Intent

At Milton Mount we are Technologists! We recognise the huge value and impact that technology plays not only in supporting Computing and the whole curriculum but in all of our daily lives. We understand this and we want our children to be digitally literate and active participants in our digital world. Therefore, we want to model and educate our children on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely.

We want our children to be creators and our broad curriculum aims to fulfil the National Curriculum requirements whilst also providing enhanced and collaborative learning opportunities, engagement in rich content and supporting pupil’s conceptual understanding of new concepts which support the needs of all our pupils.

At Milton Mount our aim is that our children understand that there is always a choice when using technology and we believe that children need to be shown and taught how to use it positively. We are dedicated to ensuring our pupils understand how to stay safe online and we want to model how technology can be used positively. We know that the best prevention for a lot of issues we currently see with technology/social media is through education. We believe that it is vital that we work alongside parents to ensure that they also understand how to keep their children safe online.

Our curriculum starts in the Early Years Foundation Stage where children begin to develop general computing skills through a range of contexts and continues from Year 1 through to Year 6, following the National curriculum content guidance.

Do more

The curriculum is structured and sequenced so that all children actively engage in hands-on learning through a range of tasks that acquire a range of skills to answer a challenge question. Our aim is to deliver and teach exciting lessons that include children engaging with digital technologies in a variety of ways, for example, digital photo manipulation.

We aim to instil critical thinking, reflective learning and a ‘can do’ attitude for all our pupils, particularly when engaging with technology and its associated resources.

Know more

We encourage children to become problem solvers in computational terms and provide repeated practical experience writing computer programs in order to debug programs. We want our pupils to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation.

Remember more

At the beginning of each lesson, we use Sticky Starters to recap previous learning. Skills, knowledge and vocabulary are revisited and cross-curricular opportunities are planned for. The strands of Digital Literacy, Digital Science and Information Technology are built upon each year to ensure progression. This overlap, repetition and reinforcement helps to give children a deeper understanding of the knowledge and skills across all strands. Online safety is woven into each lesson and additional weekly Online Safety lessons are taught to ensure children revisit the key concepts regularly.

Experience more

Cross curricular links are planned to give the children further experience of different technologies for example AR headsets to visit different places in geography. We plan for children to use technology imaginatively and creatively to inspire and engage all pupils.

Consider more

Our Computing curriculum aims to develop the heart and mind of every child. Computing teaching at has links with mathematics, science and design and technology and our aim is to provide a broad and balanced curriculum whilst ensuring that pupils become digitally literate and digitally resilient. We want our children to be responsible, competent, confident and creative users of technology who know how to keep themselves and others safe.

Implementation

In line with the 2014 National Curriculum for Computing, our aim is to provide a high-quality computing education which equips children to use computing skills and creativity to understand and change the world.

Our Computing Curriculum is taught through the Purple Mash Scheme of work from Year 1-6 ensuring consistency and progression throughout the school. Although the technology strand has been removed from the EYFS curriculum general computing skills are taught through continuous provision.

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in computing, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Our implementation of the computing curriculum is in line with 2014 Primary National Curriculum requirements for KS1 and KS2 and the Foundation Stage Curriculum in England. This provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each key stage. The Purple Mash Scheme of work is a progression model that is broken down into three strands that make up the computing curriculum. These are Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy. Computer Science underlines the knowledge and skills relating to programming, coding, algorithms and computational thinking. Information Technology underlines the knowledge and skills relating to communication, multimedia and data representation and handling. Digital Literacy underlines the knowledge and skills relating to online safety and technology uses all of which are covered weather combined or discreetly.

In EYFS, we aim to provide our pupils with a broad, play-based experience of Computing in a range of contexts. We believe that the Early Years learning environments should feature ICT scenarios based on experience in the real world, such as in roleplay. Children gain confidence, control and language skills through opportunities to ‘paint’ on devices or control remotely operated toys. They are able to record themselves using devices which can support children to develop their communication skills. This is especially useful for children who have English as an additional language.

In Key Stage 1, pupils begin to learn what algorithms are, how they are implemented as programs on digital devices, and that programs execute by following a sequence of instructions. They write and test simple programs, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve data in a range of digital formats. As part of safeguarding, children are taught to communicate safely and respectfully online.  They understand the need to keep personal information private and recognise common uses of information technology beyond school.

In Key Stage 2, children build on their learning from KS1 and begin to design and write programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems. They solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts. Children use sequence, selection and repetition in programs, work with variables and various forms of input and output. They learn to generate appropriate inputs and predicted outputs to test programs. They use logical reasoning to explain how a simple algorithm works and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs. As part of understanding the digital world, they learn about computer networks including the internet, such as the worldwide web. Children begin to explore the opportunities these offer for communication and collaboration. As children progress through KS2, they learn how Internet search engines find and store data and how to use search engines effectively and learn about how to be discerning in evaluating digital content. Respect individuals and intellectual property is taught so that children use technology responsibly, securely and safely. They select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on digital devices to accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information. This may be done through other subjects such as maths and science.

Lesson Structure

Work during computing lessons should be set as a 2Do where possible. This enables the work to be saved under that unit heading and allows for easy assessment.

Each lesson should begin a recap on previous learning using the sticky starter approach. This should be something they have learned in the previous lesson, something they have learned in a previous unit and something they have learned in a previous year. Each unit contains a document which outlines previous learning for that unit.

The powerpoint slides produced by PurpleMash give a clear lesson structure to follow for each lesson. These should be followed in order to enable the children to progress through the learning in small steps.

Introduction to lesson – outline of lesson aims and success criteria.

Key vocabulary – this is used to review vocabulary introduced in the lesson and is recapped during the lesson.

Main learning – Each unit is set out in small steps. Show the first learning slide showing the step. Children complete that step. This format continues throughout the lesson enabling the teacher to move around the room to assess and support learning where appropriate.

There are opportunities for discussion and questions to support learning.

Challenge – As children progress through the steps, teachers should identify those who need more challenge. This can be given as an additional task using the skills or a task which combines the skills used in the lesson with previously learned skills from other units.

Plenary – this will include a review of lesson vocabulary and a review of the success criteria. Children can self-evaluate their learning.

We recognise that computing is a specialist subject and not all teachers are computing specialists. Computing lessons are taught by our teaching staff with additional support offered from our Computing Lead. The Purple Mash scheme of work enables clear coverage of the computing curriculum whilst also providing support and CPD for less confident teachers to deliver lessons.

Lessons are broken down into weekly units, usually with two units taught per half-term. Units are practical and engaging and allow computing lessons to be hands on. Units cover a broad range of computing components such as coding, spreadsheets, Internet and Email, Databases, Communication networks, touch typing, animation and online safety.

When teaching computing teachers can follow the children’s interests to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced.

Through our Purple Mash subscription our teachers can deliver thematic, cross curricular lessons that also follow children’s interests and provide flexibility. Purple Mash has an online portal of age-appropriate software, games and activities as well as topic materials and materials to support children’s learning in other subject areas for all key stages.

Computing lessons will also use the Purple Mash software to ‘make music’ using the 2Sequence program, design and make using the 2Animate software and make links with maths through spreadsheets using 2Calculate.

 Computing teaching is practical and engaging and a variety of teaching approaches and activities are provided based on teacher judgement and pupil ability. We have a wide range of resources to support our computing teaching. Pupils may use computers or iPads independently, in pairs, alongside IT support or in a group with the teacher. Teachers and pupils are also aware of the importance of health and safety and pupils are always supervised when using technology and accessing the internet.

Computing and safeguarding go hand in hand and a main focus of ours is on internet safety inside and outside of the classroom. Additional to all pupils studying an online safety unit through their computing lessons, every year we also take part in National Safer Internet Day in February. The Computing Lead alongside class teachers will plan additional internet safety lessons and activities to take part in following a specific yearly theme. Internet Safety assemblies are also held as well as parent internet safety workshops.

Impact

Our aim is that our children will develop the skills they need to safely use technology during their schools’ lives and beyond. Through the delivery of our computing curriculum children will develop the following crucial skills:

• Problem solving
• Resilience
• Coding
• Debugging
• Researching
• Digital creating
• Logical reasoning
• Interpretation
• Designing

Our aim is that children all children, including those with SEND, will leave Milton Mount with the computing skills that they need. Technology is ever evolving and we aim to develop pupils who can use and express themselves, develop their ideas through, information and communication technology at a suitable level for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world. We are committed to ensuring that all children leave Milton Mount knowing how to stay safe online and what to do if they are in a situation that they don’t feel comfortable in. We will measure the impact of our computing curriculum through pupil voice, careful work scrutiny and comparing skills across the school to assess whether they are progressive.