Computing Intent and Implementation 

Intent

Children of today are surrounded by an ever-changing digital world which plays a pivotal part of their lives. At Carlton Junior and Infant School, we want our children to become creators rather than consumers. We want to give them the foundations to be inspired to make things happen rather than just wanting to follow others. Therefore, we aim to prepare our children for their future by giving them the accessibility opportunities that will provide them with the life-skills that will enable them to embrace and utilise new technology in a socially responsible and safe way in order to flourish. It is our intention that the children will have every opportunity available to allow them to achieve this through a balanced computing curriculum. We want our children to be fluent with a range of tools to best express their understanding and hope by Upper Key Stage 2, they will have the independence and confidence to choose the best tool to fulfil the task and challenges set by their teachers.

By the time our children leave Carlton Junior and Infant 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). The objectives within each strand will be covered across the key stages.

Implementation

In Foundation Stage, through discussions with parents and learners, we identified that a wide proportion of our children have access to digital devices at home. Due to the recommendations of limiting their screen time, we have removed the devices to ensure they engage in essential, active, real-life learning, where they spend quality time socialising, communicating effectively and developing their computational thinking. Our children are beginning their journey with technology through accessing a range of unplugged activities across all areas of learning, such as;

• Social stories        
• Story sequences
• Cooking activities
• Group discussions
• Role play
• Identifying technology both inside and outside of school

Teachers facilitate children’s curiosity with challenge and model how to use a range of technology carefully and safely. They are provided with a range of opportunities to explore how things work and show resilience and perseverance in the face of a challenge.

Across the key stages, each class is allocated 2 computing slots a week with an opportunity to use either the computing suite, laptops or iPads, but the use of technology is also encouraged to support learning across all curriculum areas. We use The NCCE Computing Curriculum scheme of work to cover the three areas of the Computing National Curriculum: Digital literacy, Computer Science and Information Technology. This scheme of work is implemented through a range of tools and resources suggested by the NCCE and retrieved through a computing curriculum folder allocated on the devices that were created by MINT.

Every lesson in our scheme has been individually planned so that it can be effectively taught using the infrastructure we have in place at school and so that it can meet the needs of all our pupils. 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 scaffolded and all National Curriculum requirements are covered.

Online safety is taught regularly at an age-appropriate level and forms the basis of all computing learning. It is covered throughout the computing strands and also through our One Life programme. Project Evolve is linked to the computing units which is connected to the ‘Education for a Connected World’ framework and Internet Safety days are held regularly to address current issues. Parents are also invited to our well-being fair where they have an opportunity to discuss matters with professionals across a range of sectors.

We encourage teachers to embed computing across the curriculum whilst also teaching explicit sessions to ensure children gain the knowledge and skills they need. We have created a comprehensive progression document for staff to follow to best embed and cover every element of the computing curriculum. The knowledge/skills statements build year on year to deepen and challenge our learners and each year group have been provided with their own computing folder on staff shared, with all the necessary lesson plans, slides, videos and resources to make this achievable.