Develop competence in coding for a range of practical and imagined purposes and link this into other curriculum areas.
Use technology safely and respectfully to interact with others; understand the need to act within the law, maintaining moral and ethical integrity.
Develop an understanding of the connectedness of devices.
Foster the ability to communicate ideas effectively through the use of devices and applications across the curriculum.
Broaden the capability to collect, organise, manipulate and analyse digital resources effectively.
To prepare our children for their Computing journey in Key Stages 3 & 4.
The Teach Computing Curriculum has been written to support all pupils. Each lesson is sequenced so that it builds on the learning from the previous lesson, and where appropriate, activities are scaffolded so that all pupils can succeed and thrive. Scaffolded activities provide pupils with extra resources, such as visual prompts, to reach the same learning goals as the rest of the class. Exploratory tasks foster a deeper understanding of a concept, encouraging pupils to apply their learning in different contexts and make connections with other learning experiences.
The Teach Computing Curriculum is structured in units. The units for key stages 1 and 2 are based on a spiral curriculum. This means that each of the themes is revisited regularly (at least once in each year group), and pupils revisit each theme through a new unit that consolidates and builds on prior learning within that theme. This style of curriculum design reduces the amount of knowledge lost through forgetting, as topics are revisited yearly. It also ensures that connections are made even if different teachers are teaching the units within a theme in consecutive years.
The Teach Computing Curriculum uses the National Centre for Computing Education’s computing taxonomy to ensure comprehensive coverage of the subject. All learning outcomes can be described through a high-level taxonomy of ten strands, ordered alphabetically as follows:
Lower School
In the autumn term, Years 1, 2 and 3 start with investigating computer systems and networks. Year 1 focus on recognising technology in school and using it responsibly. Year 2 identify IT and how its responsible use improves our world in school and beyond. Year 3 look more in the connectedness of digital devices, identifying and understanding that digital devices have inputs, processes, and outputs, and how devices can be connected to make networks. After half term, the focus shifts to media creation. Year 1 work on digital painting, choosing appropriate tools in a program to create art, and making comparisons with working non-digitally. Year 2 learn about digital photography, capturing and changing digital photographs for different purposes. Year 3 look at stop-frame-animation, capturing and editing digital still images to produce a stop-frame animation that tells a story.
The spring term sees Year 1 programming a moving robot, writing short algorithms and programs for floor robots, and predicting program outcomes. Year 2 are busy with programming robot algorithms, creating and debugging programs, and using logical reasoning to make predictions. Year 3 are engaged with creating sequences in a block-based programming language to make music. After the half term break, the emphasis is on data and information. Year 1 are busy grouping data by exploring object labels, then using them to sort and group objects by properties. Year 2 find themselves busy with pictograms, collecting data in tally charts and using attributes to organise and present data on a computer. Year 3 are investigating branching databases through building and using branching databases to group objects using yes/no questions.
In the summer term, Years 1, 2 and 3 return to media creation. Year 1 learn about digital writing, using a computer to create and format text, before comparing to writing created non-digitally. Year 2 enjoy the process of making music, using a computer as a tool to explore rhythms and melodies, before creating a musical composition. Year 3 learn about desktop publishing, creating documents by modifying text, images, and page layouts for a specified purpose. The final half-term sees us returning to programming. Year 1 learn about programming animations, designing and programming the movement of a character on screen to tell stories. Year 2 find out about programming quizzes, designing algorithms and programs that use events to trigger sequences of code to make an interactive quiz. Year 3 learn how to create events and actions in programs, writing algorithms and programs that use a range of events to trigger sequences of actions.
Upper School
The computing curriculum is designed so that there is a coherent progression of skills and knowledge throughout. Upper School builds upon the children’s prior learning during their time in Lower School.
In the autumn term, Years 4, 5 and 6 begin with learning about computer systems and networks. Year 4 learn about the internet, recognising the internet as a network of networks including the WWW, and why we should evaluate online content. Year 5 find out about sharing information, identifying and exploring how information is shared between digital systems. Year 6 look in detail at internet communication, recognising how the WWW can be used to communicate and be searched to find information. After half term, the emphasis is on media creation. Year 4 work on audio editing, capturing and editing audio to produce a podcast, ensuring that copyright is considered. Year 5 learn about video editing, planning, capturing, and editing video to produce a short film. Year 6 find out about webpage creation, designing and creating webpages, giving consideration to copyright, aesthetics, and navigation.
During the spring term, Year 4 learn about repetition in shapes, using a text-based programming language to explore count-controlled loops when drawing shapes. Year 5 find out about Selection in physical computing, exploring conditions and selection using a programmable microcontroller. Year 6 are busy learning about variables in games, exploring variables when designing and coding a game. After half term, Year 4 are involved with data logging, recognising how and why data is collected over time, before using data loggers to carry out an investigation. Year 5 are learning about flat-file databases, using a database to order data and create charts to answer questions. Year 6 are having an introduction to spreadsheets, answering questions by using spreadsheets to organise and calculate data.
The summer term has Upper School returning to media creation, with Year 4 busy photo editing, manipulating digital images, and reflecting on the impact of changes and whether the required purpose is fulfilled. Year 5 are learning about vector drawing, creating images in a drawing program by using layers and groups of objects. Year 6 will be learning about 3D modelling, planning, developing, and evaluating 3D computer models of physical objects. In the final half term, there’s a return to programming, with Year 4 learning about repetition in games by using a block-based programming language to explore count-controlled and infinite loops when creating a game. Year 5 develop their programming skills through selection in quizzes by exploring selection in programming to design and code an interactive quiz. Year 6 finish their time at Carnarvon finding out about sensing, designing and coding a project that captures inputs from a physical device.
The diagram below illustrates the progression in our Computing Curriculum and how it is linked to the Key Stage 3 Computing curriculum and beyond:
By the end of KS2, children will have developed the knowledge, skills and understanding to help them access and use a range of technology in a safe and creative way. Children will have developed skills that equip them to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Children’s skills will have progressed to enable them to not only have met the requirements of the National Curriculum, but to also enjoy using technology to develop knowledge and ideas, as well as express themselves safely and creatively as responsible citizens. As a school, we continually seek out ways to improve our teaching of computing by taking part in and using research.