Computing
Itchen Abbas is a rural village on the River Itchen about 4 miles north of Winchester. The school is Victorian and is believed to have been built in the 1800s. According to the 2011 census, Itchen Abbas has a higher education level than the average for England. The percentage of adults in higher paid, managerial and professional jobs is above average and this manifests into high expectations and ambition for children from their parents. Levels of deprivation are low in the area. Most people commute to their places of work although some families are still involved in farming.
Computing is at the heart of every modern household and therefore will be key to their journey through life. As Digital Natives, children at Itchen Abbas Primary School need to be able to use and express themselves, as well as develop their ideas through information and communication technology. We strive for pupils who are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content whilst instilling fundamental behaviours, which will allow children to keep themselves safe online.
The Computing curriculum has four key areas – Computer Science, Digital Literacy, Use of Technology and Safety. Each year children consolidate and build from previous learning to utilise common programmes such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel. There are many opportunities for children to work collaboratively, as well as individually, and it is through these opportunities that children will develop a range of skills such as teamwork, tolerance and resilience. Children at Itchen Abbas will have Computing lessons on laptops, MacBooks and iPads, as well as ‘unplugged’ lessons.
The teaching of the Computing curriculum at Itchen Abbas is highly practical which enables all children to be successful and make excellent progress. In Computing, we follow an adapted version of the Teach Computing Curriculum which was developed by the Rasberry Pi Foundation on behalf of the National Centre for Computing in Education (NCCE). (This curriculum has been created by subject experts using a range of current, research-informed pedagogical approaches; it also encompasses a range of concepts and skills that highlights the breadth and depth of the Computing curriculum.) Our curriculum is a spiral curriculum that ensures concepts and themes are revisited regularly (at least once in each year group) and, through each theme being revisited within a new unit, consolidates prior learning and ‘interrupts the forgetting’ through embedded retrieval practise.
The Teach Computing Curriculum at each key stage has a teacher guide and curriculum map to strengthen subject leaders confidence in the teaching of computing. The curriculum is built around an innovative progression framework where computing content has been organised into interconnected networks we call learning graphs. It is also created by subject experts, using the latest pedagogical research and teacher feedback. The overall aim is to equip pupils with a high-quality Computing education in order for them to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world.
We aim to ensure that by the time our children leave us they all:
- Can apply programming skills to new situations and plan solutions to problems that they encounter;
- Understand how computer networks connect our technology driven world;
- Are able to use the main features of commonly used software;
- Are able to use the internet and search engines to teach themselves how to use new features or unfamiliar technology;
- To select the right digital device for a given purpose e.g. a digital camera for taking photos and connect devices together to complete projects;
- Can log on and access operating system features e.g. using the file organisation to load a piece of work from our server/Google Classroom;
- Can use some common keyboard shortcuts;
- Understand and recognise dangers online and distinguish levels of risk in their own behaviour online;
- Know how to report inappropriate content or behaviour online.
