Computing

Computing at St Mary’s

Intent

At St Mary’s Junior Academy, we take a mastery approach to the teaching of Computing. There are three distinct strands to computing at St Marys that run throughout our curriculum:Computer Science teaches children to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. It allows children to analyse problems in computational terms and gives them repeated, practical experience of writing computer programs to solve problems.Information technology teaches children to evaluate and apply new and unfamiliar technologies analytically in order to solve problems.Digital Literacy teaches children to be responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.Our curriculum is cyclical, so children will revisit these key areas throughout their time at St Marys in greater depth and complexity each time. This allows children to build on their prior knowledge in the subject each year, building on ever stronger foundations.

Our curriculum covers five key areas every year: 

Computing systems and networks - Identifying hardware and using software, while exploring how computers communicate and connect to one another

Programming - Understanding that a computer operates on algorithms, and learning how to write, adapt and debug code to instruct a computer to perform set tasks.

Creating media - Learning how to use various devices — record, capture and edit content such as videos, music, pictures and photographs. 

Data handling - Ensuring that information is collected, recorded, stored, presented and analysed in a manner that is useful and can help to solve problems. 

Online safety - Understanding the benefits and risks of being online — how to remain safe, keep personal information secure and recognising when to seek help in difficult situations.

Implementation:

At St Marys Junior School, we recognise that children need to be confident and fluent across each yearly objective. To ensure consistent coverage, teachers follow the Kapow computing scheme across KS2. 

Computing lessons are accessed and carried out on chromebooks whenever possible. Scaffolds are used to ensure the learning can be accessed by all. Digital fluency is a key component of a computing curriculum and this is taught using activities and games, for example BBC dance mat typing. This helps enable all children to become fluent in key computing skills needed to effectively access technology. In lesson and end of unit assessment ensures that progression from unit to unit and across strands is clear.