Curriculum: Computing
The Intent of our Computing Curriculum
With the great speed at which technology evolves and becomes more and more accessible, it is imperative that all children, parents/carers, staff and governors at The Willows understand the benefits and dangers of using these devices. As the use of technology is an integral part of teaching and learning, we view the teaching of online safety as a fundamental part of our curriculum. At every opportunity, online safety is taught and discussed with our children where appropriate to everyday use, as well as having a specific focus on relevant areas of online safety, for example, where there are issues identified involving our children, in the media, on Safer Internet Day and where there are concerns over common recurring issues.
We aim to support the education and implementation of online safety with our parents/carers through providing links to relevant websites accessed through our school website; a weekly section of online advice sent to both children and parents/carers via our app; the Online Safety Policy available on our website; and asking children and parents/carers to read and sign relevant information in our Acceptable Use Policy, reviewed annually.
The statutory curriculum expects pupils to learn how to locate, retrieve and exchange information using technology and our curriculum makes use of this with web-based resources and e‑mail. Access to life-long learning and employment increasingly requires computer and communications use so our children are taught how to develop these skills efficiently. Access to the internet is a necessary tool for staff and pupils and we ensure that everyone is protected in their use of technology through encouraging and modeling appropriate use, for example, during staff meetings or lessons, being supervised and having appropriate restrictions and filters in place.
Knowledge of what to do when problems occur is also a priority for our school and this is delivered effectively through staff meetings and instilling sound knowledge in all our children during lessons.
Computing and the related technologies such as e‐mail, the internet and mobile devices are an integral part of our daily life in school and we therefore strive to give pupils and staff the opportunities to:
- Access world-wide educational resources.
- Participate in new initiatives.
- Gather information and have cultural exchanges between appropriate staff and pupils in other schools.
- Participate in staff discussions with experts in many fields.
- Provide access to educational materials and good curriculum practice.
- Communicate with the advisory and support services, professional associations and colleagues.
- Have access to and become skilled in the use of emerging technologies.
- Carry out all of the above safely and responsibly.
The Implementation of our Computing Curriculum
In EYFS, there are many opportunities for young children to use technology to solve problems and produce creative outcomes. In particular, many areas of the framework provide opportunities for pupils to develop their ability to use computational thinking effectively, such as through undertaking projects involving the concepts and approaches. Computing lessons in the EYFS also ensure that children develop listening skills, problem-solving abilities and thoughtful questioning as well as improving subject skills across the seven areas of learning. We live in a technological world and there is no escape from the reality that technology is integrated into the lives of young children. Just as we ensure that our children are ready for the adult world by teaching them maths and literacy, we also make sure that they are fluent in computer literacy and all-important online safety.
Key stage 1 and 2 children have access to laptops and iPads and develop their computing skills using both types. They explore the benefits of different types of devices and are able to use them interchangeably. iPads are taken out into Church grounds and on school trips to ensure that technology is integrated into other areas of the curriculum. They are also used in the classroom in subjects where there are strong links to support learning and production of work, such as formatting skills when creating newspapers in English.
Other types of technology, such as Beebots and Probots, are used where appropriate to the curriculum.
Online safety is well-integrated into the children’s learning. Discussions arise during lessons where it is appropriate for the learning, such as password safety, Creative Commons licences and inappropriate pop-ups. Weekly ‘mini’ lessons are delivered each week focusing on a particular aspect of online safety. Parents are sent weekly information appropriate to their use of technology that relates to the learning experienced by the children to enable families to engage in learning together. The link for the annual Digital Parenting magazine is sent home every year which provides detailed advice and guidance for parents and staff.
The Impact of our Computing Curriculum
We hope to see our children’s confidence continue to grow when using technology, particularly with device capability and demonstrating how to stay safe in today’s world. We want them to see how technology can benefit working, life and free time without becoming something that is unnecessarily relied upon.
We measure the impact of our curriculum using the following methods:
· Summative assessment of pupil discussions around their learning.
· Images of the children’s practical learning.
· Children’s work saved onto their individual accounts.
· Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
· Annual reporting to parents of standards across the curriculum.
Take a look at the Gallery below to see what our children have been getting up to…
Knowledge Organisers
At The Willows we use Knowledge Organisers to help our children, and staff, ensure the key objectives are covered.
Year 1 Computing Knowledge Organisers
Programming animations
Year 2 Computing Knowledge Organisers
Year 3 Computing Knowledge Organisers
Year 4 Computing Knowledge Organisers
Year 5 Computing Knowledge Organisers
Year 6 Computing Knowledge Organisers
Communication and collaboration
Useful Documents
Curriculum Map
Progression Document
Computing Policy
Year 5 Computing CAD Robots
Year 5 worked incredibly hard in Computing to get their heads around using three dimensions on a flat screen. We explored many skills such as push-pull, follow me and orbit to create some fantastic details on our 3D robots. Some of them are worthy of a place in the...
Year 3 – Safer Internet Day!
Year 3 have had lots of discussions around Safer Internet Day this week. We completed lots of tasks, challenges and discussions on varying themes relating to how to stay safe online and using technology responsibly. The children enjoyed working together to try to...
Year 5 Safer Internet Day
Year 5 worked extremely hard on Safer Internet Day to try and understand scams. They explored ways to spot scams, created strong passwords, identified examples of phishing, created videos to help others stay safe and interrogated a website that many of them recognised...
Safer Internet Day 2025
Some of our wonderful Year 5 children delivered an informative assembly about scams, the focus of this year’s Safer Internet Day. Then, the whole school did lots of work around recognising scams and staying safe online.
Year 5 Computing Christmas Gifs
Year 5 have created some Christmas gifs (graphic interface format) by using layers within a paint program to build up the elements of the images. We then used a gif maker to run the images as an animation. Click on each one to view it. Happy Christmas from Year 5!
Year 5 Computing Videos
Year 5 had great fun creating their own videos. We learnt all about the different types of filming techniques used by the professionals (pan, zoom, long shot, close-up...), created our own storyboard then filmed, edited and published them. We hope you enjoy them and...