Computing
Our vision for computing at Pannal Primary School is to ensure that all learners have a secure foundation of the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the digitally rich environment in which they live. Our provision has its roots in Early Years and goes on to provide the national curriculum entitlement to all pupils in Key Stage One and Two.
Computing in Early Years
At Pannal, Computing starts in the Early Years with children introduced gently to some of the equipment that they will use in more depth further up the school. The EYFS staff are conscious that the children use a lot of technology outside of school, and that they must make the most of every opportunity in school to develop the Personal and Social skills that will support their learning as they move through school. Children are given the chance to use IT as part of the provision in the classroom. The children take part in both planned and spontaneous activities. For example, they may program floor robots to navigate the classroom, they may use a digital camera to take a photo of some of their work, or they may use the listening centre to listen to their favourite story digitally via a QR code.
Computing in Key Stage 1 and 2
As Pannal uses research to inform the decisions around curriculum design we have chosen to draw on The Teach Computing Curriculum written by the Raspberry Pi Foundation on behalf of the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) to ensure our delivery of the computing curriculum is both high quality and comprehensive. The curriculum is designed in line with strong pedagogy for learning as it is sequential and ensures pupils revisits themes regularly (at least once in each year group) consolidating and building on prior knowledge as pupils are taught new topics.
As our school is in an affluent area, many of our pupils have access to online devices at a young age, we therefore emphasise the key messages of using the internet safely beyond computing lessons. We achieve this through gamification (Google’s Internet Legends), issuing a monthly online safety newsletter to parents and e-safety assemblies throughout the year. Aspects of keeping safe online are also addressed throughout our PSHE curriculum.
The Teach Computing Curriculum is inclusive and ambitious. Appropriate activities are scaffolded, supporting all pupils to thrive and succeed in computing lessons. Exploratory tasks are used to encourage a deeper understanding of concepts whilst encouraging pupils to apply and make connections across their learning in different contexts.
As computing requires a large amount of subject knowledge and specific vocabulary, we have ensured teachers are professionally supported by providing high-quality, explanatory resources to aid them in delivering the curriculum to a high standard with confidence.
