Computing

Computing Intent

Within an ever changing and technological world, Brackenbury Primary School understands and values the importance of teaching Computing from a young age. We acknowledge that future generations will rely heavily on their computational confidence and digital skills in order to support their progress within their chosen career paths.

Therefore, it is our school’s aim to equip children with the relevant skills and knowledge that is required to understand the three core areas of Computing (Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy) and to offer a broad and balanced approach to providing quality first teaching of this subject.

Computing is an integral part to a child’s education and everyday life. Therefore, we intend to support our pupils to access and understand the core principles of this subject through engaging and cross-curricular opportunities.

Computing Implementation and Impact

At Brackenbury, we believe that developing familiarity and confidence with technology is essential to enable our learners to succeed in a world where the pace of technological advancement continues to increase rapidly. In order to do this, the concept of ‘Computational thinking’ is at the core of our computing curriculum. Children are taught the key skills of decomposition: breaking down a problem into manageable parts; pattern recognition: looking for similarities; abstraction: focusing on the important information only, and algorithms: developing a step-by-step solution to the problem. These skills are taught using a wide variety of methods, including robots, iPads and different coding languages.

We teach a curriculum that enables children to become effective users of technology who can:

Understand and apply the essential principles and concepts of Computer Science, Digital Literacy and Information Technology.
Have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve problems in a wide variety of contexts.
Gather and critically evaluate information using technology to further their understanding.
Communicate and synthesise ideas effectively through a cross-curricular approach to information technology.

Internet Safety

At Brackenbury, keeping children safe online is part of our commitment to their health and well-being. We have an Internet Policy that provides guidance for teachers and children about how to use the internet safely. Online safety forms a key component of our computing curriculum in every year group and children are made aware of the responsibility they have to be good online citizens.

Impact

Within Computing we encourage a creative and collaborative environment in which pupils can learn to express and challenge themselves. The success of the curriculum itself will be assessed via the analysis of yearly progress data, conducting regular pupil voice sessions and lesson observations. This will then inform future adaptions of the schemes of work and help to ensure that progression is evident throughout school.

In order to demonstrate that we have accomplished our aims, pupils at Brackenbury Primary School will:

Be enthusiastic and confident in their approach towards Computing.
Present as competent and adaptable ‘Computational Thinkers’ who are able to use identified concepts and approaches in all of their learning.
Be able to identify the source of problems and work with perseverance to ‘debug’ them.
Create and evaluate their own project work.
Have a secure understanding of the positive applications and specific risks associated with a broad range of digital technology.
Transition to secondary school with a keen interest in the continued learning of this subject.

Progression of skills and knowledge

Our ‘Computing progression of skills and knowledge‘ document gives further information about what the children are taught in this subject by year group

Computing progression of skills and knowledge

Internet Safety

Computing National Curriculum

If you would like to know more, please visit Computing National Curriculum