Computing
At Immanuel & St Andrew we strive to provide children with excellent learning materials alongside a collaborative learning environment to develop their computational thinking, creativity, and awareness of online safety. Through the computing curriculum, children will be taught to understand and utilise the functions of computers both within Computing as well as across the entire curriculum.
Computing at Immanuel
Computing is taught as part of the core and wider curriculum once a week across all key stages. We use a range of computing games and online platforms to embed computing into the curriculum and support children’s subject knowledge in 3 different ways:
- Provide support - to support a range of learning experiences from the practice of skills to developing conceptual understanding
- Development environment - where apps provide a micro-world that learners can explore, build and present their understanding
- Function – ICT is used as a tool to accomplish a task, as well as being used to support conceptual understanding and extend thinking within all subjects
Computing is also used as a mode of intervention, a platform to support learners with EAL, PP and SEND.
All users of computers at Immanuel are expected to follow the acceptable use policy.
Click here for our Computing curriculum overview
Computing Lessons in Action
Events:
- At Immanuel we run an IT Skills Workshop each term (six times a year) and welcome all parents and guardians to attend who wish to have extra support.
- Internet safety day (February each year) is an important day for children at our school, and we use this to reinforce the current online safety issues and concerns specific to theme of the year.
- Children also have the opportunity to engage in extra-curricular CLC workshops, once during each Key Stage (Reception, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6). These workshops are run externally and provide a greater understanding to the module they are learning at school during that moment in time.
- Computing Club and STEM Club are also available for KS1 and KS2 pupils.
Our Approach
Early Years Foundation Stage
For our very youngest learners in the foundation stage, we aim to give children a broad, play-based experience of computing in a range of contexts, including outdoor play. Computing is not just about computers. Early Years learning environments feature computing scenarios based on experience in the real world, such as in role play. Children gain confidence, control, and language skills through opportunities to ‘paint’ on the whiteboard or drive a remote-controlled toy. Outdoor exploration is an important aspect of the EYFS, supported by ICT toys such as Bee-Bots, storytelling headphones and torches.
Children in Key Stage 1 and 2 have access to class sets of laptops each week as well as a range of iPads.
Key Stage 1
In the younger years children learn to use programmable toys for a purpose, ask questions when things don’t work and think of ways to improve their code using pictures and talk. Children then move on to creating simple programs through block coding and using a range of different software such as Scratch Junior (Free app), Sketchpad (Free app) and J2E’s JIT5.
Key Stage 2
As children’s programming, reading and mathematical skills develop they move onto using more complex programs in Scratch, SketchPad and BeFunky. They also continue to develop their collaboration and co-operation working together using ClassNotebook. Teaching computing ensures our children develop a ’can do’ attitude to problem solving and logical thinking.
Computing Work
How to help your child with Computing:
Think you know
How to talk to your child about online safety.
Hour of Code (Year 1-6)
Explore different coding algorithms at home via games.
Scratch (Year 3-6)
Pupils in KS2 will start to use Scratch to develop their own computer games of increasing complexity which draw upon fundamental aspects of programming such as variables, loops and conditions.
BBC Biteszie Computing (Year 1-6)
Handy revision tool to mirror the aspect of the curriculum they are learning in school.
Times Tables Rock Stars (Year 3-6)
Times Tables practice. See your child’s teacher for their login.
To access virtual reading books allocated to the level of comprehension, resources to practise grammar and spelling.
Go-Read (Year 1-6)
A digital reading record for your child.
e-safety
The organisation - National Online Safety - have produced a range of information for parents about supporting children to stay safe while online and using popular apps/ games. Please see the information below:
