Our School Vision

"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118 

Our Curriculum Vision 

Intent

Here at Finchampstead, we are preparing the children for a world where they need to not only be safe, competent users of technology, but also digitally literate so that they are able to express themselves and develop their ideas through information and computer technology, both at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.  With technology playing such a significant role in society today, we believe ‘Computational thinking’ is a skill children must be taught if they are to be able to participate effectively and safely in this digital world. A high-quality computing education equips pupils to use creativity to understand and change the world. Finchampstead children learn about technology through a wide range of physical and virtual resources including developing programming skills through coding using programs such as Scratch,  photo and video editing and green screen technologies and are  introduced to a range of technology, including desktops,  iPads, the BBC Micro:Bit, and interactive whiteboards, allowing them to practise and improve the skills they learn. Throughout the wider curriculum, ICT is used across the school, where the computer suite and iPads enhance pupils’ learning, the latter allowing the children to take technology outside the classroom. Online safety is a key element of our PSHE curriculum too.

By ‘growing’ them through computing, we want children who:

• Are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
• Know how to keep themselves safe whilst using technology and on the internet and be able to minimise risk to themselves and others.
• Become responsible, respectful and competent users of data, information and communication technology.
• Can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems.
• Can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience writing computer programs in order to solve such problems.
• Can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation.
• Become digitally literate and are active participants in a digital world.
• Are equipped with the capability to use technology throughout their lives.
• Understand the importance of governance and legislation regarding how information is used, stored, created, retrieved, shared and manipulated.
• Are resilient when engaging with technology .
• Understand the online safety  messages that can keep them safe online.

Implementation

The subject is broken down into three strands that make up the computing curriculum: Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy.

- Computer Science underlines the knowledge and skills relating to programming, coding, algorithms and computational thinking. 

- Information Technology includes the knowledge and skills relating to communication, multimedia and data representation and handling.

- Digital Literacy is an understanding of the knowledge and skills relating to online safety and uses for technology.

We follow the Purple Mash scheme of work from Year 1-6 (with KS2 combining elements from the Switched on Computing scheme)  ensuring consistency and progression throughout the school. Computing  units are taught on a two tear year rolling programme. This ensures progression between year groups and coverage of a broad range of computing components such as coding, spreadsheets, Internet and Email, databases, communication networks, touch typing, animation and online safety. Where possible, Computing  is linked to class topics but can be taught as discrete units and lessons where needed to ensure coverage. Due to half form year groups in our school, Teachers may  plan to suit their children’s interests, current events, their own teaching style, the use of any support staff and the resources available.

Impact

Our Computing curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression and build on and embed current skills. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in the different computational components and measure the impact of our curriculum using the following methods:

• An ongoing assessment against the planned Computing outcomes
• Children can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
• Children can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
• Children can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
• Children are safe, responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology
• Pupil discussions about their learning