Computing

Curriculum Intent

At the forefront of teaching computing in Cotmanhay Infant and Nursery School is Online Safety. Within EYFS class discussions, the children will carefully consider how to use the technological equipment safely following our school rules and what they should do if they come across something they don’t like. Across Key Stage 1, half termly Online Safety topics are delivered in all classes and are planned to develop resilience. We want to teach children to manage risks safely when using technology and know who they can talk to if they are concerned or upset when using it. Topics are split into six strands including, creating their own online safety rules, social and emotional wellbeing, responsible internet use, keeping information safe, digital citizenship and playing games and having fun. Each strand is covered once in each year group.

In the Foundation Stage, our pupils develop a greater Understanding of the World by recognising a range of technology that is used in their homes and school. Through experimenting with a range of different equipment such as iPads, PCs, cameras, microphones and mechanical toys, the children will begin to speculate on why things happen or how things work and interact with age appropriate computer software. 

Throughout Key Stage 1, the children’s use of digital technologies continues through the use of iPads, PCs and programmable toys. In Year 1, the children will explore different apps to celebrate events on the iPads and begin to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content. Moving on from this, the children will use programmable BeeBot toys and apps to begin to understand what algorithms are, how they are implemented as programs and that programs are executed by following precise and unambiguous instructions. Using the iPad, the children will explore how they can use technology beyond school to become storytellers. In Year 2, the children’s iPad skills are built upon. They will begin by becoming photographers and enhancing their ability to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content. Through the use of simple on-screen programming software, the children will become computer programmers, implementing algorithms, learning to create and debug simple programs and use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs. The children will then become animators, capturing the movements of their own imaginative characters. We want to prepare our children for the future and have planned for children’s basic skills to be developed and built upon across the Key Stage. This ranges from basic typing and mousepad skills in Year 1 through to creating and presenting PowerPoint Presentations in Year 2. 

Curriculum Implementation

Our Computing curriculum skills overview has been developed to ensure coverage and progression across the EYFS and Key Stage 1. The skills are based on the content outlined in the National Curriculum and are taught weekly. In this way the children can engage fully and become immersed in the topic, making it easier to remember what is being taught and thus embed key learning, knowledge and skills. 

Our medium-term plans have been carefully put together and developed from the Woking computer scheme of work to set out the learning objectives for each lesson, identifying the resources to be used. Each computing lesson will begin by recapping our school “Online Safety Rules” and by revisiting and consolidating previous learning. Through the use of careful modelling, skilful guidance, clear expectations and scaffolding of learning the children will become successful, competent digital citizens working together in groups to create digital content and use technological equipment safely. 

Curriculum Impact

A variety of methods are used to find out what the children know and understand. Activities are differentiated to suit the different abilities and learning styles. Computing lessons allow for collaborative learning and thus encourage children to talk in pairs, small groups or through class discussion, to share learning. Evidence of the children’s learning journey in computing is saved onto Early Essence in the early years and in Key Stage 1 examples of the children’s work is saved on the PC’s, purple mash and occasionally printed out for display purposes. Previous topics and skills are revisited to assess if the children have remembered learning some time later. 

In Key Stage 1 we have developed assessment that tracks the children three times a year on Otrack to see their progress over the year highlighting the key skills and whether the children are working at the expected level.

Computing monitoring includes work scrutiny, lesson observations or learning walks, pupil voice interviews/questionnaires in order to ascertain correct curriculum coverage, the quality of teaching and learning as well as the children’s attitudes to and retention of computing learning. This information is then used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly.

If you wish to find out more about your child's learning progresses throughout school in this subject, please click on the link to the skills grid. 

Enrichment opportunities

Many opportunities are offered in school to enrich learning in computing some of these include:

• Ipad club
• Minecraft club
• Film making club
• Online Safety Officer Traci Good workshops with parents and pupils
• Photography with Ipads club