In Toft Hill Primary School, we want our pupils to enjoy using technology and to develop an appreciation of its capabilities and the opportunities technology offers to, create, manage, organise, and collaborate. We have used Kapow’s schemes of learning to develop our curriculum. There is a great emphasis on ‘Tinkering’ with software and to develop pupils’ confidence when encountering new technology, which is a vital skill in the ever evolving and changing landscape of technology. We intend for pupils, not only to be digitally competent and have a range of transferable skills at a suitable level for the future workplace, but also to be responsible online citizens. Not only does our curriculum aims align with those in the National curriculum for Computing but it also satisfies all the objectives of the DfE’s Education for a Connected World Framework. This guidance was created to help equip children for life in the digital world, including developing their understanding of appropriate online behaviour, copyright issues, being discerning consumers of online information and healthy use of technology. Our computing curriculum also interconnects with elements of our PSHE and RSHE curriculums which provides further opportunities to teach pupils about the importance of maintaining safety and encouraging healthy use of technology.
Our curriculum is designed with three strands which run throughout:
- Computer science
- Information technology
- Digital literacy
Our curriculum is organised into five key areas which follows Kapow’s model of a cyclical route through which pupils can develop their computing knowledge and skills by revisiting and building on previous learning. The five key areas are:
- Computer systems and networks
- Programming
- Creating media
- Data handling
- Online safety
Throughout our units of work, pupils have the opportunity to learn and apply transferable skills with the opportunity to showcase their learning. There are links to other subjects (eg. Science, art, music) within the computing curriculum providing further opportunity for children to develop further transferable skills and enable them to make links between their learning in different subjects. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as unplugged and digital activities. There are a range of resources in school, including ipads and Chrome books, to ensure that pupils are provided with plentiful opportunities to practise and embed their learning. The use of equipment is timetables and there is also a booking system to ensure that pupils are able to use the equipment in other subjects where it will complement or enhance learning.
The anticipated impact of our curriculum is that children will leave our school well prepared for the next stage of their learning because they will;
- Be critical thinkers and able to understand how to make informed and appropriate digital choices in the future.
- Understand the importance that computing will have going forward in both their educational and working life and in their social and personal futures.
- Understand how to balance time spent on technology and time spent away from it in a healthy and appropriate manner.
- Understand that technology helps to showcase their ideas and creativity. They will know that different types of software and hardware can help them achieve a broad variety of artistic and practical aims.
- Show a clear progression of technical skills across all areas of the National curriculum – computer science, information technology and digital literacy.
- Be able to use technology both individually and as part of a collaborative team.
- Be aware of online safety issues and protocols and be able to deal with any problems in a responsible and appropriate manner.
- Have an awareness of developments in technology and have an idea of how current technologies work and relate to one another.
- Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Computing.