Computing
At Slip End Village School, we value creative Computing, we are Digital Champions.
Our commitment to providing a top-tier computing education lies in empowering students to employ computational thinking and unleash their creativity, enabling them to comprehend and influence the world around them.
We recognise the intricate connections between computing and how it essential in all aspect of education and life. These connections offer valuable insights into both natural and artificial systems. Our goal is to foster an environment where children can discover, explore, analyse, exchange, and present information effectively.
At the heart of our computing curriculum is computer science, where students delve into the principles of information and computation. They gain a comprehensive understanding of how digital systems operate and learn to apply this knowledge through programming. This foundational knowledge sets the stage for students to utilize information technology, creating programs, systems, and various content.
Moreover, our approach ensures that students become digitally literate, empowering them to actively engage in the digital world. They learn to use and express themselves through information and communication technology, becoming adept participants in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
At Caddington and Slip End Village Schools we recognise that pupils are living in a diverse and rapidly changing world, in which computing is playing an ever-increasing role. We aim, therefore, to equip children with the skills to adapt to new technology and to give them confidence to use computing to further their learning and assist them in everyday life. In doing so, all pupils will have access to computing equipment and resources, according to their ability and age range.
In our schools we believe that increased computing skills promote independent learning and gives greater access to a wide range of ideas and experiences. It enhances the quality of children’s work across the curriculum and should enhance and enrich the learning process.
In Caddington and Slip End Village Schools we use the Teach Computing scheme of work and planning for Computing which is in line with the National Curriculum objectives. This ensures that we have a well sequenced and progressive curriculum map containing the key concepts children need to be procedurally fluent and to work and think like computing professionals.
Planning is reviewed on an annual basis and unit flexibility allows for teachers to adapt the learning according to national/curriculum developments and the needs of differing cohorts to keep it fresh, relevant and inspiring.
Each unit has built in practise, retrieval and reinforcement of the key concepts to ensure knowledge sticks in the long-term memory.
Within the revised EYFS statutory framework, the Technology strand within Understanding the World has been removed. Despite computing not being explicitly mentioned, there are some opportunities for young children to use technology to solve problems and produce creative outcomes. This enables children to effectively prepare for computing within the next steps in their curriculum. In particular, many areas of the framework provide opportunities for pupils to develop their ability to use computational thinking effectively, such as through undertaking activities involving the concepts and approaches of digital devices.
- In KS1, Computing is taught as an explicit lesson once a week. This is also reinforced by weekly use of Spelling Shed and of TTRS.
- In KS2, Computing is taught as an explicit lesson once a week. This is also reinforced by weekly use of Spelling Shed and of TTRS. We also have chrome books and tablets which can be used for additional research and tasks across the curriculum.
Having discrete lessons ensures that the children are able to develop depth in their knowledge and skills over the duration of each of their computing topics.
We want to equip children with sufficient knowledge to be procedurally fluent in computing. The intent is for them to think, act and work like computing professionals.
In order to ensure progression and continuity throughout the school, the school has developed a curriculum map which outlines curriculum coverage, progression and context of computing as a discreet subject and across the curriculum. Teaching and learning should facilitate progression across all key stages within the strands of digital literacy, information technology and computer science. Children will have the opportunity to explore and respond to key issues such as digital communication, cyber-bullying, online safety, security, plagiarism and social media.
Wider Curriculum links and opportunities for the safe use of digital systems are considered in wider curriculum planning. A key part of implementing our computing curriculum was to ensure that safety of our pupils is paramount. We take online safety very seriously and we aim to give children the necessary skills to keep themselves safe online. Children have a right to enjoy childhood online, to access safe online spaces and to benefit from all the opportunities that a connected world can bring them, appropriate to their age and key stage. We also ensure that online safety is taught explicitly each term (and revisited often) so that our children are equipped with the necessary tools and knowledge to protect themselves online.
In Computing, assessment takes place by:
• Key computing concepts – assessment is based on identifying children’s progress against the key computing concepts on the curriculum map
• Retrieval practice – children are given many opportunities throughout lessons and topics
to retrieve knowledge they have been taught. This is in the form of low stakes testing such as quizzes.
• End points on curriculum maps – children are assessed on how much progress they have made towards meeting the end points on the curriculum map. This is in the form of a taught lesson where children are given the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learnt and how much knowledge is in their long-term memory.
• Moderation – Evidence of progress is collated in a number of ways. Work is collected in
named files on Purple Mash where pupils save their work. The class teacher and occassionaly the computing leader monitors this work and conducts pupil conferencing to evaluate the impact of the computing curriculum. Pupils are asked questions to elicit what they have learned as well as being assessed on their technical skills. Teachers assess through observing children working on tasks, through their contributions to class discussions and in peer discussions.
We have tailored our assessment procedures using Teach Computing and Chris Quigley’s milestones. If we identify that a group is underperforming we talk about which group it was and the reasons why. We then, more importantly, put in place actions to rectify the issue and the impact it has had.
As a result of monitoring in Computing, next steps for the subject are to ensure that teachers are having a visible impact on the learning of pupils by marking online and stating next step tasks for the pupils to complete.
As a result of our Computing curriculum our children will be equipped with the skills to adapt to new technology and the confidence to use computing in their everyday lives. The children can talk about keeping safe online, coding and using different programmes such as spreadsheets.
The impact of our curriculum should be that our children will have gained key knowledge and skillsin the three main areas of the computing curriculum: computer science (programming and understanding how digital systems work), and information technology (using computer systems to store) by the time they leave our school.
