The computing curriculum at Monkston is designed to engage our pupils and promote an interest in all areas of computing:
A clearly sequenced and progressive curriculum ensures that pupils not only build the computing skills they need, but a sense of excitement and curiosity is also developed for the subject. We develop pupils’ computing knowledge, conceptual understanding of how computers and the internet work, ability to work logically to assess problems they can debug and solve independently and to speak confidently about computing. Pupils consider the importance and impact technology has on the world and the uses of computing now and in the future.
Throughout the computing curriculum, pupils’ understanding of British values and global issues are capitalised on. Values are explicitly linked to specific topics such as the negative impact of plagiarism in year 6, the importance of positive communication via social media and mobile devices from year 5, the environmental impact of internet cabling and mobile signal towers in year 4, the understanding of the reliability of search engine results from year 3 and the negative effects of excessive screen time on mental health from key stage 1 and reception.
The need for tolerance, individual liberty and mutual respect is evident through the teaching of online safety in each year group. Through the CEOP program (and other SMART and Childnet teaching resources), all pupils are encouraged to question and develop their understanding of their own personal safety when online, the importance of their digital footprint and the negative effects on mental health that cyber bullying can have.
Throughout the computing curriculum, we explore the different characteristics of learning and deepen the children’s understanding of being inquisitive, resilient, cooperative, creative, resourceful and reflective. Pupils’ inquisitive and creative nature is promoted through self-guided research and question answering when creating presentations and using digital literacy skills in a variety subjects across the curriculum and also through online safety. Being reflective and resilient is particularly evident when sequencing instructions and creating algorithms and then using the ability to debug programs until a successful outcome is reached. Concentration and resourcefulness is integral when tackling new and unfamiliar strands of computing, due to unknown and often challenging concepts – such as knowing what a computer is and how a network operates.