Computing

Intent

At Brunel Field Primary School, we believe that computing aims to prepare our learners for their future (in school, home and employment) by giving them the opportunities to gain knowledge and understanding and develop skills in ICT that will equip them for an ever-changing digital world. Our intention is that Computing also supports children’s creativity and cross-curricular learning to engage children and enrich their experiences in school. We aim to ensure our pupils are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.

Implementation

Together with our whole school Core Learning Skills approach, the Computing curriculum at Brunel Field places great emphasis on a progressive development of skills and knowledge linked to the National Curriculum. To ensure a broad range of skills and understanding, Computing is taught across three main strands: digital literacy, computer science and information technology. Within digital literacy, children develop practicalskillsin the safe use of ICT and the ability to apply these skills to solving relevant, worthwhile problems for example understanding safe use of the internet. Online safety is taught within each Computing lesson and online safety procedures are communicated with all staff and parents. In computer science we teach children to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. Children learn to analyse problems to computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs. We also teach a progression of Computing vocabulary to support children in their understanding. As part of information technology, children learn to use and expressthemselves and develop their ideas through ICT for example writing and presenting as well as exploring art and design using multimedia. In coding, children are introduced to software for creative programming which enables them to create simple games using algorithms. At Brunel Field, we give children access to a wide range of good quality resources and provide cross curricular opportunities for children to apply their Computing knowledge and skills.