Computing
Intent
At Discovery Primary Academy, we recognise that children are living in an increasingly technological world and aim to provide them with the vital skills and knowledge to be confident in this area.
We ensure that children of all ages and abilities are exposed to a progressive computing curriculum in which they can demonstrate an understanding of the skills, knowledge and vocabulary relevant to their age that additionally allows them to revisit the skills and knowledge they have learnt through their prior years.
We use the National Centre for Computing Education curriculum to meet the aims of the National Curriculum. Within the Early Years, children are provided with early experiences of technology through having opportunities to handle technology purposefully, such as iPads and interactive screens to deliver basic technology handling skills.
Implementation
Computing is a mainly practical subject with many cross-curricular links.
We encourage staff to incorporate technology throughout the wider curriculum and use these skills to research and present their findings in a variety of ways.
The curriculum we use includes specific vocabulary to develop understanding and reviews of previous learning to help develop cross-linking between previous and current learning.
Knowledge organisers for each unit include assessment information for children to know how they are doing in each lesson.
The practical nature of our curriculum helps to support children of all abilities (including SEND and vulnerable children) to be successful.
Impact
Our curriculum progressively develops skills across the curriculum across the core themes of E-Safety, Coding, Digital Arts (photography and video making) and productivity (office skills). By the end of Year 6, children will be able to confidently take, edit and appraise pictures and video. They will be able to use visual coding languages to create, edit and debug their own programs. They will be able to create, edit, improve and appraise documents, including using outside resources and images/videos to improve impact. We ensure that e-safety is a central theme of our teaching throughout the year, but with a specific focus at the beginning of each academic year and around internet safety day in February.
The use of live assessments (recorded on knowledge organisers) allows us to make adaptations to our teaching on a session by session basis to ensure all children can be successful at their own level.