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Curriculum

Computing at Furness Primary School

Vision for Computing at Furness Primary School

Furness Primary believes that every child has the right to a curriculum that champions excellence - supporting pupils in achieving to the very best of their abilities. We understand the immense value technology provides not only in supporting the Computing and whole-school curriculum, but over-all in the day-to-day life of our school.

We believe that technology can provide: enhanced collaborative learning opportunities; better engagement of pupils; easier access to rich content; support conceptual understanding of new concepts and can support the needs of all our pupils.

The school will develop confident, enthusiastic and skilled users of a broad range of technologies. We will equip children to not only be highly capable operators, but also to become developers and innovators themselves. Providing children with a rich and broad experience at school will contribute to essential knowledge that our children will need to prepare them for their future success beyond primary school.

We will accomplish this through a combination of subject specific teaching and the application of computing skills, in context, across other curriculum areas.

Intent

At Furness Primary, we want all children to be able to thrive as responsible, digital citizens. Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in our children’s lives. Therefore, we want to educate our pupils and model how to use technology positively and safely. We want our children to be confident and competent using a range of technology. The computing curriculum includes computer science, digital literacy and online safety. Computing is embedded across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible. We recognise that technology can allow pupils to share their learning in creative ways. We also understand the accessibility opportunities technology can provide for our SEN pupils. It has strong links with Mathematics, Science, and Design and Technology and provides insights into both natural and web-based systems. 'Computer Science' involves using logic and ideas about systems, patterns, abstraction and decomposition. Within the 'Information Technology' strand of the curriculum, pupils learn how computers can be used to represent and manage data. The 'Digital Literacy' element involves our pupils interacting with digital information safely and responsibly, with a strong emphasis on e-safety.

The curriculum will:

Instil confidence in children to learn and use technology.
Provide differentiated teaching of the core skills to allow children to use technology as a tool for their wider learning.
Ensure that children are aware of the potential dangers online, how to avoid them and how to report them.
Provide opportunities that enthuse and appeal to, all genders, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds
Give children opportunities to explore a wide range of technologies, old and new.
Provide opportunities for a wide application of hardware and software in ‘real world’ contexts.
Embed technology learning across the primary curriculum.
Allow children to make mistakes and learn from them.
Excite children with the potential of emergent technologies.
Encourage children to further develop their skills outside of school.
Build on prior learning in the subject throughout the primary age range.
Be rich, creative, immersive, challenging, contextual and exciting.

Implementation

Furness Primary has chosen to deliver Computing through the Purple Mash scheme of work from Reception to Year 6. The scheme of work supports our teachers in delivering enjoyable and engaging lessons which help to raise standards and allow all children to achieve to their full potential. We ensure that teachers have everything they need to deliver a rich and meaningful curriculum and that children recognise connectivity with every layer of their learning. It provides immense flexibility, strong cross-curricular links and integrates perfectly with the 2Simple Computing Assessment Tool. For each unit the scheme provides a step-by-step approach for both teacher and pupil. It offers simplicity, depth, relevance and purpose. Purple Mash is delivered through the school’s pedagogical approach of the 8E’s (embed explore, explain, example, expand, enrich, evaluate and expertise) ensuring the delivery of exceptional teaching quality. The concept of "Embed" in computing involves integrating learning into students' experiences, providing ample opportunities for them to practice and reinforce acquired knowledge. This process includes utilising various techniques such as recall, recognition, and relearning to transfer key information to their long-term memory. To facilitate this, students revisit essential concepts, skills, and rules from previous computing sessions through brief discussions, quizzes, and interactive activities. The subsequent stage, "Explore," seamlessly integrates into the warm-up segment, specifically tailored to each computing topic. Moving on to the "Explain" phase, students engage in discussions covering different aspects of the topic, the lesson's objectives, and strategies to achieve set targets. In the "Examples" phase, ideas discussed are translated into action, with demonstrations showcasing the application of concepts. Students escalate the level of difficulty by introducing additional variables and skills.

The "Enrich" stage unfolds as students apply the acquired concepts in practical scenarios, solidifying their understanding. Following this, the "Evaluate" phase encourages reflection on learning, fostering dialogue among students to discuss strategies and share insights. In the "Expert" segment, students excelling in specific computing skills or understanding key concepts are empowered to showcase their expertise. This involves supporting peers through guidance in coding activities, demonstrating techniques, offering constructive feedback, and participating in peer evaluations. This collaborative approach not only boosts students' self-esteem and confidence but also reinforces their comprehension of computing concepts. Through active peer engagement, students contribute to the accelerated progress of their classmates, creating a dynamic and supportive learning environment in the field of computing.

Children from Reception upwards have a 45-60 minutes per week of discrete lesson. Reception have computing included in activities where children can explore technology independently through their play. Some teaching is done in classrooms and outdoors, however, the majority of lessons take place in the school’s newly-refurbished, Computing suite. This gives children access to a wealth of technologies, including; desktop PC’s, Laptops, iPads, programmable toys, sensor equipment and many other ad-hoc devices, gadgets and a range of interesting ‘legacy’ hardware for the children to investigate.

Teaching staff are encouraged to extend children’s learning outside of computing lessons, and embed technology skills in their planning wherever appropriate. The school has invested in a number of online learning platforms, which give children the flexibility of blended remote digital learning and the ability to share and work collaboratively online. The online learning platforms and Purple Mash allow a variety of ways to differentiate within tasks, whether it be templates or word banks to scaffold work therefore providing for all the needs of every child.

We have an E- Safety Policy that provides guidance for teachers and pupils about how to use the internet safely. E-Safety is taught throughout the year and every class participates in lessons on e-safety and pupils understand how to stay safe when using technology. The school annually participates in Safer Internet Day.

Impact

Our children at Furness at the end of KS2 will be able to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. The children will be able to analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems. They will also be able to evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems. Our children will be responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.

Children will also become Digital Leaders and will be fully immersed in why e-safety is important not only at school but at home too. The children have skills that they can utilise and apply in all areas of the curriculum e.g., publishing brochures or leaflets for purposeful writing.