Our Vision:

In line with the National Curriculum, we aim for our pupils to leave Northwood Primary School as safe and responsible users of technology who have the computational knowledge and skills to be succeed in the future. 

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Intent:

At Northwood, we provide a high-quality computing curriculum which will prepare children for their future.  By allowing children to have opportunities to gain knowledge, develop skills and use and understand vocabulary, children will become ready for an ever-changing digital world. Our computing curriculum at Northwood focuses on a progression of skills in computer science, information technology and digital literacy which will be revisited repeatedly to ensure the learning is embedded and skills are successfully developed over time.

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Implementation:

The implementation of Computing at Northwood Primary School is based on the National Curriculum and supported by our computing progression document which ensures a broad range of skills are consistently developed.

We believe that the teaching of computing is best approached through embedding it across the full curriculum. This ensures that children see a real-life purpose to their work and the link that computing does and will continue play throughout their lives. Despite this, there may be some instances where a discreet approach is more appropriate and specific skills are explicitly approached – particularly in relation to the computer science aspect of the curriculum. 

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The information technology strand of our computing curriculum ensures that children develop their skills in in word processing, data handling, presentation, animation, video creation, photography and digital art. Once children have learnt the key skills needed for their stage of learning, they will apply these to create their own form of media across a range of aspects of the curriculum. For example, if the children have learnt about the rise of the Roman Empire, they may decide to create a video explaining this. Similarly, if children have learnt a concept within maths, they may decide to create a poster outlining the steps to success needed to understand this mathematical concept.

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The computer science brance of the curriculum will involve more discreet lessons where the skills required will need directly teaching. However, by upper key stage 2, we aim for this to be embedded within a cross-curricular setting. Children will use a variety of devices to explore the world of computer science including micro:bit & Scratch coding.

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Our digital literacy strand is threaded through all areas of our curriculum and is delivered alongside other objectives. We want to ensure that our children have the knowledge and skills to be not only safe online but also are thoughtful and positive digital citizens. Because of this, we believe in constant discussion with pupils about their safety online, how their digital footprint can impact them throughout their life as well as physical and mental well-being. To support this, the digital literacy aspect of our curriculum is heavily supported by our PSHE curriculum. 

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Impact:

The impact our computing curriculum has is that our children enjoy and value the curriculum that we offer. Because we ask the children the ‘Why’ and not just ‘How’, our learners are able to discuss, reflect and appreciate the impact computing has on their learning, development, and well-being. Not only this, we believe that through the way we implement and impart out computing curriculum, children are readily prepared to build on their computing skills required in secondary school and beyond.

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Progression in Skills:

For more information on how our children's computing skills will progress throughout their time at Northwood Primary please follow the links below.