Computing
At Christ the King we aspire to provide our pupils with the ability to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science. We believe that a high quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. We want our pupils to grow up to be responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
We believe that this can be best achieved by teaching computing knowledge explicitly and then once children are more competent weave all strands of computing throughout our broad and balanced curriculum and providing opportunities to apply, consolidate and practise their computing knowledge, skills and understanding.
The Aims of the Computing Curriculum
The national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:
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can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
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can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
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can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
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are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology
Our Curriculum
We follow the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) Teach Computing curriculum. This means that our curriculum coverage is consistent across year groups and key stages, whilst ensuring that disciplinary knowledge is built upon each year. The curriculum resources are updated regularly which ensures that our teaching in computing remains current and relevant to our pupils, in relation to how quickly the digital world evolves.
A short video on Teaching Computing Curriculum
The Computing curriculum is comprised of three strands:
- Computer Science
- Information Technology
- Digital Literacy. Together these strands come together to teach children how computers and computer systems work, how to design, build and analyse programs, and how to find and manage digital information securely.
This includes lessons in coding and debugging computer programs in order to understand how computers and their systems work; online research, including evaluating sources for credibility; word and data processing; opportunities for creative expression through the creation of videos, websites, and animations; and lessons in online safety and data protection.
In order to meet our computing objectives and include ambitious and engaging cross-curricular learning experiences, we are well resourced with many digital resources such as BeeBots, computers, tablets, digital cameras and microbits.