoot Computing, Teach Computing, Phil Bagge and ‘Think U Know’. Our termly Computing lessons are complemented by regular whole-school eSafety assemblies, guidance for parents and remote-learning videos.

Impact

Our approach to the curriculum results in a relevant, engaging, and high-quality Computing education. The quality of children’s learning is evidenced in our portfolios, displays, and through our Twitter account.

Evidence such as this is used to feed into teachers’ future planning, and teachers are able to address misconceptions and knowledge gaps in Computing when teaching other curriculum areas, especially in areas of digital literacy and PSHCE. This supports varied paces of learning and ensures all pupils make good progress.

By the end of Year 6, pupils should feel confident in using a range of technologies from iPads to laptop computers. They should be able to recognise how to keep themselves safe online, and they should understand the importance of being a good digital citizen. Pupils should have a sound knowledge of up-to-date technologies and how they can be used to further their learning.