At St Mary’s, our computing curriculum is designed to equip pupils with the life skills needed to embrace and utilise new technologies in a socially responsible, safe, and meaningful way. We aim to prepare our children for the 21st-century workplace by making them aware of the wide range of career opportunities available through computing. We encourage pupils to become autonomous and confident users of technology, gaining enjoyment from their learning and developing independence. Technology is embedded across the wider curriculum to enhance learning and ensure accessibility for every child. Beyond digital literacy and technical competence, our computer science lessons foster creativity, resilience, and problem-solving through the development of computational thinking. We want our pupils to experience a broad and balanced computing education that helps them understand themselves as individuals within both their local and global communities—and to grow as responsible digital citizens.
Intent
· To provide a high-quality computing education that helps children understand the pivotal role technology plays in their lives and prepares them to thrive in an ever-evolving digital world.
· To deliver a broad and balanced computing curriculum that encompasses computer science, information technology, and digital literacy, supported by carefully sequenced learning through the Kapow and Teach Computing schemes of work.
· To ensure all pupils understand and can apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including logic, algorithms, and data representation.
· To enable pupils to analyse problems in computational terms and gain hands-on experience writing programs to solve them, using tools such as Bee-Bots, Scratch, and Python.
· To support children in evaluating and applying information technology critically and creatively to solve real-world problems.
· To develop confident, competent, and responsible users of technology who understand how to use digital tools positively, safely, and respectfully.
· To embed computing across the wider curriculum, making learning more engaging, inclusive, and accessible to all pupils.
Implementation
At St Mary’s, computing is taught using a blocked curriculum approach. This ensures children are able to develop depth in their knowledge and skills over the duration of each of their computing topics. Teachers use the ‘Kapow’ and ‘Teach Computing’ schemes, as a starting point for the planning of their computing lessons, which are often richly linked to engaging contexts in other subjects and topics. Knowledge and skills are mapped across each topic and year group to ensure systematic progression.
We have a computing suite and two class sets of iPads to ensure that all year groups have the opportunity to use a range of devices and programs for many purposes across the wider curriculum, as well as in discrete computing lessons. Employing cross-curricular links motivates pupils and supports them to make connections and remember the steps they have been taught.
The curriculum at St Mary’s ensures a balanced and progressive coverage of computer science, information technology, and digital literacy. Pupils develop their computational thinking and problem-solving skills through structured experiences across all three strands in every year group. As they move through the school, subject knowledge becomes increasingly detailed and challenging, with new skills building on prior learning. For example, in Key Stage 1, children are introduced to algorithms, laying the foundation for Key Stage 2, where they go on to design, write, and debug programs, articulating the computational thinking behind their work.
A typical lesson structure includes:
Flashback: Retrieval of prior learning through low-stakes activities.
Teach it: Introduction of new content with live modelling and discussion of misconceptions.
Practise it: Opportunities for independent and collaborative practise using active learning strategies.
Prove it: Application of knowledge and skills such as debugging, coding, designing, problem solving and using technology.
Deepen it: Extension tasks that challenge pupils to broaden and deepen their understanding e.g. through reviewing or debugging their own code, applying problem solving skills to a new challenge or articulating computational thin
Impact
Our approach to the curriculum results in a fun, engaging, and high-quality computing education. Assessment evidence is used to feed into teachers’ future planning, to revisit misconceptions and knowledge gaps, supporting varied paces of learning and ensures all pupils make good progress.
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 St Mary’s gives children the building blocks that enable them to pursue a wide range of interests, careers and vocations in the next stage of their lives. Through our curriculum and engagement with visiting professionals, all pupils at St Mary’s are introduced to a broad spectrum of careers in computing, inspiring them to explore future opportunities and aspirations in the field.