“Computer technology is so built into our lives that it’s part of the surround of every artist”

Steven Levy

“Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living.” Nicholas Negroponte

Intent 

At OCEPS, we believe that every child should have the right to a curriculum that champions excellence; supporting pupils in achieving to the very best of their abilities. We understand the immense value technology plays not only in supporting the Computing and whole school curriculum but overall in the day to day life of our school.  At Oldswinford CE Primary School, we hope to prepare our children for a future in an environment which is shaped by technology. Therefore, we want to model and educate our children on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want our pupils to understand that wit technology comes choices, as a school we want to model and support these positive choices and highlight the risks that may possibly come by making incorrect ones. The children are made aware of the need to digitally keep themselves safe, not only on computers but also on mobiles and gaming devices.

We believe that technology can provide: enhanced collaborative learning opportunities; better engagement of pupils; easier access to rich content; support conceptual understanding of new concepts and can support the needs of all our pupils.

Computing will equip pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, and provides insights into both natural and artificial systems. 

We encourage staff to try and embed computing across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible for all children. We want children to fell comfortable and confident with using and exploring these tools independently by the time they reach Upper Key Stage 2.

Computing curriculum

At OCEPs, our scheme of work for computing is the 'Teach Computing' curriculum and covers all aspects of the National Curriculum. This scheme was chosen as it has been created by subject experts, is based on the latest pedagogical research and is continually being updated. It provides an innovative progression framework where computing content (concepts, knowledge, skills and objectives) has been organised into interconnected networks called learning graphs. 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.

Computing is taught every week , either as a stand-alone lesson or embedded into the wider curriculum. This is dependent on the area of focus for that specific half term. Children have access to a range of hardware: laptops, Ipads, crumbles, micro bits, BeeBots, dataloggers and software that they need to develop their knowledge and skills.