Computing

At Ashby Hill Top 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 of digital content, whilst being proficient users of a wide range of technology, and our broad curriculum encompassing Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy reflects this. Our intention is that pupils leave Ashby Hill Top with the skills they will need to thrive in a fast-paced digital world.
 
Children are taught in mixed year classes, therefore, Computing is taught on a two-year rolling programme. We have chosen to specialise in Computer Science to give children the opportunity to grow and develop every year within this strand of Computing, as well as providing opportunities throughout each key stage to develop children’s skills within the strands of Information Technology and Digital Literacy.

​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 our pupils will be active participants in a digital world and that the best way to prevent misuse of technology and social media is through education. Online Safety is at the core of all of our teaching in Computing and is explicitly referred to, in context, as the Computing units are taught. We also follow the Rising Stars Online Safety scheme, starting each half term with an online safety lesson in every year group to ensure that children are fully equipped with the skills they need to embrace the digital world confidently and safely.
 
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 is 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 to embed computing across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible. Where appropriate, Computing units are linked to other curriculum areas to contextualise the learning, for example, in Year 1/2, children learn about Space travel and focus on Tim Peake.  The Computing unit ‘We are Astronauts’ links well with this learning.  In Year 5/6, the Computing unit ‘We are Architects’ provides a good link with their Design and Technology topic studying an architect.
 
We want our pupils to be fluent with a range of tools to best express their understanding and hope that 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. We believe that the rate of change in technology means that we are preparing children for jobs that do not yet exist, using technologies that have yet to be invented. Therefore, we encourage children to develop skills that are transferable between technologies and aim to equip pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world.