Computing at Florence Melly

Computing Curriculum Rationale

At Florence Melly we are digital nomads! We want our children to love computing. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be software engineers, video game designers, web developers or IT consultants. We want them to embody our core values. We all believe that: “if you can DREAM it, you can do it”. The computing curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their digital capital. We want our children to remember their computing lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the opportunities they are presented with! Recently, KS2 became internet legends with Parents Zone and Google. At our school we firmly believe that to make the most of the internet, children need to make smart decisions when online. The ‘Be Internet Legends’ programme developed by Google, helped empower our children to use the internet safely and wisely and to be confident explorers of the online world. Our school was awarded a ‘Legendary’ certificate for our participation in the initiative. A fantastic time was had by all and this was just another example of how we embed important safeguarding messages into our curriculum. Keeping our children safe is our number one priority! Bringing computing alive is important at Florence Melly Community Primary School. 

Curriculum Intent

The computing curriculum promotes curiosity and a love and thirst for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our children to become independent and resilient – like all curriculum areas. 

We want to equip them with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the computing National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. For example, in the autumn term Year 5 were taken to the outer reaches of our solar system with the aid of virtual reality goggles. As part of the children’s science topic on Earth and Space, the pupils visited the moon, saw Earth from a different perspective and travelled where no man (or woman) had been before! The children really enjoyed their experience and it is something the school will be looking to repeat in the future. It really was ‘out of this world!’

We want our children to use the vibrancy of our great city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, co-operate with one another and appreciate what they have. We achieve this by providing a strong SMSC curriculum, with British Values and our core values placed at the heart of everything we do. This often feeds into the computing curriculum. For example, in the spring term the whole-school enjoyed a deep-dive drop-down day to celebrate Safer Internet Day 2019 – Consent! To reiterate the importance of staying safe online, a group of pupils attended a Safer Internet Day event held at Anfield. The children discussed the dangers of social media and their digital footprints. They were then treated to a tour of Anfield and got to meet Liverpool player Rhian Brewster, as well as two members of the Liverpool Women’s team. It was another truly memorable experience! For the children who stayed in school, they were treated to a range of Safer Internet Day activities such as debating key online safety issues, online safety oracy tasks and designing their very own posters. We love celebrating Safer Internet Day at Florence Melly Community Primary School.

We enrich their time in our school with memorable, unforgettable experiences and provide opportunities which are normally out of reach – this piques their interests and passions. For example, earlier this year we celebrated National Coding Week as part of our whole-school curriculum map. The children enjoyed a fantastic day of robotics and coding led by specialists from MGL. All of KS2 got the chance to work with a variety of equipment to tackle computing based challenges, whilst KS1 took on their own coding challenges in class. The children learnt about the principles of coding and how the equipment we have around us works before participating in some fabulous practical activities. The spheros and MiP robots were a particular highlight, one child said: ‘I loved being able to code and control my own robot and see what happens when I change things.’ To further develop our pupils’ coding skills, they have also visited the Apple store in Liverpool One on multiple occasions to receive specialist coding teaching. We firmly believe that it is not just about what happens in the classroom, it is about the added value we offer to really inspire our children. 

Curriculum Implementation

In July 2018, a complete audit of the computing curriculum was conducted. On the back of the findings from this audit, the computing curriculum has been carefully built and the learning opportunities and assessment milestones for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills. For example, we focus our teaching on four main themes of computing; connect, code, communicate and collect. These are revisited year on year where pupils progressively build their skills and knowledge. In addition to this we provide specialist computing teaching to pupils in across the school and frequently revisit online safety through themed days and celebrations like our ‘Celebrating Social Media Week’. 

Computing subject specific characteristics, which we expect the children to demonstrate, have been developed and shared with all stakeholders. These characteristics underpin all work in computing and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils. These characteristics are:

• Competence in coding for a variety of practical and inventive purposes, including the application of ideas within other subjects.
• The ability to connect with others safely and respectfully, understanding the need to act within the law and with moral and ethical integrity. An understanding of the connected nature of devices.
• The ability to communicate ideas well by using applications and devices throughout the curriculum.
• The ability to collect, organise and manipulate data effectively.

We empower our staff to organise their own year group curriculums under the guidance of our subject leaders. Teachers are best placed to make these judgements. Staff develop year group specific long-term curriculum maps which identify when the different subjects and topics will be taught across the academic year. The vast majority of subjects are taught discretely but staff make meaningful links across subjects. They link prior knowledge to new learning to deepen children’s learning. For example, during their Romans topic in history, pupils in Year 4 played and reviewed different Sketch Nation games in preparation for creating their own cross-curricular Roman gladiator games using Morfo (an app that allows you to quickly turn a photo into a talking 3D character). Our children are taught the right, connected knowledge.

Our short-term plans are produced on a weekly and daily basis. We use these to set out the learning objectives for each lesson, identifying engaging activities and resources which will be used to achieve them.

We encourage staff to teach a weekly computing lesson. This was a notable change after the computing audit. This helps to ensure sufficient time is allocated to computing and that computing subject matter can be revisited frequently. We believe that by crafting our curriculum this way, we improve the potential for our children to retain what they have been taught, to alter their long-term memory and thus improve the rates of progress they make. 

Curriculum Impact

We use both formative and summative assessment information in every computing lesson. Staff use this information to inform their short-term planning and short-term interventions. This helps us provide the best possible support for all of our pupils, including the more able. The assessment milestones for each phase have been carefully mapped out and further broken down for each year group. This means that skills in computing are progressive and build year on year. 

Our staff use computing formative assessment grids to systematically assess what the children know as the topic progresses and inform their future planning. These formative assessment grids then inform summative assessment judgements for each topic.

Assessment information is collected frequently and analysed as part of our monitoring cycle. This process provides an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the quality of education in computing. A comprehensive monitoring cycle is developed at the beginning of each academic year. This identifies when monitoring is undertaken. Monitoring in computing includes: work sampling, lesson observations and/or learning walks, pupil/parent and/or staff voice.

All of this information is gathered and reviewed. It is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly.

At Florence Melly Community Primary School, we are DIGITAL NOMADS!

Key Documentation

Please use the links below which set out the vibrant Computing curriculum on offer to our pupils.

	Flo		Flo
Computing Curriculum Map		Computing Characteristics		Computing Curriculum Milestones

 

Latest Computing Activities

Check out just some of the wonderful activities our children get up to in Computing. Please visit our Twitter and Flickr feeds for more fantastic activities.

	Flo		Flo
Virtual Reality		National Coding Week		Digital Footprint Workshops

Computing programmes of study: Key Stages 1 and 2

Purpose of study