Computing - Subject Lead: Mrs Debbie Smith
At St Mark’s, we believe that every child should have the right to a curriculum that champions excellence; supporting pupils in achieving to the very best of their abilities. We understand the immense value technology plays not only in supporting the Computing and whole school curriculum but overall in the day-to-day life of our school. We believe that technology can provide many things: enhanced collaborative learning opportunities; better engagement of pupils; easier access to rich content; support conceptual understanding of new concepts and can support the needs of all our pupils.
We use the Purple Mash Computing scheme as the foundation for our Computing curriculum. It is closely aligned to the National Curriculum and allows all children to be able to progress well from different starting points and achieve high standards in computing. The scheme exposes children to a variety of skills, experiences and real-life scenarios that equips them to become confident, reflective learners.
Through our Computing curriculum, we aim to:
- Provide an exciting, rich, relevant and challenging Computing curriculum for all pupils.
- Teach pupils to become responsible, respectful and competent users of data, information and communication technology.
- Provide technology solutions for forging better home and school links.
- Enthuse and equip children with the capability to use technology throughout their lives.
- Teach pupils to understand the importance of governance and legislation regarding how information is used, stored, created, retrieved, shared and manipulated.
- Utilise computational thinking beyond the Computing curriculum.
- Give children access to a variety of high quality hardware, software and unplugged resources.
- Equip pupils with skills, strategies and knowledge that will enable them to reap the benefits of the online world, whilst being able to minimise risk to themselves or others.
Computing Curriculum Overview
In order to carry out our Computing curriculum, every class has access to 30 laptops for a minimum of an hour a week. Each class has a small set of laptops for use in class and our Year 6 class have access to android tablets and an iPad. In addition, we have an ICT suite which can be used for smaller groups.
Our curriculum is made up of a series of units which enable progression in computing across the school. Teachers have the autonomy to decide the order in which these units are taught and this is to allow some flexibility to fit around topics that are being taught. An overview of each year group is shown below.
Whilst there is no curriculum requirement for EYFS, our Early Years class does recognise the importance of our youngest learners having access to the hardware that they will be required to use from Year 1 onwards. Children in EYFS at Cold Ash St Mark’s will benefit from using the laptops during the end of the Summer term in preparation for Year 1. They will be able to spend time exploring and discovering the Purple Mash scheme Mini Mash.
Progression of Vocabulary, Skills and Knowledge
The Purple Mash curriculum is designed to show a clear progression of knowledge,skills and vocabulary, which is detailed below:
Assessment
Assessment is built into the Purple Mash Scheme of Work. Teachers are able to monitor and record children's progress during and after each unit of work and children are also able to self-evaluate tasks before submitting them to the teacher. Teachers report progress to parents at Parents' Evenings and via the annual written report.
Impact of our Computing curriculum:
When children leave St Mark's, they are:
- Responsible, respectful and competent users of data, information and communication technology who can use computational thinking beyond the Computing curriculum
- Equipped with skills, strategies and knowledge that will enable them to reap the benefits of the online world, whilst being able to minimise risk to themselves or others.
- Aware of the importance of governance and legislation regarding how information is used, stored, created, retrieved, shared and manipulated.
- Enthused and equipped with the capability to use technology throughout their lives.
