Computing
Computing at Reignhead Primary School
Intent
Here at Reignhead Primary school, it is our intention to enable children to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information. As a school, we have chosen the Purple Mash Computing Scheme of work from reception to Year 6. This is to ensure continuity and progression of skills across the year groups. Computing skills are a major factor in enabling children to be confident, creative and independent learners and it is our intention that children have every opportunity available to allow them to achieve this. The Purple Mash Scheme supports our teachers in delivering fun and engaging lessons and it provides immense flexibility, strong cross-curricular links and integrates perfectly with the 2Simple Computing Assessment tool.
We want our pupils to understand that there is always a choice when accessing technology, and as a school, in particular with ‘social media’ - we aim to model positive use. We understand that preventative methods of online/social media misuse can be addressed through education. We recognise that Computing unlocks pathways for children to be curious individuals and is a powerful communication tool in the modern world. By the time they leave our school, children will have gained key knowledge and skills in the three main areas of the computing curriculum: Computer Science (programming and understanding how digital systems work), Information Technology (using computer systems to store, retrieve and send information) and Digital Literacy (evaluating digital content and using technology safely and respectfully).
Implementation
We use Purple Mash as a comprehensive scheme of work, addressing the statutory aspects of the National Curriculum. We use the mixed age planning resources because our classes often contain children from different age groups.
Pupils will be taught to:
- Understand their responsibility to others as well as to themselves when communicating and sharing content online.
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of what the SMART rules are and how they should be applied to using technology safely and respectfully.
- Know what a word processing tool is for, and create a word processing document. They can alter the look of the text and navigate around the document. They might need support when navigating the various menus and icons.
- Design and create concept maps that collect and present a range of linked ideas. Children can use the additional features of software to present their concept maps as a visual whole class presentation and as written text.
- How to use spreadsheets and create a formula then apply this to mathematical conversions.
- Program different variables to convert data from one format and present it in an alternative way.
- Convert their data into a graphical format.
- Design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts.
- Use sequence, selection and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output; generate appropriate inputs and predicted outputs to test programs.
Computing lessons take place on a weekly basis and each class is allocated a laptop slot per week. At Reignhead, we are fortunate to have two class sets of laptops as well as a range of other computing equipment including IPads, Micro:bits and Bee Bots. A lot of our computing sessions will involve using the equipment online, however, we do offer a range of unplugged lessons to support the delivery of the curriculum.
Impact
Computing at Reignhead also enables our pupils to prepare themselves for the outside world and allows them to see that technology is forever changing and advancing. It teaches them new skills that can be used in other subjects across the curriculum. It also teaches children how they should behave online and processes they should follow if anything unwanted happens. They have an understanding of how to further develop skills should they ever develop an interest and other stages in their lives. At our school, we analyse the impact by setting the children's work through Purple Mash which is then saved and checked by teachers and through termly – annual pupil voice meetings to check their understanding and learning from that year.
