COMPUTING
At St. Joseph’s children will be taught, appropriate to their ability, a high-quality computing education which will enable children to learn the three strands of the computing curriculum:
- computer science (programming and understanding how digital systems work)
- information technology (using computer systems to store, retrieve and send information)
- digital literacy (evaluating digital content and using technology safely and respectfully).
Children will be taught through a weekly one hour computing lesson. Teachers use the ‘Switched On: Computing’ scheme, published by Rising Stars, as a starting point for the planning of their computing lessons, which are often richly linked to engaging contexts in other subjects and topics. E-safety is a vital area of the computing curriculum and additional lesson time is afforded to this area every half term during a living together session.
Aims
Our aims for Computing are to enable children to:
- become responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology
- understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
- analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
- evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems.
Digital Leaders
At St Josephs we have a team of digital leaders who are responsible for supporting teachers and pupils with technology. Each year new digital leaders are appointed with children from each KS2 class given the opportunity to apply for the role. The applications are reviewed by the current Digital Leaders and the computing subject lead. If a pupil shows good technology skills AND is performing well in class, they may be selected as one of the children to join the team.
Digital Leaders have many responsibilities. They are given the job such as assisting teachers and pupils in class, filming/photographing school events and creating digital content for the school. The digital leaders also lead a whole school assembly on Safer Internet Day and share key messages on e-safety.
Useful Links
National Curriculum for Computing
