Intent
At St Ethelbert’s, we understand the great importance that technology plays not only in supporting
the Computing and whole school curriculum, but overall, in the day-to-day life of our school. Our aims
are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Computing, whilst also providing
enhanced learning opportunities, engagement in rich content and supporting pupils’ conceptual
understanding of new concepts which support the needs of all our pupils.
Our aim is to provide a high-quality computing education which equips children to use computational
thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. The curriculum will teach children key
knowledge about how computers and computer systems work, and how they are designed and
programmed. Learners will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of computational systems
of all kinds, whether or not they include computers.
By the time they leave St Ethelbert’s School, children will have gained key knowledge and skills in the
five main areas of the computing curriculum: Computing systems and networks, Programming,
Creating Media, Data Handling and Online Safety. The objectives within each strand support the
development of learning across the key stages, ensuring a solid grounding for future learning and
beyond.
Implementation
At St Ethelbert’s, we believe that computing is an essential part of the curriculum; a subject that not
only stands alone in coding and computer science lessons but is woven into other areas of the
curriculum and, as a result, should be an integral part of all learning for our children. Children will be
at the forefront of new technology, inspired to discover and explore new interests and ideas.
Computing within our school can therefore provide a wealth of collaborative learning opportunities
and transferrable skills explicitly within the computing lesson and across other lessons too, especially
Mathematics, Science and Design Technology. This approach ensures our children become digitally
literate and are able to express themselves and develop their ideas through information and computer
technology – at a level suitable for the digital world and the potential future workplace.
Computing Systems and Networks: Identifying hardware and using software, while exploring how
computers communicate and connect to one another.
Programming: Understanding that a computer operates on algorithms, and learning how to write,
adapt and debug code to instruct a computer to perform set tasks.
Creating Media: Learning how to use various devices — record, capture and edit content such as
videos, music, pictures and photographs.
Data Handling: Ensuring that information is collected, recorded, stored, presented and analysed in a
manner that is useful and can help to solve problems.
Online Safety: Understanding the benefits and risks of being online — how to remain safe, keep
personal information secure and recognising when to seek help in difficult situations.
Impact
Our Computing Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression
and build on and embed current skills. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in the different
computational components and like other subjects, discreet vocabulary progression also forms part
of the units of work. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making
good or better progress. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
St Ethelbert’s Intent, Implementation and Impact - Computing
• Pupil discussions and interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Moderation staff meetings with opportunities for dialogue between teachers.
• Photo evidence and images of the pupils’ practical learning.
• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes.
• Learning walks and reflective staff feedback.
• Dedicated Computing leader time.