“Computer science empowers students to create the world of tomorrow.”

Satya Nadella - CEO of Microsoft

What do we want our computing curriculum to achieve?

For most of us, technology is an essential part of our daily lives. It is our goal at Woodlands to equip our children with the fundamental skills, knowledge and understanding of computing to enable them to participate effectively and safely in a digital world. At Woodlands, we provide a high-quality computing education, which equips children to use computational thinking and creativity to understand our ever-changing world. We aspire for our children to be creators, not just consumers of technology. We develop computing skills from Reception onwards and build on the children’s knowledge each year, embedding technology across the curriculum. Through the award-winning ‘Switched On’ computing scheme, we ensure progression through the school, using safe, real-life and fun scenarios, such as presenting cookery programs, creating blogs and programming games.

Why is computing important to us?

We want pupils to be independent, forward thinkers around technology and not passive learners. It is our intention to enable Woodlands children to develop the skills necessary to be able to use information in a discerning and effective way. We recognise that computing unlocks pathways for children to be inquisitive individuals and provides a balance of structure and a canvas for digital artists to share their learning in creative ways. We aspire for our children to take pride in their work and to become competent with a varied range of tools that best expresses their understanding. By the end of Year 6, we aim for children to become confident users of technology and responsible digital citizens who are ready to meet the challenges of their digital futures.

How does the curriculum structure support our aims?

The ‘Switched On’ scheme imparts new knowledge, skills and understanding in each of the three strands of the subject:

1. Computer Science: Computer science is the study of the basic principles and practices of computational thinking and the application of this in the design and development of computer systems.

In computer science, children gain an understanding of how computers and networks work. Children learn how to program, debug and anticipate the outcome of algorithms. With access to up-to-date technology and a commitment from us to ensure we always seek to provide these resources, we are confident that the teaching of computing at Woodlands is robust and current.

2. Information Technology: Information technology deals with the creative and productive use and application of computer systems.

In this strand, we focus on the use of computers for everyday practical purposes. For example, by using a variety of software to present information and by teaching the use of appropriate search engines to research topics. E-safety is also a key element of the information technology strand as children learn how to search the World Wide Web safely and report on anything that worries them.

3. Digital Literacy: Digital literacy is the ability to use computer systems safely, confidently and effectively.

In this strand, we teach the children how to safely and responsibly use technology. This includes recognising its advantages and the opportunities for collaboration and communication it offers. We also discuss with the children the importance of balancing time on screen with time exploring the real world.

E-Safety

E-Safety at Woodlands begins in Reception where it is delivered through stories and progresses all the way through the school. E-safety is a key aspect of our teaching of computing and permeates every lesson. In addition to this, each year group will engage with a block of work on E-Safety appropriate to their age and the current trends. In an ever-changing environment, we recognise the importance of keeping up-to-date with the needs of the children. We, therefore, regularly revise and improve our E-safety provision to meet those needs. We are passionate educators of online safety and wellbeing, aiming to educate not only our children but also to keep their parents and guardians informed as well.

Because each unit is carefully designed to build upon prior knowledge, children are able to achieve a deeper level of understanding and skill development.

How do we develop computing skills?

Woodlands recognises the spiral nature of progression within computing and the scheme builds on skills and learning that has come before. For example, in programming, pupils are introduced to a simple sequence of recorded button presses on a Bee Bot in Year 1, then move on to building programs by snapping together blocks to move sprites in Scratch Jr before going on to create their own animations, quizzes and games in Scratch. Pupils progress from simpler to more complex programming languages, but also build up their conceptual understanding of programming from sequence, through repetition and selection to variables, input and output.

How do we make computing real and meaningful for our children?

We have carefully chosen and adapted the ‘Switched On’ scheme to make meaningful links throughout our wider curriculum. For example, the Year 2, ‘We Are Astronauts’ coding unit runs seamlessly with a history topic that covers the moon landings. In Year 3, the ‘We are Opinion Pollsters’ data unit enables children to practice their statistical learning in maths, by giving them real life uses for data collection. The ‘We are Publishers’ design unit in Year 6 has been essential for production of the school’s annual year book, in which the children see the design process from the beginning and they are rewarded with a professionally printed article to treasure. These real life links help our children see how computing can be applied in a wide range of real life contexts.

How do we use assessment in computing?

Assessment is used in computing in a variety of ways. All lessons include meaningful tasks for the children to complete, which gives teachers important feedback and facilitates opportunities for in-depth discussion. Learning is designed to help the children activate and connect prior knowledge to new learning in a cyclical format. If we discover important gaps in learning, we may decide to remodel the learning or task, to explain a concept, provide additional scaffolding or update future planning. Assessment is also used as a learning tool in lessons through short multiple-choice quizzes at the end of each unit, when children are required to retrieve previously taught content, helping its transfer to their long-term memories. During and after learning, we check if the children have learnt what we want them to through their responses in composite tasks, low stakes quizzes and other retrieval activities. Teachers bring all this knowledge formed over the course of the year to make an overall judgement as to whether each pupil is working at the expected level for computing or not and this is reported to parents. Our year group leads and computing subject lead will also conduct pupil voice sessions and scrutinise pupils’ online portfolios to ascertain how their skills and their thinking have developed over their years at Woodlands. Having triangulated monitoring, the computing subject lead may decide to update planning, support teachers with planning or pedagogy, involve the inclusion team if issues pertain to pupils with SEND, review curriculum sequencing or possibly review the effectiveness of the retrieval activities used.

How do we promote inclusivity and challenge in computing?

It is important that all our pupils access and learn effectively in our computing lessons across the school. Teachers utilise a range of adaptive strategies to meet the needs of our pupils, which work well in all subjects. In addition to this, we utilise further adaptations specific to computing, which support pupils with SEND. When introducing new concepts, we always use familiar contexts to reduce the amount of new information being presented. For example, we introduce the idea of algorithms as a sequence of instructions for a computer to make a jam sandwich – a familiar task – which is also concurrently taught in English writing lessons, allowing the children to focus on computing learning. The ‘Use-Modify-Create’ framework is employed to allow learners to engage with coding at a level that they may not yet be ready to produce independently, for example, when learning Scratch coding. Physical computing devices such as Bluebots (Year 1) and Microbits (Year 6) are great for engaging learners and providing a concrete, sensory output for an abstract program – for example making a Bluebot move or a Microbit play a sound. Collaborative working is frequently employed to increase confidence with new skills. Furthermore, Woodlands’ Inspiring the Future week helps our children to identify and celebrate computing careers, with role models, helping students to ‘see’ themselves in computing-related careers.