Intent
At Senacre Wood Primary School, we aim to provide our pupils with the opportunity to gain fundamental life skills that will enable our pupils to embrace, enjoy and utilise a range of technology in our modern-day world. We intend to integrate technology within all areas of the curriculum through targeted, well-planned lessons in both core and foundation subjects.
Computing at Senacre Wood is broken down into six areas of skill-based development; generic skills, e-safety, technology in our lives, programming, multimedia and handling data. These areas are taught progressively each year, so that all students can develop transferable computing skills by the end of KS2.
The school believes that IT, computer science and digital literacy:
- Are essential life skills necessary to fully participate in the modern digital world.
- Allows children to become creators of digital content rather than simply consumers of it.
- Provides access to a rich and varied source of information and content.
- Communicates and presents information in new ways, which helps pupils understand, access and use it more readily.
- Can motivate and enthuse pupils.
- Offers opportunities for communication and collaboration through group working.
- Has the flexibility to meet the individual needs and abilities of each pupil.
- Enables children to feel competent, confident and creative when using information and communication technology.
- Enables children to become responsible users of information and communication technology, showing an understanding of how to stay safe online, including what to do if they feel something is not appropriate.
For details of how we implement this within our school and how we measure the impact, please read our Computing policy.
Policies
Although the ‘Technology’ strand has now been removed from ‘Understanding the World’, we believe that computing and technology are still vitally important subjects to deliver to Reception children. Not only will teaching a well-planned Computing curriculum ensure that children enter Year 1 with a strong foundation of knowledge, but Computing lessons in the EYFS also ensure that children develop listening skills, problem-solving abilities and thoughtful questioning — as well as improving subject skills across the seven areas of learning.
Safer Internet Day 2024
‘Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online’.
Across the school, children took part in a range of activities to learn about the importance of staying safe online. Children in EYFS shared a story, The Penguin, all about how he keeps himself safe when he is online. KS1 spoke about the feelings that could be caused by using technology and the internet. They talked about what they like doing, and how this makes them feel, including being frustrated when the battery runs out on their device! They discussed how it is important to recognise these emotions so that we can ask someone we trust for help if we need it.
Children in KS2 looked at different scenarios around the use of the internet and discussed whether each one had a positive or negative impact. They discussed how it could be helpful to find out information or help when giving to charity, but it can also have a negative side if comparing ourselves to people we see on the internet. Others discussed ways in which the internet tries to encourage us to buy their products from adding ‘pop-ups’ and advertising time-limits to giving the user a ‘streak’ score to encourage them to return to the game.