Benchill Primary School

Benchill Primary Computing Curriculum

Computing Rationale

Intent

At Benchill, we believe that Computing is a crucial part of everyday life and will play a huge role in our children’s futures. Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, and provides insights into both natural and artificial systems.

Our Computing curriculum aims to:

Encourage children to become independent users of computing technologies to gain confidence and enjoyment from their activities.
Use technology to support learning across the curriculum.
Encourage children to become more independent and resilient with critical thinking and problem solving.
Equip children with the skills needed to use the Internet in a safe and responsible way.
Allow children to have access to different types of technology.

We want our students to:

Develop creativity when using technology.
Be safe and responsible when using technology.
Become digitally literate and competent users of technology.
Be able to use the Internet in a safe and responsible way, understanding what to do if something makes them feel unsafe.

Implementation

The Computing curriculum is practical, creative and knowledge-rich. As a school we follow the Teach Computing curriculum. The curriculum meets the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum and is interconnected and clearly sequenced which allows children to make links between their learning.

Throughout Computing, the children will gain a knowledge of:

Digital Literacy
Computer Science
- Programming
- Computational thinking and problem-solving
Information Technology.
- Digital artefacts
- Computing context

Our curriculum is designed to:

Allow children to complete problem solving with Computing, which will build resilience and problem solving skills.
Allow an understanding for the context of use of computers in society, including the use of digital artefacts and the context of computing.
Enable children to gain the skills and knowledge required to be an effective, safe and responsible user of technology.

Our curriculum enables students to:

Develop their understanding of technology and how it can help them.
Develop their resilience to be able to solve problems which occur through building programmes.
Understand the different methods of data collection and the presentation of data and information in different formats.
Plan, create, produce and edit media in various formats.

Units of work in the Benchill curriculum cover:

Computing networks and systems
- They will become more familiar with the different components of a computer ; how technology is all around us; understanding of digital devices; how information is transferred and shared between devices.
Programming
- Children will gain an understanding of the sequencing of commands, creating, modifying and editing their programmes. They will also gain an understanding of count-controlled and infinite loops, how to explore movement when programming and evaluating their work that they have created.
The creation of media
- Children will learn about how to design, plan, produce and edit a variety of different media including: vector graphics, audio, video, image, website creation and 3D modelling.
Data and information
- Children will gain knowledge on a variety of different technology based information and data, such as: spreadsheets, flat-file databases, data logging, branching databases, grouping data and pictograms.

We ensure gradual progression in skills and knowledge throughout the curriculum with previous skills and knowledge being revisited in order to build upon these. Our planning and curriculum also emphasises the importance of how to become a safe and responsible user of technology.

To help with our implementation of the computing curriculum we have a variety of hardware available to all teachers, including:

Chromebooks
IPads
Crumble sets
Micro:bits
Beebots
Interactive whiteboards

Impact

The Computing curriculum aims to provide a well-rounded, sequenced curriculum that:

Includes a variety of different topics to encourage critical thinking and problem solving.
Develop an understanding of different methods of technology.
Equip children to become safe, responsible and efficient users of technology.
Enable children with the skills to be more resilient with problem solving and critical thinking.

Our curriculum overview details the National Curriculum requirements for each key stage. It specifies:

The knowledge, skills and processes needed.
The sequencing of skills which will be built on year on year.
The topics, concepts and skills covered each year.

Children’s progress is recorded digitally and physically in a class book, which shows:

The work which has been completed through ‘unplugged’ lessons.
The progress throughout each unit.
Work completed independently by the children using technology.
Knowledge organisers, end of unit quizzes which track knowledge and skill progression.

The curriculum ensures that students not only learn about Computing but also develop a lasting respect and appreciation for digital technologies and feel fully equipped to use technology effectively and responsibly. Also that they foster an ability to think critically, solve problems and become more resilient.