Our Computing Curriculum

We follow the 'NCCE Teach Computing' Scheme of work, as recommended by the Department of Education, to prepare our children for the digital world in which we live.

Planning & Progression in Computing

Yearly Plan & Overview - Computing

Termly Planning - Computing

Progression of Skills in Computing 

National Curriculum Programme of Study - Computing

Online Safety

Keeping our children safe and free from harm is our priority at Our Lady & St Patrick's. This includes teaching children to be safe in a digital world. 

Online safety is integral to teaching and learning in computing and is also covered discretely, during our 'Safety Weeks', throughout the year.

Please see the documents below relating to online safety, along with links to other areas of our website, which give more information about how we ensure our children stay safe online.

Online Safety Policy

Acceptable Use Agreement

Safeguarding Children

As part of our safeguarding children procedures, we have a strict filtering system on our school network , which blocks out any illegal or inappropriate content.

In addition to this, children are taught how to keep themselves and other people safe on the internet. We want them to be responsible digital citizens both inside and outside school so we work hard to ensure pupils and parents are made aware of important e-safety procedures. 
 
General Health & Safety principles and procedures also apply to teaching and learning of computing at Our Lady & St Patrick's Primary School. Our electrical equipment is maintained well and checked on a regular basis to ensure the safety of our school community. 

We have published lots more advice and information on Online Safety on our pages for Parents and Children, please access this using the links below

Please follow the link below - and navigate to the 'Digital Wellbeing' area, for more information about keeping children safe online.

CURRICULUM ENRICHMENT

STEM Workshops - Lego Robotics (May '24)

Computing Club

Computing Glossary

Teaching & Learning in Computing

We develop pupil’s skills, knowledge, understanding and capability through taught IT lessons, and by providing opportunities for pupils to apply and consolidate their IT capability across all curriculum contexts.

At Our Lady & St Patrick's we follow the 'NCCE Teach Computing' Scheme of Work, as recommended by the Department of Education.

All children in Key Stage 1 & 2 have weekly computing lessons, following the planning outlined at the top of this page.

We recognise that all classes have children with widely differing abilities. This is especially true when some children have access to digital technologies at home, while others do not. We provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability and experience of the child. We achieve this in a variety of ways, by; 

• Setting common tasks which are open-ended and require a variety of responses, including problem solving and creative and analytical thinking
• Setting tasks of increasing difficulty, evidenced in planning through differentiation and expected outcomes
• Providing appropriate adult support to scaffold learning and to aid the work of the individual or group 

For more information about how we teach computing at Our Lady & St Patrick's, please see the skills progression document for Computing, and the planning overviews for Computing, at the top of this page.

Our Vision Statement - Computing

Preparing our Children for the Digital World - Unlocking the Potential

Technology is changing the lives of everyone. At Our Lady & St Patrick's Catholic Primary School we believe that, through teaching computing, we equip our children to participate in a rapidly changing world where work and leisure activities are increasingly transformed by technology. 

As they journey through our school, children become increasingly digitally literate, developing skills and understanding in computing that prepare them for the future workplace, as active participants in a digital world.

Computing skills are a major factor in enabling children to be confident, creative and independent learners. We want our children to have every opportunity available to achieve this, by equipping them with the skills to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information in the world around them. We also provide opportunities for children to develop the skills necessary to be able to use information in an effective way, to support their learning, development and skills in all other areas of the curriculum. 

 “A high quality computing education equips pupils to understand and change the world through computational thinking. It develops and requires logical thinking and precision. It combines creativity with rigour: pupils apply underlying principles to understand real-world systems, and to create purposeful and usable artefacts,”  

Computing Curriculum, NC Programmes of Study, 2014 

Computing is an integral part of the national curriculum and being digitally literate is a key skill for everyday life. Computers, tablets, programmable robots, digital and video cameras are a few of the tools that can be used to acquire, organise, store, manipulate, interpret, communicate and present information.

At Our Lady & St Patrick's Catholic Primary School we recognise that pupils are entitled to quality hardware and software and a structured and progressive approach to the learning of the skills needed to enable them to use it effectively. Our Computing curriculum is well resourced, with banks of new i-pads & laptops.

Aims of Computing

At Our Lady & St Patrick's catholic Primary School, we aim to enable all children to 

• be responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
• develop skills which allow them to analyse problems and gain experiences and skills in computing, which that they will use in a rapidly changing technological world
• engage with learning through enriched multi-media learning experiences.

• become creative, innovative, logical, critical thinkers, who reason systematically and work collaboratively. 
• develop confidence in using code, understanding and applying the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including logic, algorithms and data representation
• learn to communicate effectively, using and evaluating information technology analytically to solve problems

• appreciate the relevance of digital literacy in our society as an essential tool for learning, communication, finding information and understanding the world around them
• develop responsible attitudes to online safety, security, confidentiality and accuracy, which enable them to make informed and discerning choices about their use of information technology. 

Inclusive Practice