Intent

At Holbrook, our commitment to embracing technology resonates deeply with our school's overarching vision of embracing life in all its fullness, as inspired by John 10:10. We understand that technology is an integral part of our students' lives, and we recognise its pivotal role in shaping their experiences. We model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want our pupils to be creators rather than passive consumers and our broad 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. Building our knowledge in this subject will allow pupils to effectively demonstrate their learning through creative use of technology. 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 as well as achieve all of the outcomes outlined in the National Curriculum. We encourage staff to 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 hope 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 and feel prepared for KS3.

We recognise too the challenges and risks that children face when they navigate the online world. Through carefully designed e-safety lessons, Holbrook pupils not only learn about the importance of protecting themselves and respecting others in an online world, but are also taught to think about their own well-being by thinking about issues such as ‘screen-time’ and the challenges to self-esteem that can come with linking to others online.  We link with external partners including the local ‘Digital PCSO’ team to run e-safety workshops for parents and children. Yearly workshops for parents and carers provide families with important guidance on how to guide and protect children when using games, websites and online forms of communication.

In essence, our computing curriculum, seamlessly interwoven with our school's vision of embracing life to the fullest, embodies our dedication to shaping our students into confident, responsible, and creative navigators of the digital age.

Implementation

Our curriculum approach is carefully designed so that learning in the Early Years is built upon in Key Stage 1 and then again in Key Stage 2, so no matter the cycle, there are always clear links to earlier and future learning. You can see an example of how we make links below:

Computing follows the same pattern of cycles as other subjects, however, each year each class covers  online safety. For these areas, children are taught knowledge and skills specific to their year group. Use of the learning platform purple mash supports this. In other areas of the computing curriculum, the units are planned on cycles, with a clear progression plotted from EYFS to KS1 to KS2 so that no matter the cycle, children's learning is progressive. We use the Teach Computing curriculum.

Here is our long term plan for computing, showing the order of our computer units, vocabulary and key 'red letter learning':