Intent

At Milking Bank Primary School, we want pupils to be masters of technology. 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 (especially social media) 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.

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, children have the independence and confidence to choose the best tool to fulfil the task and challenge set by teachers.

Implementation

At Milking Bank Primary, we feel the majority of computing should be embedded across the curriculum. Teachers have the freedom and flexibility to incorporate computing as isolated skills lessons as well as cross-curricular themed lessons. Teachers follow both the National Curriculum and Chris Quigley’s Milestones to ensure coverage and progression across the key stages. Each year group also completes E Safety modules and specialised Coding modules, Using the Purple Mash Computing Scheme for assistance.

Computing is an integral part of life at Milking Bank with children having access to personalised IT equipment in every lessons. This gives them the flexibility and choice with their learning as they have freedom about ways to present their work.

Through RM and school, children have access to a wide variety of programs and software which greatly support their cross-curricular learning.

We aim to prepare children as IT users for life and have excellent links with secondary specialist teachers who provide coding activities for our year 6 pupils.

E Safety is a high priority for all of us and we are very proud holders of the 360 E Safety award. We have an active E Safety squad of pupils and enjoy celebrating events like E Safety Day together.

Impact

We encourage our children to enjoy and value the curriculum we deliver. We will constantly ask the why behind their learning and not just the how. We want learners to discuss, reflect and appreciate the impact computing has on their learning, development and wellbeing.

Finding the right balance with technology is key to an effective education and a healthy life-style. We feel the way we implement computing helps children realise the need for the right balance and one they can continue to build on in their next stage of education and beyond. We encourage regular discussions between staff and pupils to best embed and understand this. The way pupils showcase, share, celebrate and publish their work will best show the impact of our curriculum.

We also look for evidence through reviewing pupil’s knowledge and skills digitally through tools like Google Drive and Purple Mash as well as observing learning regularly.

Progress of our computing curriculum is demonstrated through outcomes and the record of coverage in the process of achieving these outcomes.