Our Computing Curriculum

We aim to provide a high quality, well-planned, sequenced and ambitious computing curriculum, designed to equip pupils to develop and use computational thinking and creativity to be able to understand and change the world.

We specifically want children to

· know about the wonders and dangers of online technology, enabling them to know how to keep themselves safe online (e-safety)

· develop their ability to use digital systems and use their computing knowledge to use (programming and coding)

· develop their ability to use information technology in a range of ways in order to express themselves and develop their ideas (digital literacy).

In order to achieve the above, we will provide:

• A safe, secure computing environment, giving children access to a range of media and technologies

• The latest resources to allow them to experience, use and master a wide variety of programmes. 

   

Our computing curriculum is divided into three key strands:

• Computer science (coding) – understanding and applying the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation, in order to think analytically to solve problems.

• Digital literacy – creatively using information and communication technologies to represent their ideas and present their work.

• E-safety – appreciating and understanding how to stay safe online

We believe that the internet is an essential part of children's learning, offering a huge range of useful educational material and information across the curriculum.  Our 'Acceptable Use of the Internet' policies, explain in more detail how we use ICT and the rules that are in place to keep everyone safe.  All children are regularly reminded of expectations in terms of Acceptable IT use as part of the ICT curriculum.  In this way, we ensure that everyone is clear about safe use of the Internet. 
 

Our computing curriculum is well-resourced at St. Luke's:

• All classrooms have an interactive whiteboard which is used to deliver lessons across the curriculum.

• Children have access to Chromebooks and iPads and these are used to support children’s learning across the curriculum in addition to developing their computing knowledge.

• The school has additional hardware equipment such as Lego Mindstorm and roamers which are used.

• The school makes use of ‘Know It All’ materials, when teaching e-safety. 

• The school uses Google Classroom and also makes use of Office 365 email as a way of enabling pupils to communicate throughout the school.

• The school also makes use of a range of subscriptions for supporting teaching and learning.  In particular scratch is used for many of our programming units and Microsoft Office and Google software (such as Word or PowerPoint, Googledocs or slides) to deliver many of our digital literacy units.  We also use animation software for stop-motion movies and 2investigate software for branching databases.