The purpose of our high-quality computing curriculum at Shotley Bridge Primary School is to equip our pupils to use computational thinking as well as creativity to understand and change the world. At Shotley Bridge Primary School we teach our children computing to a very-high standard in all classes, preparing them to be able to work safely, express themselves and develop their ideas. We believe that having a secure understanding of the skills of computing is essential for our pupils’ future studies within our own school, secondary school, college, university and beyond, enabling them to achieve their aspirations and have the confidence to use and apply them at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.
Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, providing insights into both natural and artificial systems. Computing is an essential part of the curriculum at Shotley Bridge Primary School, which is not only taught explicitly but its transferable skills are woven across all areas of learning. At Shotley Bridge Primary School computing lessons are practical, in which invention and resourcefulness are encouraged. The ideas of computing are applied to understanding real-world systems and creating purposeful products.
At the core of our high-quality computing curriculum is computer science, in which pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. We ensure that children understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. Building on to this knowledge and understanding, pupils at Shotley Bridge Primary School are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. Lessons are designed to ensure that all pupils can analyse problems in computational terms and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems.
It is important to us that pupils become digitally literate: they are able to use, express themselves and develop their ideas through technology. Children are given opportunities to evaluate and apply a range of information technology, including using new or unfamiliar technologies. It is also extremely important and fundamental to our teaching at Shotley Bridge Primary School that pupils are safe, responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
Our computing programme of study is set out year-by-year across the whole school. Curriculum maps for skills taught are sent home termly. Our curriculum is enriched with a variety of computing activities that are designed to go above and beyond what is taught and help to develop pupils’ appreciation of the beauty and power of computing: after school code club; newspaper club where technology is used to produce a school newspaper; activities based around internet safety day; Spelling Shed is used to support the teaching and learning of spellings in each year group across the whole school; Times Table Rockstars is used to enhance the teaching and learning of times tables in each year group; iPads and a range of software, e.g. Green Screen software is used to support many cross-curricular lessons.
The computing subject coordinator monitors the subject closely in Shotley Bridge Primary School to ensure children are working at a high standard: planning and work scrutinies, learning walks, lesson observations, evaluation of school data compared to national standards, attending local authority network meetings and courses to ensure they stay abreast of best practice, and leading whole-school training for staff members, form a part of this. Ongoing assessments take place throughout the year enabling us to make appropriate early interventions to ensure every child makes high levels of progress in computing.
