COMPUTING

Subject Leader: Miss M Lindsay

Vision for computing

Computing and ICT are an integral part of daily life for children at Heygarth Primary School. We envision that children become confident and capable users of technology who are able to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding of a range of technologies.

Computing offers children a wide range of opportunities to become creative and analytical thinkers by discovering ways to solve problems. Children will be able to confidently apply skills from other subjects and apply their computing skills to other areas. The use of ICT will empower children to deepen their learning and understanding of not only computer programming and systems but also their knowledge and understanding of the world around them. Computing will be used to enhance children’s knowledge and understanding of the curriculum as a whole.

Our computing curriculum will teach children to be responsible users of technology; both from an e-safety background and the ability for children to analyse the validity of research. This will allow all children to understand both the positive and negative influences which computing technology can have on our daily lives.

Technology is all around us: it is critical that children feel empowered to use it effectively and responsibly. Computing lessons will enable children to make links between a variety of areas in preparation for later life and future workplaces.

Rationale for Computing

The Computing Curriculum is designed at Heygarth Primary School to ensure coherent progression from Year 1 to Year 6. Whilst the National Curriculum Aims can be split into three key areas (Computer Science, information technology and digital literacy) we have included a fourth strand, key skills, on top of this. These are areas of Computing which as a school, we believe are important for children to learn despite not being explicit in the National Curriculum.

Heygarth’s Computing Curriculum is a collaborative design between key stakeholders. The subject lead and senior leadership team designed the curriculum with support from Hi-Impact Consultancy. Hi-Impact Consultancy were chosen for this collaboration due to them being a local company who the school already had strong ties with. The Curriculum was therefore able to be designed in a manner bespoke to Heygarth Primary School; the Information Technology (IT) and Digital Literacy (DL) strands of the Computing Curriculum tie in with other subject drivers in English, History, Geography and Science. To ensure a breadth of experience, IT and DL objectives are taught using different devices: iPads, laptops and desktop computers.

All Computer Science (CS) objectives are taught using the website code.org to ensure progression as well as activation and revision of previous knowledge. Around 75% of our students attend the same local high school, which also uses this platform to deliver the Computing Curriculum in Key Stage 3. These areas are also supplemented through the use of Scottie Go which uses physical tiles which are then scanned on an iPad to run virtual programs. This supports children (particularly those with SEND) who sometimes struggle to access pictorial and abstract concepts without concrete resources.

The key-skills aspects of the Curriculum focus on areas which as a school, we feel children need to have a knowledge of in order to be efficient users of technology. This includes progression in typing skills, use of hotkeys and shortcuts and how to use a computer mouse and trackpad effectively in order to prepare the children for their next stages of their education.

At Heygarth, we believe that through breaking down the Computing curriculum into these four areas, which are intrinsically linked, we are giving children strong foundations on which to develop a love of Computing. Supplemented by high quality CPD and up to 5 workshops per year delivered by Hi-Impact, the children will be able to continue their learning beyond Heygarth Primary School and be able to thrive.