A St Oswald's Digital Citizen
'A Caring Christian family where we grow togther'
'Let your Light Shine'
Matthew 5: 16
'St. Oswald's digital citizens let their light shine brightly................'
As Digital Citizens, we 'Let our Lights Shine' by becoming enthusiastic, curious, independent thinkers. Motivated, reflective and resilient learners. Tolerant and responsive citizens.
Computing is changing the lives of everyone. Through the teaching of computing we equip children to participate in a rapidly changing world where work and leisure activities are increasingly transformed by technology. We enable children to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information. We also focus on developing the skills necessary for children to be able to use information in a discriminating and effective way. Computing skills are a major factor in enabling children to be confident, creative and independent learners.
We teach the computing curriculum through a mixture of subject specific teaching and cross curricular approaches. This allows the children to develop their skills in a meaningful and effective way. As a small village primary school we are very fortunate to have a range of equipment available including a bank of laptops and iPads, as well as interactive whiteboards or Smartboards in each teaching area. In addition to computers, our curriculum incorporates a range of technologies including CD and video records, digital cameras and programmable toys.Teachers plan the delivery of the computing curriculum carefully to enable children to select the best equipment and to use it effectively.
What is Computing?
Computing is the study and use of systems that handle information electronically. Computers are the most obvious of these but also include telephones, programmable robots, tape recorders, calculators, video cameras and mobile devices.
Aims and objectives
A high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, and provides insights into both natural and artificial systems.
ICT is changing the lives of everyone. Through teaching ICT we equip children to participate in a rapidly changing world where work and leisure activities are increasingly transformed by technology. They will be taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.
The aims of computing are to enable children:
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to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
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to analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
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to evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
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to be responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
During Key Stage 1 pupils explore ICT and learn to use it confidently and with purpose to achieve specific outcomes. They start to use ICT to develop their ideas and record their creative work. They become familiar with hardware and software.
During Key Stage 2 pupils use a wider range of ICT tools and information sources to support their work in other subjects. They develop their research skills and decide what information is appropriate for their work. They begin to question the plausibility and quality of information. They learn how to amend their work and present it in a way that suits its audience.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
FINDING THINGS OUT
1. Pupils should be taught how to:
a. gather information from a variety of sources [for example, people, books, databases, CD-ROMs, videos and TV]
b. enter and store information in a variety of forms [for example, storing information in a prepared database, saving work]
c. retrieve information that has been stored [for example, using a CD-ROM, loading saved work].
DEVELOPING IDEAS AND MAKING THINGS HAPPEN
2. Pupils should be taught:
a. to use text, tables, images and sound to develop their ideas
b. how to select from and add to information they have retrieved for particular purposes
c. how to plan and give instructions to make things happen [for example, programming a floor turtle, placing instructions in the right order]
d. to try things out and explore what happens in real and imaginary situations [for example, trying out different colours on an image, using an adventure game or simulation].
EXCHANGING AND SHARING INFORMATION
3. Pupils should be taught:
a. how to share their ideas by presenting information in a variety of forms [for example, text, images, tables, sounds]
b. to present their completed work effectively [for example, for public display].
REVIEWING, MODIFYING AND EVALUATING WORK AS IT PROGRESSES
4. Pupils should be taught to:
a. review what they have done to help them develop their ideas
b. describe the effects of their actions
c. talk about what they might change in future work.
BREADTH OF STUDY
5. During the key stage, pupils should be taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through:
a. working with a range of information to investigate the different ways it can be presented [for example, information about the Sun presented as a poem, picture or sound pattern]
b. exploring a variety of ICT tools [for example, floor turtle, word processing software, adventure game]
c. talking about the uses of ICT inside and outside school.
