Computing

Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living.

Nicholas Negroponte

Intent

At Christ Church, our vision is firmly rooted in our belief that ‘With God, all things are possible’ (Matthew 19:26). We do this by nurturing, developing and celebrating the God-given talents of each child within a caring Christian community. Our Christian values are at the heart of all we do. They underpin teaching and learning and every aspect of daily life in school. We fully believe that all children, without exception and without exclusion, are loved by God and should feel safe and valued within our school community. Our shared values influence our behaviour and our motives, helping us to aspire to become local, national and global citizens. They are based on our belief that CHRIST is within all of us. We believe our children have the right to a fulfilled and happy life. We strive to deliver an ambitious and high-quality computing curriculum which allows our pupils to recognise the significance of digital technology in their everyday lives. We explicitly teach pupils the skills and knowledge they need to become creative, digitally literate, computational thinkers as well as how to use technology both safely and respectfully.

Teaching and learning are at the heart of everything we do. The computing curriculum has been developed to ensure it has breadth and depth and is progressive so that it allows our pupils to build their knowledge, whatever their starting point, to enable them to develop to their full potential and allow them to make a positive contribution as local, national and global citizens. Our pupils are able to apply and consolidate understanding as they progress through the school to enable them to become computer scientists of the future and embrace the possibilities ahead of them. We have high aspirations and create a firm foundation to allow all our pupils to grow and achieve.

The key principles behind our Computing curriculum are to:

Ensure children have an enjoyment and appreciation of technology:
Allow children to understanding how to use algorithms to solve problems:
Ensure children are able to use a computer programme to write code to perform a task:
Enable children to understand different networks and how they communicate:
Ensure all children understand how to work safely and responsibly online, how to recognise and report security issues and concerns:
Ensure children are able to explain the different hardware in computers and how they work together:
Give children the ability to apply Computing skills to real life problems and tasks:
Ensure children recognise and understand the capabilities and limitations of Computing, and the consequences of its use.

In order to help build a firm foundation for individual growth in all learners, we believe John Sweller’s theory on Cognitive Load being central to developing learning and understanding. We understand to overcome the limits of our working memory, the importance of chunking and automating information in long term memory.

We are developing our understanding of intrinsic and extraneous load. The key idea of Cognitive Load Theory is to minimise extraneous load and optimise intrinsic load. Therefore, our computing curriculum is led by key concepts, terms and vocabulary providing opportunities to build a shared and consistent understanding. Units are organised into a spiral curriculum to ensure themes are revisited regularly as pupils move through the school. This ensures each unit builds effectively on prior learning and ensures connections are made between different units to help children know more and remember more.

As a school, we believe in using growth mindset alongside cognitive load theory. Our foundations as a school believes deeply in personal growth, creating aspirations and widening horizons for life. One theory that we have introduced is the concept of Carol Dweck’s growth mindset. We actively encourage growth mindset, using her theory of ‘The Power of Yet’ as a base. We believe that all members of our community should adopt this approach and understand that they are on a learning curve that will give you a path into the future, especially when learning in Computing.

Implementation

As a Church of England school, the Christian faith is the foundations of everything that we do at Christ Church. We strongly believe that our Computing curriculum should focus on positive well-being, self-awareness, relationships and the wider world. The skills that are taught in Computing enable learners to develop skills and understanding, which equips learners to make positive choices, widen horizons and create aspirations for life as local, national and global citizens.

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Computing, we use the Teach Computing curriculum as a basis for our Computing planning. The National Centre for Computing Education scheme has been developed by a team of leading computing experts and ensures the full coverage of the National Curriculum following the identified programs of study and allows us to implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Computing is taught as part of a half –termly unit, every half term, with key concepts being revisited as pupils progress through the school. The substantive knowledge builds progressively to develop children’s understanding of the following key concepts; computing systems and networks, programming, data and information and creating media. At Christ Church, we deliver a broad and balanced computing curriculum which stimulates and maintains children’s digital curiosity. Key concepts are enhanced through real-world contextual examples to give the children a real-life understanding of the terms taught.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, we follow the ‘Development Matters’ document to guide the teaching and learning of our youngest children. In EYFS at Christ Church, we understand that children begin to learn as they grow up and they are increasingly able to do more things for themselves independently. Computing in EYFS is centred around play-based, unplugged activities that focus on building pupils’ listening skills, curiosity, creativity and problem solving. Exploring technology in a safe and often child-led way develops a familiarity with equipment and vocabulary allowing them to have a strong start in Key Stage 1 computing and all that it demands.

Impact

Through our ambitious, engaging and high-quality Computing Education; we provide the children with the technical knowledge, understanding and skills they can take with them once they complete their primary education. Preparing them for life as local, national and global citizens. Teachers will use assessment to ensure our pupils have gained the intended knowledge and skills and can use these effectively to: know more, remember more and are able to do more. Computing teaching at Christ Church will equip pupils with knowledge, skills and cultural capital needed to ensure they successfully progress onto the next stage in their education and life and develop into responsible, respectful and resilient global citizens.

Pupil voice is used throughout the year to ascertain enthusiasm and knowledge of Computing across school, the understanding of taught concepts and pupils’ ability to talk about Computing. The introduction of the Junior Leadership Team this year has really given an extra dimension to subject leaders. They support Leaders in monitoring and improving subject areas through the curriculum.

To evidence skills developed throughout Computing, pupils understand and utilise subject specific vocabulary. In lessons, pupils demonstrate their ability to combine the knowledge they have learnt with their skills through various projects and tasks. As well as this, BLIPPIT is used to showcase displays, learning, discussions and SEND support.

By the end of their primary school education, pupils will:

Understand how to use algorithms to solve problems;
Be able to use a computer programme to write code to perform a task;
Be able to use mathematical and logical concepts to solve problems;
Understand different networks and how they communicate;
Understand how to work safely and responsibly online, how to recognise and report security issues and concerns;
Be able to explain the different hardware in computers and how they work together;
Be able to evaluate real world issues by using personal experiences and real-life examples.