COMPUTING

Our Vision for Computing at Knaphill School

Our vision for computing at Bright Futures Learning Trust is based on providing all children with a knowledge- rich curriculum that equips them to confidently apply computational thinking and creativity to understand and change their future. We have designed an innovative and inspiring curriculum that guarantees every child’s computing entitlement, so that every child is taught the powerful knowledge to understand their part in creating a bright future in an ever-changing world. We believe that teaching computing is vital to develop our children’s character, as children are empowered to explore, develop their resilience, take risks, make informed choices, and communicate effectively and safely in both the online and offline world. We believe that our computing curriculum offers pupils the opportunities to learn skills and knowledge that will enable them to live our values as they work with ever evolving technology.

Keeping children safe online is fundamental. By having a robust online safety programme of study and ongoing online safety themes, that are continuously revisited, we aim to help children to be effective, discerning and safe digital citizens, who apply their values at all times. Children are taught to utilise a range of technology positively, whilst maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

All children have the right to access a challenging computing curriculum that encourages them to develop a breadth of understanding, whilst applying this knowledge to a real-life context of life today to help them understand the world they are growing up in. We have a broad curriculum that encompasses computer science, information technology and digital literacy. The core of computing is computer science, in which children are taught to become skilful computer scientists. Our curriculum ensures that pupils make informed choices to become digitally literate at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.

We see reading as a core enabler of the curriculum. In computing, children will be given the opportunity to apply their reading skills, through the application of word reading and by applying comprehension skills to digital literacy learning.

Adapting the curriculum for pupils with SEND in Computing:

• Adaptive teaching takes place to meet specific needs.

• Pre-teaching when prior learning is needed before a lesson.

• For sensory or physically impaired pupils, computing learning may necessitate enlarging texts, using clear fonts, using visual overlays, or audio description of images.

• Teachers identify and break down the components of the subject curriculum into manageable chunks for pupils who find learning more difficult, particularly those with cognition and learning needs. These may be smaller ‘steps’ than those taken by other pupils to avoid overloading the working memory. Teachers may use task boards to support a sequence of instructions.

• A variety of additional scaffolds may be used in lessons, such vocabulary banks, additional visual stimuli or adult support.