Computing Rationale

At Church Lench CE First School, Computing is taught on a two-year rolling cycle using the Purple Mash curriculum to ensure full coverage of the National Curriculum whilst providing pupils with a broad, progressive and engaging computing education. Our curriculum has been carefully designed to develop pupils' knowledge and understanding across the three key strands of computer science, information technology and digital literacy, equipping them with the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Online Safety is an integral part of our Computing curriculum and is explicitly taught at the beginning of every unit, as well as revisited whenever it naturally occurs within topics such as artificial intelligence, email communication, internet use and effective searching. This ensures pupils continually develop the knowledge, understanding and behaviours needed to stay safe, responsible and respectful online.

Across the two-year rolling programme, learning is carefully sequenced so that pupils continually retrieve and build upon prior knowledge. Fundamental computing skills introduced in the younger classes are revisited through increasingly challenging applications, enabling children to develop confidence, fluency and independence across all three strands of the Computing curriculum.

In Class 1, pupils begin by developing their understanding of technology through creative and practical experiences. They explore creative computing, technology around us, data, animation, music creation and early coding concepts, enabling them to become confident users of technology whilst developing computational thinking and problem-solving skills.

In Classes 2 and 3, pupils build upon these foundations through progressively more complex units covering programming, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, animation, word processing, game creation, artificial intelligence, hardware and software, internet communication, effective searching and data handling. Learning is carefully sequenced across the two-year cycle so that knowledge and skills are revisited and developed in increasingly sophisticated contexts, allowing pupils to make secure connections between different aspects of computing.

Our curriculum has been designed to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and enables pupils to:

• Understand the principles of computer science and computational thinking.
• Design, write and debug increasingly complex computer programs.
• Collect, organise, analyse and present data using a variety of digital tools.
• Become confident, creative and purposeful users of a range of software applications.
• Develop effective problem-solving, logical reasoning and critical thinking skills.
• Understand how digital systems and networks work.
• Use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly.
• Recognise acceptable online behaviour and know how to report concerns.
• Prepare for continued study of computing and confident participation in an increasingly digital society.

Throughout each unit, pupils are encouraged to become independent digital learners who can apply their knowledge in meaningful contexts. They learn how to create digital content, communicate effectively using technology, manipulate and present information, develop programs using coding principles and evaluate digital solutions to real-world problems. Practical application is central to our curriculum, ensuring pupils understand not only how to use technology, but also why different digital tools are appropriate for different purposes.

As pupils progress through the school, they develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of computational thinking through decomposition, logical reasoning, abstraction and algorithmic thinking. Coding units are carefully sequenced to introduce programming concepts progressively, allowing pupils to build confidence before applying their knowledge to increasingly complex programming challenges.