Computing at St Andrew’s CE Primary School
At St Andrew’s CE Primary School we propose to:
- Assist pupils in understanding how computers and computer systems work
- Develop and build our own programs
- Develop ideas using technology
- Help pupils to create a range of digital content
- Teach pupils how to be safe online
- Encourage the use of imagination and creativity
- Provide enrichment opportunities to motivate and broaden horizons in STEM careers
At our school we want pupils to be MASTERS of technology and not slaves to it. Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in students’ 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 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 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.
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. At our school, many of our children have access to devices at home and regular access to the Internet. Our decisions about what and how we teach computing are rooted in the specific needs of our children. We are aware that some of our children often start nursery with a frequent use of tablet type devices. Due to these reasons, in our nursery setting, we choose to give them access to a much larger range of devices such musical devices, remote control toys and also a selection of role play toys with buttons. This broadens their skills and extends their technology experiences further. 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 hope by Upper Key Stage 2 and as they move to secondary school, children have the independence and confidence to choose the best tool to fulfil the task and challenge set by teachers.