Computing 

Intent

At Adlington Primary School we want pupils to be MASTERS of technology. Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in children's 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 consumers; our broad and balanced 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. Regular lessons, assemblies and providing regular information to parents and careers, provide a platform - throughout school - to promote and model positive use of technology/social media.

At Adlington, 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 in the vision that 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

We follow the Purple Mash Scheme for staff to follow to best embed and cover every element of the computing curriculum.The knowledge/skills statements build year on year to deepen and challenge our learners. As a mixed year group school, units are aligned to ensure progressions are applied through the pupils learning journey.

Impact

At Adlington, we encourage our children to enjoy and value the curriculum we deliver. We will constantly ask the WHY behind their learning and not just the HOW. We want learners to discuss, reflect and appreciate the impact computing has on their learning, development and well being.

Finding the right balance with technology is key to an effective education and a healthy life-style. At Adlington, we feel the way we implement computing helps children realise the need for the right balance and one they can continue to build on in their next stage of education and beyond. We encourage regular discussions between staff and pupils to best embed and understand this. The way pupils showcase, share, celebrate and publish their work will best show the impact of our curriculum. We also look for evidence through reviewing pupil’s knowledge and skills digitally through tools on our Purple Mash platform, Seesaw and Showbie, also observing learning regularly.

Progress of our computing curriculum is demonstrated through outcomes and the record of coverage in the process of achieving these outcomes.