Intent

Our curriculum is designed to deepen knowledge and develop skills, ensuring effective progression within each aspect of Computing, across all year groups. Our Christian Values, alongside our School Mission Statement to ‘serve, love and learn together’, are at the heart of our curriculum and all that we do at St. Patrick’s.

How will we ensure that children know and remember digital skills?

• Enable pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and potentially change the world around them.
• Teach how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming.
• Teach concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms, and data representation.
• Equip pupils to use information technology to create a range of content.
• Develop digital literacy skills, enabling pupils to use and express themselves through information and communication technology.
• Grow a deep awareness and understanding of digital wellbeing and online safety, protecting themselves and others from dangers of the online world.
• Instil a sense of responsibility and duty to value and take care of their personal devices.
• Enable access to physical computing in each Key Stage.
• Teach the importance of technology in the future workplace and the role the children will play as active participants in a digital world.
• Draw connections between art and other subject areas, particularly mathematics, science and design & technology.

Implementation

In Computing, we implement an inclusive curriculum that meets the requirements of the National Curriculum. The Computing Curriculum has three strands: Computer Science, Digital Literacy and Information Technology, and children develop their knowledge and skills in these areas. They are taught the fundamental principles and concepts of e-safety, programming, multimedia, technology in our lives and data handling. We teach children to build upon their declarative and procedural knowledge within lessons.

It is vital that children develop research, investigational and many other cross-curricular skills during their studies. The computing curriculum is a fun, exciting and dynamic subject, where children learn to use a range of programs, thinking skills and a variety of equipment. We incorporate a rage of schemes, including Teach Computing and Espresso Coding, as well as utilising our Purple Mash subscription effectively within all lessons across the curriculum as well as using this to enhance home learning.

Our curriculum is delivered through dedicated weekly computing lessons in our computer suite and they are taught computing skills across other curriculum areas too.

Our Computing curriculum promotes children’s Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development, ensuring that they are reflective and responsible citizens. Fundamental British Values are actively promoted in Computing lessons in order to prepare the children for life in modern Britain.

Impact

Our Computing curriculum enables children to become both users and creators. Across all phases of the school, children understand algorithms and programming and how this all fits into our digital world through the use of Espresso Coding and Purple Mash programmes.

We pride ourselves on using technologies to prepare children for the ever–changing digital world we live in, whilst embedding the safe, respectful and responsible use of technology, recognising both acceptable and unacceptable online behaviour and identifying a range of ways to report concerns about content or contact.

Children are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.

Aims of Curriculum

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.

Key Stage 1

• understand what algorithms are; how they are implemented as programs on digital devices; and that programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions

• create and debug simple programs  use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs

• use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content

• recognise common uses of information technology beyond school

• use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private; identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.

Key Stage 2

• design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts

• use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output

• use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs

• understand computer networks including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the world wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration

• use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content

• select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information

• use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact.

Today in school, we have celebrated Safer Internet Day: raising awareness and sharing ideas for how to stay safe, happy and respectful online (both in school and while outside of school).

Safer Internet Day 2025

As this year’s theme is ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online’, we discussed a range of themes in every year group this week, including:

-question what you see

-don’t click on pop-ups

-if it seems too good to be true, it probably is

-what misinformation is