Cedarwood Primary School

Intent
In our changing world, pupils need to develop life-skills that will enable them to embrace and utilise new technology in a socially responsible and safe way in order to flourish. We want our pupils to become autonomous, independent and creative users of computing technologies, gaining confidence and enjoyment from their activities. We want the use of technology to support learning across the curriculum and to ensure that our curriculum is accessible to every child.

The computing curriculum at Cedarwood is designed to ensure that our pupils become digitally literate at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in the digital world, able to solve problems analytically using existing or new technology.

Implementation
A high quality Computing education prepares pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. The subject has strong links with mathematics, science and design and technology. A central strand to computing is learning about the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work and how this knowledge can be used in programming. Pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of digital content. The curriculum also ensures that pupils become digitally literate, able to express themselves through information and communication technology, becoming discerning users of the digital world in which their modern lives are set.

Teachers will follow a tailored scheme of work with strong cross curricular links. It is divided into three strands: computer science (including coding), digital literacy and creativity. Each year group will study one unit from each strand, ensuring development of skills from year to year.

 The national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:

• can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
• can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
• can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
• are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology

This scheme of work will provide progression, differentiation and engagement for all. The units are supported through high quality resources and interactive experiences. In addition, visits and visitors form a key part of the scheme of work, with opportunities to engage with highly-skilled professionals at BT, RAF Honnington and beyond.

Lessons will be taught using netbooks and laptops. Some units of work are ‘unplugged’ and do not rely on the use of technology. Bee-bots and other programmable toys are available for use by younger pupils. Older pupils will have opportunities to use additional technologies which interact with computer, such as Lego WeDo and Picoboards.

Digital literacy skills are developed across the whole curriculum. Pupils are encouraged to search for information on the internet and create digital content linked to topics that they are studying in school or are of personal interest to them.

On-line safety is a thread which runs through the scheme of work. As well a discrete lessons, whenever children access the internet they are reminded of how to stay safe when using technology.

Impact
Our approach to the curriculum results in an engaging and high-quality computing education. We expect the children to become proficient users of technology who are able to work both independently and collaboratively.