Intent

At our school we want pupils to be MASTERS of technology and not slaves to it. Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in our students' lives. Therefore, we want to model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want our pupils to be creators not just consumers and our broad curriculum encompassing computer science, information technology and digital literacy reflects this. We want our pupils to understand that there is always a choice with using technology and as a school we utilise technology (especially social media) to model positive use. We recognise that the best prevention for a lot of issues we currently see with technology/social media is through education. Building our knowledge in this subject will allow pupils to effectively demonstrate their learning through creative use of technology.
 
We recognise that technology can allow pupils to share their learning in creative ways. We also understand the accessibility opportunities technology can provide for our pupils. Our knowledge rich curriculum has to be balanced with the opportunity for pupils to apply their knowledge creatively which will in turn help our pupils become skilful computer scientists.
We encourage staff to try and embed computing across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible. We want our pupils to be fluent with a range of tools to best express their understanding and hope by Upper Key Stage 2, children have the independence and confidence to choose the best tool to fulfil the task and challenge set by teachers.

Implementation

Technology has become more and more embedded into the day to day lives of people all over the world with no sign of slowing down! We therefore feel it is important to ensure our children are given the chance to understand what technology is capable of and how to use it appropriately.

This starts by ensuring children of all ages understand how to stay safe when using technology, particularly when interacting online. Through roleplay and targeted sessions, children are taught how to safely use computers to complete a variety of tasks, while ensuring all private information remains private. We also make sure children know how to spot, report and manage potential dangers that they may encounter if using online services.

In their early school lives, children utilise technology primarily through interactive displays in the classrooms and other tactile resources like Beebots. They also begin to build keyboard skills through online resources like Dance Mat Typing. Moving up through the school, children are introduced to coding activities using the Espresso Learning platform and Scratch Coding to develop their ability to write algorithms and debug problems they encounter. Children will also have the opportunity to utilise search engines for gathering information that they can then publish using software such as Word or PowerPoint. This might take the form of newspapers, leaflets, published stories and more. In their final years at school children will then begin to look at written coding languages like HTML and Python. They will also use cameras, green screens and video editing software to produce short films that link through to other areas of the curriculum.

As with many subjects, these skills are utilised cross-curricularly in a variety of subjects as well as within a targeted lesson.

Impact

Children have a thorough understanding of the different forms of technology that are used in the world around them ranging from computers and interactive displays down to the phones they might carry and the microchips that power them.

Children feel confident to pick up and use technology, and know the various tools they can utilise to complete a given task. They know and understand guidelines and strategies to follow that will help them to stay safe, particularly when using online resources.

Children develop a healthy relationship with technology, helping them recognise how it can be beneficial in their lives, but do not become too reliant upon it in any given situation.

Regular discussions between staff and pupils are used to inform and support this.

Assessment is mainly formative and through outcome and discussion.  Where different applications are used to support learning, assessment tools embedded within these are used to inform teacher judgement. By the time they leave Woodcote Primary School, the majority of children will have reached the expected standard in Computing.