Computing SEQUENCE OVERVIEW

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computing Vision

Through the teaching of computing, children will learn how to confidently and competently work with a variety of software tools and programmes; become resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens broadening their life opportunities. Children will understand clear links between their learning and real life – understanding how their developing knowledge and skills can be applied today, beyond school and in to adult life, including potential career paths. 

Learning will be highly focused on four core strands – coding, e-safety, online communication and computing skills. Children will be inspired by individuals, both historically and current, exposing them to the best of what has been thought, said and achieved in these areas.  Although computing is a highly practical subject, learning will be underpinned by core knowledge, skills, concepts and vocabulary on which children will have the confidence to be more creative, making informed safe decisions when designing, using and building games, apps, software etc.

Within the subject, children will develop the life skills and knowledge associated with technology that they might not have access to at home especially those children that are disadvantaged. They will also become more capable and confident using technology as a means of doing school work both at school and at home.

computing principles

In line with the whole school curriculum policy, the following drivers and principles underpin everything we do in Computing.

CURRICULUM DRIVERS

Life Opportunities      Creativity, Confidence, Competence

CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES

Balanced       Coherent      Real & Relevant

Knowledge Rich       Cognitively Challenging       Inclusive

 

computing strategy

Life Opportunities 

Life skills are key to Computing at Chesswood. The focus is on coding, e-safety, online communication and computing skills. Opportunities to link all of these units of work to careers are taken – eg The amount of jobs in the modern world that require coding, spreadsheet knowledge, email communication etc as key aspects of daily tasks. Our own IT technician Ben Miller is an example of this, ensuring that the technology and systems are running efficiently for staff and pupils alike. This is also increasingly relevant to social life in the modern world and we are mindful that using technology including phones, tablets and social media is becoming increasingly common and our children need to be safe when using these platforms. This is why there are strong e-safety links being made in existing lessons or being planned into new units on the medium term plan.     

Links to roles in the local community are being explored – eg we had 20-30 year 5 girls have an afternoon at Davisons high school in June 2019 for a workshop. This promoted KS3 technology (coding) and also showed a female who had a career in technology (still quite rare compared to males) as a secondary school computing teacher.Chesswood. The focus is on coding, e-safety and online communication. Opportunities to link all of these units of work to careers are taken – eg The amount of jobs in the modern world that require coding, spreadsheet knowledge, email communication etc as key aspects of daily tasks. Our own IT technician Ben Miller is an example of this, ensuring that the technology and systems are running efficiently for staff and pupils alike. This is also increasingly relevant to social life in the modern world and we are mindful that using technology including phones, tablets and social media is becoming increasingly common and our children need to be safe when using these platforms. This is why there are strong e-safety links being made in existing lessons or being planned into new units on the medium term plan.

Creativity Confidence Competence

The computing curriculum seeks to build knowledge upon knowledge and skills upon skills, sequencing progression through the school. This seeks to embed competence and confidence within the subject by focusing on core aspects children must achieve to be able to progress such as coding and online communication.

Year 6 – Theme park spreadsheets, scratch algorithms and Kodu programming, are units where knowledge and skills learnt throughout the time children are at Chesswood can be combined to solve challenging problems which have opportunities for creativity and choice.

Balanced

Computing is varied in time between year groups. There are clear links between knowledge being learned in foundation subjects, especially history, geography, science and art and design that can be enhanced through the practical application of computing skills.  For example, in Year 4, the children have the skills and confidence to build their own wiki page all about their learning of Alfred The Great that was studied in history. In Year 5 children can use their knowledge of design combined with their coding skills to make a building using Minecraft. As already stated, four core strands will be given particular importance – coding, e-safety, online communications and computing skills.

Coherent

We believe that the best way to meaningfully learn a subject is to view the subject as a whole, instead of a number of unrelated topics. This is why, through our curriculum, we endeavour to provide children with a focus on coding, communication, e-safety and computer skills as they progress through the school. By providing a cohesive base, we are able to focus learning on key skills and knowledge that can enable Chesswood children to become real and relevant users of computing.

Real and Relevant

Computing is rooted in real and relevant experiences for children. The core focus on key life skills is central to the planning of the subject. We are exploring links to the local community to promote potential careers and aspirations for the children of Chesswood. Units are designed based on real and relevant briefs, taking inspiration from computing in the real world.

Knowledge Rich

To become fluent and confident users of technology, a strong knowledge base is required. The more knowledge a child possesses about a subject, the greater the potential for children to become problem solvers and creators within the subject. This strong knowledge base can provide children with greater autonomy within a subject that is constantly evolving. By having a knowledge rich education rooted in coding, communication, e-safety and other computing skills we are preparing children to engage with the subject regardless of future changes in technology.

Cognitively Challenging

To stay positively engaged with a subject, children require an increasing level of challenge. At Chesswood, we are focusing on coding, communication, e-safety  and computer skills with an increasing level of challenge as children progress through modules in year groups and throughout the school. This allows children to build the core knowledge required whilst staying engaged due to an increased level of cognitive challenge. Our ambition is to increase the cognitive challenge so that by the end of year six, children can confidently tackle more complex tasks.

Inclusive

We are an inclusive community at Chesswood and our computing curriculum is a reflection of this. Through discussions around e-safety, we promote our inclusive ethos by encouraging children to show courtesy, care and kindness whist online. We also celebrate Safer Internet Day to support our inclusive message of safe and inclusive internet use.