Computing

Intent

At Tubbenden Primary School, we continually strive to develop our children’s skill set so that they leave our school as well-rounded individuals, ready to face whatever life presents to them. A major element of this is developing their ICT and Computing skills. We believe that a high-quality ICT and Computing education equips our pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. As these areas change and modernise so rapidly, providing our children with as many opportunities to learn and practise these key skills is central to our ICT provision, both at school and at home. We embrace these changes and actively encourage children to develop their Computing skills from an early age to allow them to begin to experiment and innovate as soon as possible. Our intentions are simple:

• Children will leave our school with a positive mindset towards the inevitable changes in technology to come.

• They will be confident enough in themselves to be able to solve the challenges changing technology can bring.

• We ensure they are prepared for how technology is used in a variety of ways in the workplace.

• They will have a sound understanding of the basics of 'Computer Science', to be further developed in secondary school.

• They will have an awareness of how to keep themselves (and others) safe when online and what to do should any issues arise.

Implementation

We provide an ICT and Computing curriculum that ensures the pupils have the best opportunities to achieve. Our school follows a bespoke scheme of work, which provides starting points for teachers to adapt in order to ensure we deliver a broad and balanced curriculum At the core of computing is computer science, in which pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. The second key component of our curriculum is digital literacy. We want our children to be able to use and express themselves and develop their ideas through ICT at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world. We use a range of resources to deliver the curriculum and to ensure the pupils acquire a wide repertoire of skills and confidences. Our scheme of work offers the pupils opportunities to apply their computing and ICT skills to the wider curriculum in cross curricular projects involving photography, film making, communication, art and music.

The third key strand is E-safety. We regard E-Safety as a high priority at Tubbenden, and as part of the ICT and computing curriculum, internet safety and security is taught to pupils in age-appropriate stages as they move through the school. Helping children understand how to stay safe online runs throughout everything we do in Computing lessons in each class, supported by whole school assemblies where appropriate. E-Safety week is celebrated annually and we regularly share advice to parents. In addition to the core curriculum, we encourage our students to use ICT in as many areas of the school curriculum as possible, including home learning. We use the Seesaw platform to communicate, collaborate and share learning with family members. The use of Google Classroom and its associated products are currently being developed in school to encourage creativity in learning in a wide range of contexts. To ensure the best provision possible, we utilise the funding available to us in the most efficient way to ensure our hardware and software remains up to date and current. Every class has access to a range of devices, be that iPads, Chromebooks, Interactive Whiteboards or PCs, on a daily basis. We also have a wide range of additional resources to help facilitate learning in a variety of ways. In addition, we strive to develop a core group of digital leaders who will become “experts” within their classrooms. All of these aspects help us to ensure that ICT and Computing becomes second nature to our pupils.

Impact

We believe our ICT and Computing curriculum will support children in becoming confident, tolerant and self-aware adults who can express themselves and their learning in a variety of ways. By the time they leave Tubbenden Primary School, we hope that all children have the willingness and abilities to try new things, push themselves and persevere to solve problems. They will have a good understanding of how to stay safe online, make positive choices when using ICT and develop positive online relationships. We encourage them to be respectful of others, and to appreciate what it means to be a responsible member of the digital world.