Computing at St Swithun's

Mr Harris is our Computing Subject Leader

Technology is changing the lives of everyone. Through teaching Computing we equip children to participate in a rapidly-changing world where work and leisure activities are increasingly transformed by technology.

It is our intention to enable children to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information. We also focus on developing the skills necessary for children to be able to use information in a discriminating and effective way. We want children to know more, remember more and understand more in computing so that they leave primary school computer literate.

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 national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:

• can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
• can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
• can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
• are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology

 Computing in the curriculum 

• We plan using the National Curriculum.
• We use Key Learning and Progression in skills to ensure that the teaching sequence is progressive and build on prior learning.
• Mr Harris works alongside class teachers using the long term planning to plan units of work and deliver individual lessons.

Computing in the Early Years

The EYFS framework is structured very differently to the national curriculum as it is organised across seven areas of learning rather than subject areas. The aim of this document is to help subject leaders to understand how the skills taught across EYFS feed into national curriculum subjects. This document demonstrates which statements from the 2020 Development Matters are prerequisite skills for computing within the national curriculum. The table below outlines the most relevant statements taken from the Early Learning Goals in the EYFS statutory framework and the Development Matters age ranges for Three and Four-Year-Olds and Reception to match the programme of study for computing. The most relevant statements for computing are taken from the following areas of learning:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

• Physical Development

• Understanding the World

• Expressive Arts and Design