St Peter’s is committed to matching the pace of an ever-changing world by constantly keeping abreast of technological innovation and cutting-edge thinking. As a school community we passionately believe that Computing is a key skill for children to learn and that providing a high-quality Computing education will enable them to become effective, thriving digital citizens with the skills required for jobs of the future.
Computing lessons at St Peter’s are skilfully designed so as to not only give children a wide range of technological experiences but also teach them the key skills they need to explore in order to use new or unfamiliar technologies. Children will be taught the specifics of different programs, however, underpinning every lesson, is a focus on planning, designing, problem-solving and evaluating. These skills will therefore become second nature and easily transferrable throughout their time at St Peter’s to all new learning.
Our core aims are for children to become:
The overarching aim for Computing at St Peter’s is for children to develop the key skills involved and be able to transfer these to a range of technologies. Each set of lessons builds towards a final product that solves a problem and is linked with the ILP learning of that term.We want them to be excited and curious about new technology but also have the ability to use and explore it confidently to enhance their learning.
We draw from the National Curriculum whilst still ensuring that we personalise, adapt and enhance the computing curriculum. We use standards from the International Society for Technology in Education to create aspirational objectives for our children to reach by the time they leave Year 6. As well as this, our lessons are carefully differentiated for different abilities and taught with a clear skills focus. Using progression documents, we can ensure that children are making progress in these skills and technologies and ensure that their understanding deepens as they move through the school. Because there is always an end project linked to our ILP topics, children take ownership of their learning and are motivated to solve a problem or create something specific.
The computing curriculum is divided into three key areas:
Coding:Coding is the basis of teaching computing and each year group will do a coding unit at least twice a year. These units will vary from coding specific programmes such as Scratch and Hopscotch to coding robots to carry out specific tasks. Children will learn how to design their own codes and also troubleshoot any mistakes that they have made. Their skills will build throughout their time at St Peter’s so that they can set up automated steps independently and use what they know to help them tackle any new coding programmes they come across.
Work and Office:Using different office-based programmes is an essential skill for children to learn and these programmes will be used across different subjects, not just in computing lessons. As an Apple school, children will be introduced primarily to Pages, Keynote and Numbers and use these to help them create specific projects that serve a purpose. They will build up their skills as they move through the school and eventually be creating and editing more complex documents and using a range of the features offered by the programmes.
Digital design:Digital design will help children combine their art skills with their computing skills and give them the opportunity to be creative in a different way. Being able to design their own projects and use different programmes will enable children to create for a purpose and experience how people in the real world edit images and design web pages. They will become familiar with a range of digital tools and learn to refine their own prototypes to create the best possible end product.
Throughout the sequence of lessons, children will explore, analyse and understand how to use a computing programme and then use this knowledge to design something new of their own. They will build on the skills linked to the core aims and encourage the children to become effective digital learners.
Each set of lessons will include: