Intent

Computing at Henbury View First School intends to develop ‘thinkers of the future’ through a modern, ambitious and relevant education in computing. We want to equip pupils to use computational thinking and creativity that will enable them to become active participants in the digital world. It is important to us that the children understand how to use the ever-changing technology to express themselves, as tools for learning and as a means to drive their generation forward into the future. 

Whilst ensuring they understand the advantages and disadvantages associated with online experiences, we want children to develop as respectful, responsible and confident users of technology, aware of measures that can be taken to keep themselves and others safe online. Our aim is to provide a computing curriculum that is designed to balance acquiring a broad and deep knowledge alongside opportunities to apply skills in various digital contexts. Beyond teaching computing discreetly, we will give pupils the opportunity to apply and develop what they have learnt across wider learning in the curriculum. Through our curriculum, we intent for pupils not only to be digitally competent and have a range of transferable skills at a suitable level for the future workplace, but also to be responsible online citizens.

Implementation

To ensure our curriculum covers the national curriculum, it is designed into 3 strands: computer science, information technology and digital literacy. Our curriculum is organised into 5 key areas, creating a cyclical route through which pupils can develop their computing knowledge and skills by revisiting and building on previous learning: computer systems and networks, programming, creating media, data handling and online safety.

The implementation of our curriculum ensures a broad and balanced coverage of the national curriculum requirements, with suitable opportunities built in to learn and apply transferable skills. Where meaningful, units have been created to have cross-curricular links to enable the development if further transferable skills. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as unplugged and digital activities. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with varied learning styles. Differentiated guidance is used by teachers to ensure lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are carefully planned for. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.

Key Threads

At Henbury View, we have key threads that run through and across year groups. These will continually be revisited and explored across the academic journey of a child at Henbury. Each thread is underpinned by key vocabulary and knowledge that will be explicitly taught in Computing sessions. The key threads are:

Follow the link to see our E-Safety curriculum and strategy