Computing

Computing at West Wycombe School

Intent

At West Wycombe School, we encourage the use of technology as a means of supplementing and enhancing the learning and teaching experience. The children are presented with a wide range of opportunities and experiences to ensure they can successfully utilise their technological skills and knowledge in a variety of contexts. At West Wycombe School, the safety of the children is our priority. Online safety forms an ever increasing part of this.

We use Kapow to support our planning and teaching of Computing. Kapow Primary’s Computing scheme aims to instil a sense of enjoyment around using technology and to develop pupil’s appreciation of its capabilities and the opportunities technology offers to, create, manage, organise, and collaborate.

Tinkering’ with software and programs forms a part of the ethos of the scheme as we want to develop pupils’ confidence when encountering new technology, which is a vital skill in the ever evolving and changing landscape of technology. Through our curriculum, we intend for pupils not only to be digitally competent and have a range of transferable skills at a suitable level for the future workplace, but also to be responsible online citizens.

Implementation

Our students will experience well-designed practical activities in the technologies. We offer our students opportunities to develop:

• Curiosity and problem-solving skills, a capacity to work with others and take initiative
• Planning and organisational skills in a range of contexts
• Creativity and innovation, for example though computing and computer aided design and manufacturing approaches
• Skills in using tools, equipment, software and materials
• Skills in collaborating, leading and interacting with others
• Critical thinking through exploration and discovery within a range of learning contexts
• Discussion and debate
• Searching and retrieving information to inform thinking within diverse learning contexts
• Making connections between specialist skills developed within learning and skills for work
• Evaluating products, systems and services
• Presentation skills

Impact

To truly understand the impact of our Computing curriculum, you have to come and see us!

The implementation of this curriculum ensures that when children leave our school, they are competent and safe users of Computing with an understanding of how technology works. They will have developed skills to express themselves and be creative in using digital media and be equipped to apply their skills in Computing to different challenges going forward.

Our approach to the curriculum results in a fun, engaging, and high-quality computing education. Formative assessment is used to feed into teachers’ future planning; teachers are able to revisit misconceptions and knowledge gaps in computing when teaching other curriculum areas. This supports varied paces of learning and ensures all pupils make good progress.

Our children are passionate Coders, and thrive on using coding software to program for different purposes. Much of the subject-specific knowledge developed in our computing lessons equip pupils with experiences which will benefit them in secondary school, further education and future workplaces. From research methods, use of presentation and creative tools and critical thinking, computing at West Wycombe School gives children the building blocks that enable them to pursue a wide range of interests and vocations in the next stage of their lives.

Pupil Voice:

Year 1: 'We can paint and draw using the computers!'

Year 2: 'We have learned to write letters using Word and type using the keyboard- we are practising every week'

Year 3/ 4: 'We love to code! We are now able to code complicated programming and make games like Pong and Mario Kart'

Year 5: 'We can use PowerPoint to present to our class- it really helped me with my presentation'

Year 6: 'We are confident using all the Office applications. We recently used Excel to plan a trip and budget using formulas. It was really interesting!'

Our children leave West Wycombe School more knowledgeable about the technology around them. They leave ready to develop technology to enhance and improve the world around us.

Page last updated: 20/11/23