Computing
Curriculum Leader: Jeannette Fuller
Mrs Fuller is our Computing Leader and is responsible for this curriculum area. This means ensuring we teach an ambitious curriculum, supporting our teachers to implement our curriculum through high-quality lessons and checking that lessons are helping our children to know more, remember more and do more.
Purpose of study
As part of the 2014 National Curriculum in England, the school follows the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) computing curriculum. This ensures that our pupils are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in the digital world. Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, and provides insights into both natural and artificial systems. The core of computing is computer science, in which pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.
Aims
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 technolog
Our Computing projects
Year 1 Autumn
Technology around us
Children will be taught to recognise technology in school and how to use it responsibly.
Year 1 Autumn
Digital Painting
Children will be taught to choose an appropriate tool in a program to create art, and make comparisons with working non-digitally.
Year 1 Spring
Digital Writing
Children will be taught to use a computer to create and format text, before comparing to writing non-digitally.
Year 1 Spring
Grouping Data
Children will be taught to explore object labels, then using them to sort and group objects by properties.
Year 1 Summer
Moving a Robot
Children will be taught to write short algorithms and programs for floor robots, and predicting program outcomes.
Year 1 Summer
Programming Animations
Children will be taught to design and program the movement of a character on screen to tell stories.
Year 2 Autumn
Information Technology Around Us
Children will be taught to identify IT and how it is responsible use improves our world in school and beyond.
Year 2 Autumn
Digital Photography
Children will be taught to capture and change digital photographs for different purposes.
Year 2 Spring
Making Music
Children will be taught to use a computer as a tool to explore rhythms and melodies, before creating a musical composition.
Year 2 Spring
Pictograms
Children will be taught to collect data in tally charts and use attributes to organise and present data on a computer.
Year 2 Summer
Robot Algorithms
Children will be taught to create and debug programs, and use logical reasoning to make predictions.
Year 2 Summer
Programming Quizzes
Children will be taught to design algorithms and programs that use events to trigger sequences of code to make an interactive quiz.
Year 3 Autumn
Connecting Computers
Children will be taught to identify that digital devices have inputs, processes and outputs. They will also be taught how devices can be connected to make networks.
Year 3 Autumn
Stop-Frame Animations
Children will be taught to capture and edit digital still images to produce a stop-frame animation that tells a story.
Year 3 Spring
Desktop Publishing
Children will be taught to create documents by modifying text, images, and page layouts for a specified purpose.
Year 3 Spring
Branching Databases
Children will be taught to build and use branching databases to group objects using yes/no questions.
Year 3 Summer
Sequencing Sounds
Children will be taught to create sequences in a block-based programming language to make music.
Year 3 Summer
Events and actions in programs
Children will be taught to write algorithms and programs that use a range of events to trigger sequences of actions.
Year 4 Autumn
The Internet
Children will be taught to recognise the internet as a network of networks including the WWW, and why we should evaluate our online content.
Year 4 Autumn
Audio Production
Children will be taught to capture and edit audio to produce a podcast, ensuring that copyright is considered.
Year 4 Spring
Photo Editing
Children will be taught to manipulate digital images, and reflect on the impact of changes and whether the required purpose is fulfilled.
Year 4 Spring
Data Logging
Children will be taught to recognise how and why data is collected over time, before using data loggers to carry out an investigation.
Year 4 Summer
Repetition in Shapes
Children will be taught using a text-based programming language to explore count-controlled loops when drawing shapes.
Year 4 Summer
Repetition in Games
Children will be taught using a block-based programming language to explore count-controlled and infinite loops when creating a game.
Year 5 Autumn
Systems and Searching
Children will be taught to recognise IT systems in the world and how some can enable searching on the internet.
Year 5 Autumn
Introduction to Vector Graphics
Children will be taught to create images in a drawing program by using layers and groups of objects.
Year 5 Spring
Video Production
Children will be taught to plan, capture and edit video content to produce a short film.
Year 5 Spring
Flat-File Databases
Children will be taught to use a database to order data and create charts to answer questions.
Year 5 Summer
Selection in Physical Computing
Children will be taught to explore conditions and selection using a programmable microcontroller.
Year 5 Summer
Selection in Quizzes
Children will be taught to explore selection in programming to design and code an interactive quiz.
Year 6 Autumn
Communication and Collaboration
Children will be taught to explore how data is transferred by working collaboratively online.
Year 6 Autumn
3D Modelling
Children will be taught to plan, develop and evaluate 3D computer models of physical objects.
Year 6 Spring
Web-Page Creation
Children will be taught to design and create webpages, giving consideration to copyright, aesthetics and navigation.
Year 6 Spring
Spreadsheets
Children will be taught to answer questions using spreadsheets to organise and calculate data.
Year 6 Summer
Variables in Gaming
Children will be taught to explore variables when designing and coding a game.
Year 6 Summer
Sensing Movement
Children will be taught to design and code a project that captures inputs from a physical device.