Computing
Intent
At St Margaret’s Anfield, we aim to provide our children with a secure understanding of a range of technology, delivered through a broad and balanced curriculum. We understand that technology will play a pivotal part in every child’s development and future prospects and therefore, we plan to equip our children with a firm foundation of stimulating experiences in technology that will allow our children to build on in the future.
Living in a society where the internet is so heavily used, it is imperative that we give our children a full and comprehensive understanding of how to stay safe online; highlighting the positive and negative uses of platforms such as social media and online gaming. In doing so, we remind our children that they have the choice to utilise these in a way that will enhance their learning.
We acknowledge that technology can allow children to share their learning in unique ways and aim to provide children with as many opportunities to do so as possible. Our staff understand the accessibility barriers that can be overcome for some of our children through the means of technology and strive towards ensuring that the curriculum is inclusive through the use of appropriate devices and software.
Google Classroom is a platform we use to encourage our children to become independent learners. At the end of KS2, we will produce learners that feel confident in accessing tasks set independently and submitting work in the desired format. This tool will be used in school and in some cases to provide children with a more comprehensive home learning experience.
Implementation
From Early Years to the end of KS2, our children will see how technology is prominent both in school and in the wider world. Our children will have the opportunity to explore and use: wireless tablets, Chromebooks, robotics, green screen technology and more. Through our progressive curriculum model, each piece of technology will be introduced as an aid to understanding the three strands of the Computing curriculum: Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy.
Keeping children safe online is embedded into our whole school life. Annually, we focus on E-Safety and run whole school projects that allow children to focus on age-specific issues. Through discussion, children will analyse what we can all do to protect ourselves from being exploited online. Our Digital Literacy strand correlates with our PSHE curriculum which consolidates children’s understanding of protecting their digital footprint.
Across the curriculum, cross-curricular links with Computing are made in a variety of ways. These include, but are not exclusive to: using programs such as PowerPoint and Slides to organise and present information, showing data through Excel or Sheet and recording and editing videos. These are just a handful of the ways that our children can make connections with the wider curriculum whilst also developing their Computing competency.
Every child will be provided with a unique QR code to access their Google account. As our children progress through the school, we encourage children with greater confidence and competency to move to a more advanced username and password format; preparing them for their progression to secondary education. These accounts enable children to access resources, instructions and tasks set by their teacher.
Impact
We encourage our children to not be afraid of technology; to explore and immerse themselves into new software and hardware that allows them to become resilient problem solvers. Our children will leave us as digitally literate learners with a thirst for success.
Giving our children lots of opportunities for open discussion, with a focus on choice making, moulds them into accountable young adults who have a better understanding of how their use of the internet today can either excel or hinder their prospects in the future.
Providing children with meaningful cross-curricular links affords our children more opportunities to explore Information Technology. They gain a more confident and complete understanding of a range of programmes and how to troubleshoot errors within a variety of software.
In providing our children access to Google Classroom, we believe that we are equipping our children for their high schools and subsequent futures where working online will undoubtedly be an expectation. We feel that it is imperative that our children are given the same opportunities as their peers in understanding and using an online, multi-purpose platform.
