Whitegate CE Primary School
Becoming Digital Citizens
The one who gets wisdom loves life;
the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper.
Proverbs 19:8
For we are God's workmanship, created in Jesus for good works...
Ephesians 2:10
Computing at Whitegate CE Primary School
At Whitegate CE Primary School we aim to provide our pupils with a high-quality computing education which equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, and provides insights into both natural and artificial systems. 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.
At Whitegate we split The Primary National Curriculum for Computing into 3 main content areas or ‘pillars’ of progression:
- Digital Literacy encompasses the skills and knowledge required to be an effective, safe and discerning user of a range of computer systems. It covers a range of knowledge and skills, such as using physical devices, knowledge of the features that are likely to mean digital content is reliable and how to stay safe online.
- Information Technology provides a context for the use of computers in society. It focuses on how computers are used in different sectors and describes the methods used to create digital artefacts such as presentations, spreadsheets, word documents and videos.
- Computer Science covers knowledge of computers and computation, how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through the use of programming and algorithms. Computer Science is seen as the core of computing and underpins the whole of the subject. It provides the foundational knowledge required to understand and interpret the other areas of the computing curriculum. For this reason, we ensure that our computing curriculum is rich in computer science knowledge.
At Whitegate, we link our Computing lessons to our wider school curriculum wherever possible. We recognise that pupils make progress in computing by knowing and remembering more about and, importantly, across each of these categories and being able to apply this knowledge. We have designed our curriculum to reflect the understanding that knowledge from each of these pillars complements the others.
There are two types of knowledge that we identify, sequence and connect across our Computing curriculum:
- Declarative knowledge: also known as conceptual knowledge; consists of facts, rules and principles and relationships between them. It can be described as ‘knowing that’.
- Procedural knowledge: knowledge of methods or processes that can be performed. It can be described as ‘knowing how’.
The aims of teaching computing in our school are 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 technology
Websites we recommend to explore:
https://www.computingatschool.org.uk/homelearning
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/young-people/resources-3-11s
https://www.barefootcomputing.org/homelearning
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zft3d2p
https://hourofcode.com/uk/learn
If you have any questions about our Computing curriculum, please contact Mr Thomas
(subject lead) via the school office.
Thank you
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Curriculum Coverage Our school delivers the Computing curriculum through topic areas and discrete lessons. We have a range of equipment to enable us to do this: programmable toys such as Beebots, interactive whiteboards, laptops and iPads. In Foundation Stage, children recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools. They select and use technology for particular purposes. |
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Key Stage One Maple Beech |
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Key Stage Two Cedar |
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