Computing

Intent:

At Orchard Way Primary School, we believe that every child should have the right to a curriculum that champions excellence; supporting pupils in achieving to the very best of their abilities. We understand the immense value technology plays not only in supporting the Computing and whole school curriculum but overall in the day-to-day life of our school.

We believe that technology can provide: enhanced collaborative learning opportunities; better engagement of pupils; easier access to rich content; support conceptual understanding of new concepts and can support the needs of all our pupils.

As a school, we have chosen the Purple Mash Computing Scheme of Work from Reception to Year 6. The scheme of work supports our teachers in delivering fun and engaging lessons which help to raise standards and allow all pupils to achieve to their full potential. We are confident that the scheme of work more than adequately meets the national vision for Computing. It provides immense flexibility, strong cross-curricular links and integrates perfectly with the 2Simple Computing Assessment Tool. Furthermore, it gives excellent supporting material for less confident teachers.

The aims of our Computing curriculum are to develop pupils who:

Are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
Know how to keep themselves safe whilst using technology and on the internet and be able to minimise risk to themselves and others.
Become responsible, respectful and competent users of data, information and communication technology.
Can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems.
Can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation.
Become digitally literate and are active participants in the digital world.
Are equipped with the capability to use technology throughout their lives.
Understand the importance of governance and legislation regarding how information is used, stored, created, retrieved, shared and manipulated.
Understand and follow the SMART E-Safety rules.
Know who to contact if they have concerns.
Apply their learning in a range of contexts, e.g. at school and at home.

Implementation:

At Orchard Way, we follow the Purple Mash scheme of work.
Computing units are categorised into elements of Digital Literacy, Computer Science and Information Technology.
Children complete computing units half-termly, but digital literacy is embedded in all subjects and is used on a daily basis to enhance and support the learning of other curriculum areas.
Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.
Children have access to iPads to support all areas of the curriculum.
In Computing lessons, children use desktop computers in the Computing Suite which allows them to practice basic mouse and keyboard skills in each session.
Teachers follow a clear progression of skills which ensure all pupils are challenged in line with their year group expectations and are given the opportunity to build on their prior knowledge.
To support teaching, staff access a range of resources and planning including Purple Mash, J2Code, Scratch and more.

Impact

Our Computing Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression and build on and embed current skills. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in the different computational components and alike other subject’s discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work.

If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

Pupil discussions and interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
Monitoring with our subject computing lead visits.
Opportunities for dialogue between teachers.
Photo evidence and images of the pupils practical learning.
A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes.
Learning walks and reflective staff feedback (teacher voice).
Dedicated Computing leader time.
Monitoring of children’s work.