Computing
Subject Vison
“Coding is today’s language of creativity. All our children deserve a chance to become creators instead of consumers of computer science.”
– Maria Klawe
The core purpose of studying Computing and ICT at Woodfield, and what we want students to gain from it, can be summarised in two statements:
Computing and the use of ICT is central to the education of all children because they will be required to use technology, throughout their education and on into work. In a middle school setting we aim to consolidate learning as soon as possible. It is essential that students have opportunity to build skills quickly in Year 5. With a wider range of feeder schools, it is clear that pupils join Woodfield with very contrasting experiences in ICT. Students should have the opportunity to apply and develop their technological understanding and skills across a wide range of digital contexts, to allow them to feel empowered to manage issues with technology outside of education, and make positive contributions in their local and global communities.
A high-quality computing education equips students to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, and provides insights into computer systems and how technology is used around them.
The core of computing is computer science, in which students are taught the principles of information and computation, we begin our journey by using block driven coding platforms to teach the fundamentals of computational thing and examine the constructs behind computer programming. Students are being equipped to use information technology to safely create programs, systems and a range of content.
It is also essential to prepare our students for vastly different futures. It is vital that all students are taught the required skills to become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for use in their next steps of education. As part of their study in digital literacy, students will learn how to be responsible digital citizens, safe and effective users of technology and understand the impact that their digital footprints leave.
Our curriculum follows a modular design with 4 – 5 modules per year, split between 3 key progression areas. As our pupils are learning in mixed ability groups the level of demand or support varies in each module. Due to the changes in curriculum, our schemes of work are under constant redevelopment to ensure they provide ample opportunities for development and extension that are applicable outside of education.
By the time our pupils leave us for high school they will have the necessary skills to support their pathways through an ICT or Computing GCSE. We provide a solid grounding to ensure they will have the necessary transferable skills to contribute to any of their future learning and employment.
Implementation:
The computing curriculum at Woodfield has been created using a combination of the Teach Computing Curriculum as well as relevant units from other curriculums that work towards the same learning outcomes. This design has been chosen to best support the learners at Woodfield Academy. As learners arrive at Woodfield in Year 5 with vastly different start points and exposures to computing, it is not feasible to only follow the Teach Computing Curriculum. Common gaps that appear on entry have been identified and accounted for in the curriculum plan. The Teach Computing Curriculum provides the foundation for our teaching, we have then used the subject knowledge expertise of the teaching staff to develop other modules that build on the foundational skills necessary for pupils to progress against the national curriculum. Code.Org has been chosen by the school for the majority of programming lessons, this is due to the accessibility features. Code.Org provides a structured and accessible way to introduce programming fundamentals to pupils, fostering creativity and critical thinking skills.
Coherence and Flexibility-
Curriculum is structured into units, where the lessons in each unit must be taught in order. However, across a year group, units do not need to be taught in order, apart from Programming, where concepts and skills rely on prior learning and experiences.
Knowledge Organization-
Uses NCCE computing taxonomy to ensure comprehensive coverage of the subject. All learning outcomes can be described through a high-level taxonomy of ten strands:
Spiral Curriculum-
KS2 based on spiral curriculum, themes are revisited regularly, and pupils revisit the themes through a new unit that builds on prior learning within that theme. This reduces the amount of knowledge lost through forgetting as topics are revisited. It also ensures that connections are made even if different teachers are teaching the units withing a theme in consecutive years.
Physical Computing–
Is a key role in modern pedagogical approaches in computing. This is offered to pupils in KS2 through teaching MicroBits. Physical computing is also offered through extra-curricular activities.
Core principles:
Inclusive and ambitious- Teach Computing Curriculum written to support all pupils. Each lesson is sequenced so that it builds on learning from earlier lessons, and activities are scaffolded so that all pupils can succeed and thrive. Scaffolded activities provide pupils with extra resources, such as visual prompts, to reach the same learning goals as the rest of the class. A range of pedagogical strategies are also embedded within lessons, which support making computing topics more accessible.
Structure of Units of work:
Where work has been created by subject staff, it has been made to build upon the NC objectives with a focus on transferable skills. These are in line with the NCCE Teach Computing Framework.
National Curriculum Coverage- KS2
Pedagogical Approaches:
As computing is a relatively new discipline, evidence of effective teaching approaches continues to emerge and evolve. We follow the NCCE 12 principles of Computing Pedagogy. These materials were created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation as part of the National Centre and are licensed under the Open Government License v3.0 (correct as of May 2024). Each of the twelve principles has been shown by research to contribute to the effective teaching and learning in computing.
Pedagogy-principles.pdf (teachcomputing.org)
Assessment:
Assessment in computing should focus on determining whether pupils can remember what they have been taught and can apply their knowledge as intended. Accurate assessment is used to inform adapted teaching, allowing teachers to build on previous learning and support development of ideas and skills through the whole computing curriculum.
Through a range of formative and summative assessment approaches learning is evaluated at every strand of the curriculum. Assessment is monitored using assessment frameworks (rubrics) for each year group whereby each unit is broken down into development stages (EDSM).
In most lessons, formative assessment opportunities are used by teachers to ensure that misconceptions are recognised and addressed if they occur. These can vary from observation, questioning or marked activities. These assessments are vital to ensure adaptive teaching takes place to suit the needs of the pupil’s teacher are working with. Lessons may be changed in response for formative assessment.
Formative Assessment:
Starter activities
These are examples of formative tasks in the form of retrieval practice. These tasks allow pupils to recall and rehearse their learning from the previous lesson(s) these do not introduce new topics and are used to monitor what has been remembered and what may need re-visiting.
Plenary activities:
These formative assessment tasks are placed at the end of lessons, these are used to assess learning from a lesson and identify misconceptions to inform future planning. These may take the place of Multiple-Choice Quiz’s (MCQs)
Hinge Questions:
Are used within MCQs but may also be placed within a lesson to formatively assess learning and find and address misconceptions.
Summative Assessment:
While written testing is not used for each unit, work will be assessed through the assessment framework documents. All units are designed to cover both skills and concepts across the computing national curriculum. Units that focus more on conceptual development may use MCQs as a summative assessment of knowledge. Project based work may be assessed through use of the assessment framework (rubric).
Multiple Choice Quiz (MCQ):
MCQs have been written for some units to represent the learning that should have been achieved within the unit. These have been taken from the NCCE as well as created in-house for specific units of work. The diagnostic assessment approach has been followed to ensure the assessment of the unit is useful. Hinge Questions are used in these to determine how well the pupils have understood the content and identify common misconceptions. These may also be used for summative assessment.
Assessment Frameworks:
Rubric tool to help teachers assess project-based work. Each assessment framework covers the application of skills that have been directly taught. Guidelines for conceptual based units are included on the rubrics to ensure that assessment is made fairly, and not just against a summative assessment result.
2024-2025 Academic Year:
Progression:
The First Schools that feed to Woodfield Academy are familiar with and use the Teach Computing Curriculum. This is a benefit to our pupils coming into Year 5 as foundational concepts have been previously introduced (for example, computational thinking). However, it has been suggested that Primary Schools may find issues with scheduling sufficient time and expertise for the “gold standard” of computing. (The crisis with Computing in Primary schools (computingatschool.org.uk))
As well as this, digital literacy is an important element of computing in the national curriculum, with the access to devices at home often being limited it is important all pupils at Woodfield Academy get the opportunity to use a variety of devices to become digitally literate to best prepare them for life. Therefore, it remains a priority of Woodfield Academy to allow time to re-visit concepts and skills taught at lower Key Stage 2 and apply and use these skills across different hardware and software. We continue to place significant emphasis on building competent and confident digital citizens using Teach Computing across this Key Stage through the implementation of a spiral curriculum.
As the pupil’s progress through Key Stage 2 and into Key Stage 3, the effective delivery of our computing curriculum prepares pupils for the transition into high school by instilling them with a robust set of computational skills and an understanding of fundamental computing concepts. Computing in KS3 must prepare pupils for two pathways, those that choose to work in Information Technology and those that go on to study Computer science. The computing curriculum at Woodfield Academy ultimately provides a foundation of substantive and procedural knowledge for pupils to build on when entering Year 9.
Resources
Computing is intrinsically linked to technology and therefore requires that pupils experience and use a range of digital tools and devices. To ensure work is accessible to all pupils the school provides access to the following hardware and software:
- Desktop Computer
- Headphones/Headsets
- Presentation Software
- Various Websites
- Spreadsheet Software
- Word Processing Software
- Desktop Publishing Software
- Canva *
- Software to create a blog- Microsoft Sway*
- Online Form Creator*
- Plain text editor – (Windows Notepad)
- Edublocks (website)
- org (website)
- Python Mu IDE*
- MicroBit and MakeCode
- Windows Movie Maker
- Kodu Game Lab
- Scratch*
- Minecraft Education*
- Accessible keyboards and mice (SEN)
*non-essential, pupil group dependent.
Further Information:
Further information about the Teach Computing Curriculum can be found here: Curriculum teaching resources (teachcomputing.org)