INTENT

At Staplecross MCP School we want pupils to learn how technology can support and help everyday life. Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in students' lives.  Therefore, we want to model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want our pupils to be creators not consumers and our broad curriculum encompassing computer science, information technology and digital literacy reflects this. We want our pupils to understand that there is always a choice with using technology and as a school we utilise technology to model positive use. We recognise that the best prevention for a lot of issues we currently see with technology/social media is through education. Building our knowledge in this subject will allow pupils to effectively demonstrate their learning through creative use of technology. We recognise that technology can allow pupils to share their learning in creative ways. We also understand the accessibility opportunities technology can provide for our pupils. Our knowledge rich curriculum has to be balanced with the opportunity for pupils to apply their knowledge creatively which will in turn help our pupils become skilful computer scientists. We encourage staff to try and embed computing across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible.

IMPLEMENTATION

We use the ‘Purple mash’ educational programme to best embed and cover every element of the computing curriculum. The knowledge/skills statements build year on year to deepen and challenge our learners.  Purple mash provides the children with access to the ever changing digital world whilst supporting all staff in teaching computing in every form.  The programme is split into year groups supporting exciting new topics through digital literacy, computer science and information technology.  We use topics which support their topic where possible and select year group items to match the ability of the children.  Purple mash provides the children with the confidence to access their own pages and work independently on the set tasks.  We continue to embed computing across the curriculum using skills and knowledge from the weekly discreet computing lessons. 

With online safety being the core unit taught at the beginning of every new year, we then continue to recap and revisit with the children as they work through the units.  Extra online computing lessons are inputted should any issues arise.

IMPACT

We encourage our children to explore and extend their curiosity with computing in each lesson.  Our children enjoy taking the key concepts of a lesson and displaying how they can further this often show casing within a lesson.  Purple mash allows the children to easily access their files and continue their learning outside of a discreet computing lesson.  Progress is demonstrated through finished pieces and can be marked and assessed sharing next steps with the children through the Purple mash platform.  Children get the chance to share and publish work on shared display boards to look at areas of success and offer areas to help further their work through peer support.  Support in lessons from an adult help children feel more confident to try things out. They are reflective and resilient to manage problems, de code and problem solve when working with technology.

Our children are confident with technology and understand that there needs to be a balance between use of technology and a healthy lifestyle.  They understand through both online safety strands, internet safety days and activities throughout the year how to be safe online and what to do when they need to ask or find help.

Computing formally known as ICT has been divided into 3 areas:

• Computer Science
• Information Technology
• Digital Literacy – this includes online safety.