Computing at St John Vianney

At St John Vianney, We follow the Teach Computing scheme of work.

A clear strength of the Teach Computing progression is the wealth of different opportunities it gives for learners to develop these computational thinking skills whether it be whilst creating a piece of digital music, analysing data from a flat-file database or designing and programming a game there is a topic or strand for everyone to enjoy and engage with.

Intent

At St John Vianney Primary School, we understand the immense value that technology plays not only in supporting the Computing and whole school curriculum but overall in the day-to-day life of our school.

Our aims are to fulfill the requirements of the National Curriculum for Computing whilst also providing enhanced collaborative learning opportunities, engagement in rich content, and supporting pupil’s conceptual understanding of new concepts which support the needs of all our pupils.

Our Computing curriculum aims to develop the heart and mind of every child. Computing teaching at St John Vianney Primary School has deep links with mathematics, science and design, and technology and our aim is to provide a broad and balanced curriculum whilst ensuring that pupils become digitally literate and digitally resilient.

Technology is ever-evolving and we aim to develop pupils who can use and express themselves, develop their ideas through, information and communication technology at a suitable level for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.

Our Aims at SJV

The aims of our Computing curriculum are to develop pupils who:

Are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
Know how to keep themselves safe whilst using technology and on the internet and be able to minimise risk to themselves and others.
Become responsible, respectful and competent users of data, information and communication technology.
Can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems.
Can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience writing computer programs in order to solve such problems.
Can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation.
Become digitally literate and are active participants in a digital world.
Are equipped with the capability to use technology throughout their lives.
Understand the importance of governance and legislation regarding how information is used, stored, created, retrieved, shared and manipulated.
Have a ‘can do’ attitude when engaging with technology and its associated resources.
Utilise computational thinking beyond the Computing curriculum.
Understand and follow the SMART E-Safety rules.
Understand the Online Safety messages can keep them safe online.
Know who to contact if they have concerns.
Apply their learning in a range of contexts, e.g. at school and at home.

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in computing, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Computing is a foundation subject in the National Curriculum and at St John Vianney implementation of the computing curriculum is in line with 2014 Primary National Curriculum requirements for KS1 and KS2 and the Foundation Stage Curriculum in England. This provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each key stage.

Computing teaching at St John Vianney will deliver the requirements of the National Curriculum through half-termly units. Computing is broken down into three strands that make up the computing curriculum and this has been tailored to what St John Vianney pupils need to know. These are Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy. Computer Science underlines the knowledge and skills relating to programming, coding, algorithms and computational thinking. Information Technology underlines the knowledge and skills relating to communication, multimedia and data representation and handling. Digital Literacy underlines the knowledge and skills relating to online safety and technology uses all of which are covered at St John Vianney. The Purple Mash scheme of work enables clear coverage of the computing curriculum whilst also providing support and CPD for less confident teachers to deliver lessons.

When teaching computing teachers should also follow the children’s interests to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced. Teachers should ensure that ICT and computing capability is also achieved through core and foundation subjects and where appropriate and necessary ICT and computing should be incorporated into work for all subjects using our wide range of interactive Computing resources.

Computing teaching at St John Vianney is practical and engaging and a variety of teaching approaches and activities are provided based on teacher judgement and pupil ability. We have a wide range of resources to support our computing teaching including but not limited to, iPads, laptops, bee-bots, floor roamers, video recorders and cameras. Pupils use the ICT Suite and may use iPads independently, in pairs, alongside a TA or in a group with the teacher. Teachers and pupils are also aware of the importance of health and safety and pupils are always supervised when using technology and accessing the internet.

Pupils at St John Vianney are fully encouraged to engage with Computing and technology outside of school. Each teacher and pupil at St John Vianney have their own unique Showbie login and password. Computing work can be stored and saved using pupil log in details and homework set for pupils to access and complete tasks at home that link with their current class learning. The children also login on the school iPads to Apple Classroom which enables personal access to each pupils work. Parents at St John Vianney are also encouraged to support the implementation of Commuting and computing where possible by encouraging use of ICT and computing skills at home during homework tasks and support pupils beyond the classroom by registering with the ‘Parent Portal’.

Alongside our curriculum provision pupils at St John Vianney also have the opportunity to participate in after school computing clubs ran by the ICT Coordinators. Examples of clubs ran in the past have been iPad club, coding club and bee-bot club. These clubs aim to provide additional computing support and enjoyment whilst further challenging pupils who possess exceptional computing abilities.

Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers

All children will have Quality First Teaching. Any children with identified SEND or in receipt of pupil premium funding may have work additional to and different from their peers in order to access the curriculum dependent upon their needs. As well as this, our school offers a demanding and varied curriculum, providing children with a range of opportunities in order for them to reach their full potential and consistently achieve highly from their starting points.

At St John Vianney Primary School we provide a variety of opportunities for computing learning inside and outside the classroom. Computing and safeguarding go hand in hand and at St John Vianney we provide a huge focus on internet safety inside and outside of the classroom. Additional to all pupils studying an online safety unit through their computing lessons, every year we also take part in National Internet Safety Day in February. The Computing co-ordinator alongside class teachers will plan additional internet safety lessons and activities to take part in following a specific yearly theme and Internet Safety assemblies are also held. All teaching staff at St John Vianney have received their CEOP training in 2019 and will utilise the CEOP online materials to encourage discussions, support issues as they arise in and out of the classroom and promote the materials to parents/carers. Finally, at St John Vianney we actively encourage parent partnership within the computing curriculum and outside of school. Parents are made aware of e-safety issues through the school website, Twitter links, letters, information newsletters, parent presentations, shared activities and guidance and regular subscriptions to e-safety magazines.

Impact

Our Computing Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression and build on and embed current skills. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in the different computational components and alike other subjects discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work.

If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

Pupil discussions and interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
Governor monitoring with our subject computing link governor.
Moderation staff meetings with opportunities for dialogue between teachers.
Photo evidence and images of the pupils practical learning.
Video analysis through recording of performance in lessons.
A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes.
Learning walks and reflective staff feedback (teacher voice).
Dedicated Computing leader time.

NCCE_pedagogy_principles.pdf

curriculum_journey.pdf

Showbie

What is Showbie?

Showbie is an app used by teachers to assign, collect, and review student work.

Showbie keeps student work organized by classes and assignments. At a glance, students can see their upcoming assignments and due dates so they can prioritize their work.

Why do we use it at SJV?

Showbie allows our Students to provide responses to assignments or annotate worksheets directly in the app in the form of text comments, the pen tool (which allows them to draw and write directly on the page) and pinned voice notes. They can also submit work to Showbie from virtually any other app, with some of the most popular being iMovie and Book Creator.

Showbie supports pupil collaboration and discussion with children able to work jointly on the same document in real-time, helping them to improve ‘soft’ skills such as teamwork and communication whilst learning from each other. Showbie also acts as a space to share ideas and gives pupils a voice through its facilitation of class discussions which can be recorded and revisited.