Computing

Miss H Drabwell – Computing Lead

At Hillfort, our aim is to prepare our students to be confident, effective and safe users and creators of technology. We feel it is essential that students become digitally literate to enable them to access the curriculum throughout their schooling, into future workplaces and as active participants in the developing digital world.

We focus on closing the digital divide and providing opportunities for all children to have access to modern information and communication technology. With this is mind, we deliver the three strands of the computing curriculum: information technology, digital literacy (including online safety) and computer science. These strands are revisited repeatedly through a range of themes during the children’s time in school to ensure the learning is embedded and skills are successfully developed.

We aim to make their learning memorable by providing practical and context-based computing lessons. 

As part of information technology, children learn to use, express themselves and develop their ideas through ICT. Programmes that we anticipate using over this coming academic year include Sway, Powerpoint, Book Creator, Popplet and Microsoft Word. Alongside this, they will be using multimedia such as Do Inc Green Screen and I Can Animate to create digital art and develop animations for video creation.

In computer science, we teach children to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including algorithms and applying these algorithms as code. Children will learn to analyse problems and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems. By the end of KS1, children will have learned how to input simple instructions to control a device (BeeBot) while learning how to fix bugs in their programming. By the end of KS2, children will have completed training through code.org to program code and confidently debug their programming. Furthermore, we aim to foster digital creativity with Micro Bits. Children will use code to turn abstract concepts into exciting experiences.

Within digital literacy, children develop practical skills in the safe use of technology and the skills to safely access the internet, networks and email. At Hillfort, we follow the themes set out by the ‘Education for a Connected World’ document, where the children will learn how to access online spaces safely and benefit from the opportunities that come with connecting with others and accessing a range of devices.

We want children to leave Hillfort equipped with the skills and knowledge to safely access technology and to become part of the global online learning community.

Long Term Planning

Curriculum Maps:

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6