Intent

At Becket Primary we believe that Computing is a life skill and an essential resource to support teaching and learning. During their time at Becket Primary School, pupils will develop the necessary skills to become confident in all strands of Computing.

We aim for our children to become keen problem solvers by exploring the digital world of programming both online and by exploring robotics. We intend to nurture learners who are proficient in using technology safely to create, research, organise, manipulate and store digital content.

Through a range of technologies and opportunities we will develop their skills across the whole curriculum. Being confident users of ICT is now a life skill and so all children, whatever their needs, will have access to develop their skills within a technology-rich environment. Aspects of Computing can be taught in isolation but we believe that ICT can enhance all curriculum areas, so therefore will be taught through a creative cross curricular approach.

As ICT plays an important role in the everyday lives of the children and the wider community, we believe that it is important to equip our young people with the skills to access lifelong learning and future success in the next Key Stage and beyond.

Implementation

Computing is taught following a skills based approach and objectives are taken from the Purple Mash Scheme of Work. The skills are separated into categories depending on Key Stage. By the end of both Key Stages children will have been taught skills relating to Algorithms, Data Retrieving and Organising and Communicating, however by the end of Key Stage 2 children will also have been taught skills in the additional categories of Using the Internet, Databases and Presentation. This ensures that the skills taught in a sequential way allowing children to build upon skills previously taught within each category.

 At Becket Primary we have a flexible approach to timetabling discrete lessons necessary for children to be taught specific skills to then enhance learning in the wider curriculum. Children who are working at Greater Depth within this subject are encouraged to take up the Challenging Objectives from the Focus Education Skills Curriculum 2014. Children who need extra support are supported as per the class policy for the individual child.

Each Year group has an ICT/Computing folder that contains all the resources that the school has to support the curriculum. As a school we have invested in the online resource Purple Mash and it is expected that all year groups access Purple Mash to help teach and support the computing curriculum. Within the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 children will make use of hardware such as cameras, ipads, laptops, remote controlled devices and Beebots. In Key Stage 2 children will be advancing to using programmable hardware such as the Eddison and Dash robots. We are also proud to run a coding club for children in Year 5 and 6 so that they can apply their learning in an enrichment club. 

Impact

Our Computing Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression.

Children will be confident users of technology, able to use it to accomplish a wide variety of goals, both at home and in school.

Children will have a secure and comprehensive knowledge of the implications of technology and digital systems. This is important in a society where technologies and trends are rapidly evolving.

Children will be able to apply the British values of democracy, tolerance, mutual respect, rule of law and liberty when using digital systems.

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.