Intent

Article 19: Every child has the right to be safe.

At Fairisle Infant and Nursery School, we aim for all children to have the confidence and competence to access technology safely and be able to apply their skills and knowledge to a rapidly developing technological world.  We aim to provide a high quality Computing curriculum, covering a range of knowledge and skills with the intention of them becoming experts in these. The curriculum is planned across Key Stage One, ensuring clear progression, so pupils can acquire new skills quicker to become more proficient. 

Pupils develop their knowledge, skills and understanding of the key aspects of digital literacy, information technology and computer science, ensuring that they have learned the knowledge required to meet the aims of National Curriculum for Computing (DfE, 2013). Through this, they learn essential knowledge including password safety, creating digital documents, protecting themselves online, saving and retrieving work, designing and coding programs and digital design.

Implementation

The Computing curriculum is based on three key aspects: digital literacy, information technology and computer science.  These are broken down into 5 areas:

- Algorithms, problem solving and programming 

- Logical reasoning

- Networks and search engines 

- Digital Productivity and Creating content

- Digital Citizenship & Technology with Digital Creativity. 

Wherever possible Computing is linked to the topics in the year groups to enhance learning in all areas.

 As a school, we use Purple Mash and their schemes of work as a basis for our planning.  Purple Mash allows staff to challenge, support and encourage independence by setting 2Dos, allowing pupils to complete carefully constructed lessons.  Our well trained staff enhance the provision through direct and guided support. 

At Fairisle, we believe that ‘All children have the right to be safe’, therefore, online safety is weaved throughout every unit of the curriculum.  We teach the children to ‘Lock It, Block It, Show It, Tell It’ if they experience something concerning online.  The annual Safer Internet Day is an important opportunity to explore this further and we have annual workshops from Openview Education enhancing their experiences.