Broad Town Church of England Primary School

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives." - Robert M. Hutchins

Intent

Our aim is for our children to become confident users of a range of technology, and to develop their skills and knowledge relating to Computer Science, Digital Literacy and Information Technology. 

We want them to understand how digital systems work, the impact that the rapid development of technology has globally and personally, and to fully grasp the opportunities, and challenges, that this presents – including a full awareness of E-safety.

We aim to help our pupils become creative and independent learners, who can make full use of technology to solve problems, express themselves and present their ideas.

Implementation

Pupils, from Foundation to Year 6, have weekly Computing lessons which build on their knowledge and skills, following the National Curriculum 2014. This includes learning about: Programming, Multimedia, Data Handling and Digital Literacy (which includes internet Safety, cyber-bullying, privacy, security, copyright and responsible use of networking).

Pupils have access to the range of hardware and software needed, with some resources also being available to pupils at home.  We currently use the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) as our main teaching resource.

We then encourage them to apply their skills to their studies across the curriculum, giving them opportunities to express ideas and solve problems using computational thinking.

The importance of online safety is continually reinforced, during lessons, assemblies, class displays and as part of their PSHE curriculum. Pupils only have access to heavily filtered Internet content (SWGfL), parents are informed of any issues, and staff are all regularly updated on new developments related to E-safety.

The assessment of pupils’ progress is on-going and recorded against Target Tracker statements, linked to the National Curriculum and our provision is monitored through lesson observations, pupil voice and work scrutiny.

Impact

By the time they leave, our pupils have become confident users of technology, enabling them to accomplish a wide variety of goals, both at home and in school (including coding, manipulating data, research and communicating) and are able to evaluate their work, and their use of appropriate technology to enhance their learning.

Pupils will also have a secure and comprehensive knowledge of the implications of technology and digital systems, as they rapidly evolve, and will recognise the dangers that can be posed, know how to access online systems safely, and how to respond to problems.