“With Christ in our hearts we live life to the full.”
Intent
Our aim as a School of Excellence, is to provide a high-quality computing education which equips children to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. The curriculum will teach children key knowledge about how computers and computer systems work, and how they are designed and programmed. Learners will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of computational systems of all kinds, whether or not they include computers. By the time they leave St Anne's, children will have gained confidence in the key knowledge and skills in the three main areas of the computing curriculum: computer science , information technology and digital literacy. As a School of Virtues we will help children in digital literacy sessions to evaluate digital content and use technology safely and respectfully. The objectives within each strand support the development of learning across the key stages, ensuring a solid grounding for future learning and beyond.
Implementation
Computing is taught in units across each term. This ensures children are able to develop depth in their knowledge and skills within these. Teachers use Purple Mash as a starting point for the planning of their computing lessons, which are often richly linked to engaging contexts in other subjects and topics. Knowledge and skills are mapped across each topic and year group to ensure systematic progression. We have ipads and chromebooks to ensure that all year groups have the opportunity to use a range of devices and programs for many purposes across the wider curriculum, as well as in discrete computing lessons. Employing cross-curricular links motivates pupils and supports them to make connections and remember the steps they have been taught.
Every child has a google classroom log in and uses google classrooms for some homework activities and remote learning.
Impact
Our approach to the curriculum results in a fun, engaging, and high-quality computing education. The quality of children’s learning is evident within their files, a digital platform where pupils save and evaluate their own work, as well as that of their peers. Evidence such as this is used to feed into teachers’ future planning, and as a topic-based approach continues to be developed, teachers are able to revisit misconceptions and knowledge gaps in computing when teaching other curriculum areas. This supports varied paces of learning and ensures all pupils make good progress.
Much of the subject-specific knowledge developed in our computing lessons equip pupils with experiences which will benefit them in secondary school, further education and future workplaces. From research methods, use of presentation and creative tools and critical thinking, computing at St Anne's gives children the building blocks that enable them to pursue a wide range of interests and vocations in the next stage of their lives.