Five Elms Primary School

Intent

At Five Elms, the ICT and computing curriculum is designed to equip children with life skills for the future at all levels in a rapidly changing world understanding the importance of technology. Children apply I.T skills in creative ways to inform learning across the whole curriculum; this engagement in creative aspects of their curriculum helps all children to make progress. The vision is children enjoy using computing and tackle all applications with confidence and a sense of achievement Our 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. Children analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems. Children evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems. The children are taught to become responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology. It is our intention to enable children to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information. The Focus is on developing the skills necessary for children to be able to use information in an effective way.

Implementation

Teachers at Five Elms Primary school have excellent computing subject knowledge as a result of high quality training and support from leaders. This enables them to plan engaging learning experiences that develop digital understanding and reasoning. The skills taught in computing ensures that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world. Children develop practical skills in the use of computing and the ability to apply these skills to the solving of problems. They learn to use computing as a tool for developing knowledge, skills and understanding for other curriculum areas. They are taught to understand the capabilities and limitations of computing and the implications and consequences of its use.

Impact

Children understand how Five Elms Primary School Technology has an impact on the real world and how to stay safe online. Regular Online Safety lessons alongside an Online Safety Policy helps pupils and parents understand both possible online dangers and a range of appropriate and necessary safety measures to action. The ICT and computing units build on previous learning, to ensure children have depth of knowledge, build on previous skills, and develop vocabulary. The sequence enables children to create secure foundations for subsequent learning. Clear progression enables children to remember in the long term the content they have been taught and to apply it in new and varied contexts. Each year group has 3-6 Contexts over the year, which are rigorously planned and linked to build on previous learning through new and exciting concepts. The curriculum maps help keep track of what has been taught and plan what will be taught. Each lesson is planned with a skills focus that gradually builds deeper learning ranging from surface (Knowledge based) to Deep (Evaluative) so that pupils know more, can do more and remember more.