Intent
Our approach to Computing at Westonzoyland intends to prepare children for the digital age that they live in and that of the future. Our commitment is to provide an enriching educational experience for our students, in both stand-alone lessons and as a tool within other curriculum areas.
Our teachers bring enthusiasm, creativity, and a structured approach to cultivate the fundamental computational skills, promote problem-solving abilities, and nurture a genuine interest in technology. Through a variety of teaching methods, we aim to demystify computing concepts and ensure our students get develop essential digital literacy skills which will serve them well in the future.
We are dedicated to ensuring that our students are well-prepared to navigate the challenges of the online world and equipped with the skills to effectively address any unpleasant situations they may encounter. We prioritise cultivating a safe and supportive digital environment where our children not only develop a strong understanding of online dynamics but also gain the confidence to tackle and resolve issues they may face in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Implementation
Our Kapow Computing Curriculum fulfils the statutory requirements for computing outlined in the National curriculum (2014) and, when used in conjunction with our Wider World Curriculum, also covers the government’s Education for a Connected World -2020 edition framework. The scheme of work is split into five key areas of learning: Computing systems and networks, programming, creating media, data handling, and online safety. Each year group covers each of these areas, making it clear to see prior and future learning. They also get the opportunity to show off their skills in ‘showcase’ units which are used for assessment.
Computing systems and networks covers identifying hardware and using software, while exploring how computers communicate and connect to one another. Programming covers 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 covers learning how to use various devices — record, capture and edit content such as videos, music, pictures and photographs. Data handling covers ensuring that information is collected, recorded, stored, presented and analysed in a manner that is useful and can help to solve problems. Online safety covers, alongside our Wider World Curriculum, 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.
Timetabling of Computing is flexible, adapted to suit the needs of the class and the unit of work. For areas such as programming, we have found blocking the lessons to be more beneficial to the children as they can build on the skills from the previous day without having time to forget. For areas such as digital literacy, allowing the skills to build up over time during weekly sessions allows them to become more embedded.
Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as unplugged and digital activities. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles. Differentiation is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required.
At Westonzoyland, the children have access to iPads, Chromebooks and Windows laptops. This exposes them to a variety of operating systems and allows children to become more adaptable with their technical skills. Each class in KS1 and KS2 has a charging station with 10 devices in their room. This allows the integration of technology within other subjects, such as word processing a piece of written work in English, or rehearsing times tables on Times Table Rock Stars in maths. For computing lessons, children should be working on individual laptops for the majority of the time. This allows children to make their own choices, and their own mistakes to develop their own understanding. Occasionally, paired or group work will happen, just as with other subjects.
Alongside these devices, we are also well equipped with programmable toys and physical computers. For the younger children (although not solely) we have Codepillars and Beebots. For the older children there are Lego WeDo sets and Crumble Boards. These allow the children to understand algorithms in a practical way and how physical systems can be controlled by computers.
Children are encouraged to save their own work onto our server so that it can be accessed by staff for assessment and monitoring purposes. Work may also be printed out and put into books, where it is cross-curricular. Annotations from the children/ teachers to show processes, debugging, or careful thought, can be used to show the children’s understanding. Teacher assessment from within the lesson is invaluable as so often the finished product does not show the process the student went through.
Each year, a group of Year 6 students apply and are picked to be ‘Digital Leaders’. These children have a range of responsibilities throughout the school: from helping younger children in their computing lessons, to ensuring all devices are stored away securely and are charging properly, to running assemblies about the correct use of computers. The Digital Leaders receive a badge and have regular meetings with the Computing lead about the direction of the subject.
We aim to enhance the children’s experience of technology and computing by providing a range of experiences, such as 3D printers for a computing/DT unit of work and digital bird feeders for forest school. We have a computing club afterschool which has been run by members of staff and has now been taken over by our Digital Leaders.
Impact
Clear learning objectives, taken from the Kapow curriculum, are used for each session. Teachers are able to have a clear measure to assess against, recognising whether an individual has met those objectives, exceeded them, or need further development.
As mentioned in the implementation section: Children are encouraged to save their own work onto our server so that it can be accessed by staff for assessment and monitoring purposes. Work may also be printed out and put into books, where it is cross-curricular. Annotations from the children/ teachers to show processes, debugging, or careful thought, can be used to show the children’s understanding. Teacher assessment from within the lesson is invaluable as so often the finished product does not show the process the student went through.
The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Computing scheme of work is that children will: