Computing

At Paddox Primary School, we understand that the rapidly evolving world of technology will play a pivotal part in the lives of our pupils. Technology is everywhere and we therefore recognise the importance of our computing curriculum equipping students with the necessary skills to thrive in this area, while using technology positively and safely. We want our pupils to become responsible, independent users and creators of digital content and to gain confidence and enjoyment from their use of computing technologies.

Therefore, we ensure children have the relevant skills and knowledge required to understand the three core areas of computing (computer science, information technology and digital literacy) and to offer a broad and balanced approach to providing quality first teaching of this subject. It is important that technology is used to support learning across the entire curriculum and that these lessons help them to develop creativity, resilience, problem-solving and critical thinking skills. As a result, while our curriculum is knowledge rich, it also provides many opportunities for pupils to apply this knowledge creatively, in turn helping our pupils to become skilled computer scientists.

At Paddox Primary School, we use the Purple Mash scheme of work to cover the National Curriculum objectives for computing across both key stages.  Every lesson within this scheme has been individually planned so that they can be taught effectively, and staff are provided with teacher guides and explanatory videos alongside lesson resources. Teachers plan each of their sessions based on the needs of their class and on the technology infrastructure (using our well-equipped and dedicated computing suite) that we have in place at Paddox.  The content is regularly reviewed.

Online safety is taught through the Twinkl scheme of learning. This offers a progressive approach for our computer safety teaching, which is delivered at regular intervals, each half term. Staff also model the correct usage of vocabulary in each year group, as outlined in the progression grids and teacher guides.

As a result of the engaging curriculum we use at Paddox Primary School, pupils will:

• Be enthusiastic and confident in their approach towards computing.
• Be able to adapt to new technologies and software and work both independently and collaboratively to use identified concepts and approaches.
• Identify the source of problems and work with resilience to debug them.
• Create and evaluate their own project work.
• Have a secure understanding of the positive applications and specific risks associated with a broad range of technology.
• Transition to secondary school with the skills and an interest to continue learning in computing.

Formative assessments are carried out every lesson by teachers in order to recognise and address misconceptions should they occur.  These vary from teacher observations or questioning, to written activities.  In addition, every unit includes optional summative assessments to address whether more work needs to be spent on a unit as well as to inform necessary adaption to teaching.