Earlham Primary School

Intent

At Earlham, children have the right to a high-quality computing education which equips them to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world.

Our computing curriculum links with cross-curricular themes and is designed to give children opportunities to use a variety of tools in ways that support their thematic learning in other subjects.

Computing is embedded in the provision for Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) through to Year 6. In EYFS, it is centred around activities that focus on building the children’s computational thinking skills. We develop key Computational Thinking skills through a range of everyday, practical experiences including plugged and unplugged activities. Across EYFS, we deliver a themed focus each half term through adult-directed and play-based activities. Opportunities to use technology are threaded throughout each topic. Pupils become familiar with iPads, Laptops, Google Classroom and physical computing eg. Bee-bots to prepare them for their learning moving into KS1.

Implementation

Our Computing curriculum is based on the 'Teach Computing' Curriculum and fully meets the requirements of the National Curriculum. This curriculum was chosen because it is developed by experts in the field and is grounded in the latest educational research. It offers a unique framework for progression, with computing content (concepts, knowledge, skills, and objectives) organised into interconnected learning graphs.

The goal of the curriculum is to provide young people with the knowledge, skills, and understanding necessary to thrive in today's and future digital environments. The curriculum is divided into three key areas: computer science, information technology, and digital literacy, with the curriculum's goals reflecting these distinctions.

Within these areas, our curriculum focuses on:

The units for key stages 1 and 2 are based on a spiral curriculum. This means that each of the themes is revisited regularly (at least once in each year group), and pupils revisit each theme through a new unit that consolidates and builds on prior learning within that theme.

The National Curriculum for Computing aims to ensure that all students:

• Comprehend and apply the core principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms, and data representation (Computer Science).
• Can analyse problems in computational terms and gain practical experience in writing computer programs to solve these problems (Computer Science).
• Can assess and utilise information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, critically to solve problems (Information Technology).
• Are responsible, capable, confident, and creative users of information and communication technology (Digital Literacy).

Earlham believes the safety of our children is dependent on what they see and do online. Online Safety lessons are delivered from EYFS through to Year 6 covering various aspects of Online Safety from keeping our personal information safe to cyberbullying.

In the wider school, parents are invited to various sessions that are set up to support them at home with their child. Whether it is to further aid in programming or keeping their child safe online, parents are equipped with the knowledge to continue the child’s learning of computing from school.

Digital leaders (children chosen to assist in computing throughout the school) will support other pupils and staff. Digital leaders will share information through assemblies and leaflets on aspects of computing particularly helpful to them.

Impact

Our computing curriculum invites all of our children into a world of ever changing and evolving technology which creates a yearning for more knowledge which can be seen with our computing club and skills pupils possess at home. Our children enjoy their computing learning and understand its importance in the modern world.

By the time our pupils leave us in Year 6, they will:

1. Understand what a computer is, and how to use one effectively.
2. Understand how networks can be used to retrieve and share information.
3. Comprehend, analyse and evaluate algorithms.
4. Analyse a problem and design algorithms in order to solve it.
5. Select, adapt and create a range of media including text, images, sounds, and video.
6. Understand risks when using technology, and how to protect themselves in their everyday life.
7. Be responsible, competent, confident and creative users of digital technology.

With constant monitoring of evidence and teaching of computing through dialogue with class teachers, gaps in learning can be quickly and effectively addressed.

Formative assessment

Every lesson includes formative assessment opportunities for teachers to use and to ensure that misconceptions are recognised and addressed if they occur. The learning objective and success criteria are introduced in the slides at the beginning of every lesson. At the end of every lesson, pupils are invited to assess how well they feel they have met the learning objective which gives pupils a reminder of the content that has been covered, as well as a chance to reflect. It is also a chance for teachers to see how confident the class is feeling so that they can make changes to subsequent lessons accordingly.

Summative Assessment

In KS1, teachers will observe whether pupils are able to meet the success criteria for each lesson by the end of the unit and if so, they will be judged to be working at age-related expectations. In KS2, each unit ends with either a multiple choice quiz or a rubric which highlights to teachers whether the pupil is approaching (emerging), achieving (expected), or exceeding the expectations for their age group.

Pupils leave Earlham supplied with the key required skills to ensure they are ready to succeed in their secondary education and be active participants in the digital world.