Kingsway Primary School

Kingsway Primary School

Computing

Intent

Our aim here at Kingsway is  to provide an engaging, progressive curriculum which encourages creativity and prepares pupils for life in the digital age.

“Computing is my favourite subject at school because I like to test, make and play games.” Callum, Year 4.

 At Kingsway, we know how engaged so many of our children are by gaming, watching and creating animation and engaging with the online communities. Many aspire to work in the computing, coding and programming industries.

Because of this, we know that computer science and coding engages so many of our learners by allowing them to learn the fundamentals of an industry they are immersed within. As part of our ‘Kingsway Careers’ initiative, we encourage our pupils to view themselves as ‘Computer Programmers’ and they develop their skills and computational thinking.

 The Kingsway Shield which is gold outline with the letters KPS in green inside it. Underneath the shield are the words Kingsway Careers.

Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day.

Implementation

Our computing provision is delivered in three strands:

  • Computer science
  • Information technology
  • Digital literacy

 We teach a progressive computer science curriculum, which links to our Cornerstones themes. Children are taught the fundamentals of coding and programming through a range of unplugged (without using technology) and plugged activities.

The children use Scratch and J2E coding platforms to create animations, games and simulations. They are encouraged to test, review and improve their work as part of their role as Computer Programmers.

A picture of a screen shot from a key stage one coding programme showing the tools children will use to create their own coding

 

We believe teaching children to use software purposefully and proficiently will equip them with the skills they need to navigate the rest of their time in education and the working world. Because of this, we ensure that children are given regular opportunities to present their work in a range of ways including creating presentations, graphs documents and posters using computing software.

This cross-curricular approach creates links across subjects including maths and science giving pupils an opportunity to apply their learning and present ideas in a new way and giving their work a clear purpose. Throughout their learning, our pupils are given opportunities to consider how technology might be useful to help them with tasks and where they might use technology in their careers as historians, geographers, musicians and scientists.

Digital Literacy (E-Safety)

At Kingsway Primary School, we understand the ever-evolving risk to our children online. Across our school, the safeguarding and education of online safety embeds the core principals outlined in Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance (updated September 2022). 

Through our progressive, age-appropriate curriculum, we teach children to navigate risks of life online. Annual safeguarding and online safety training empowers staff to understand the core areas of risk to our pupils online. 

The breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable and ever evolving, but can be categorised into four areas of risk: 

  • content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate, or harmful content, for example: pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation, and extremism. 
  • contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example: peer to peer pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes. 
  • conduct: online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography, sharing other explicit images and online bullying, and commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams.

 If you would like to learn more about the Online Safety curriculum we deliver, please click the links to read more.:

 

For more information about how you can help your children stay safe online please view our E-safety page.

Virtual Reality

At Kingsway, we are incredibly lucky to be able to give our pupils the opportunity to experience life beyond our school and community through use of our virtual reality headsets.

We use the headsets to enrich learning in a wealth of subjects across the curriculum including: science, geography, history and English. This exciting technology is also used as a valuable opportunity for pupils to gain wider experiences and contextual knowledge of the world around them.

Headsets can be used as a class or a small group to form part of a lesson, pre-learning and can inform imaginative writing.

Some of the places we have visited this year include:

  • The Great Wall of China
  • Swimming with sharks off the coast of South Africa
  • Walking with polar bears in the arctic
  • The Tanzanian Rainforest
  • The Great Pyramids
  • The moon!

“I love VR- I wish we could do it in every lesson!” Lola, Year 4.

  

“My favourite thing we have visited this year was Central Park in New York because I really want to go there when I’m older.” Jaiden, Year 4.

 

pictures of children enjoying the VR headsets

Home Learning

If your child is interesting in computing and you would like ways to further engage them, there are many online tools you can use to develop their coding and computing skills.

Scratch (KS1 and KS2)

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Scratch is a great online platform, which is free, and allows children to code and create their own games and animations. There are a wealth of ready-made projects for your child(ren) to trial and test too. See Scratch junior for children below the age of 8.

Barefoot KS1 and 2

https://www.barefootcomputing.org/homelearning

This online platform allows children to develop their skills both on and off a device. There are a series of mini projects and activities which engage and challenge learners.

Not all of these activities require a device. You can learn a lot about how computers work from ‘unplugged’ activities on their site too!

 UK Safer Internet Centre KS1 and 2

https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/young-people/resources-for-3-11s

This online site allows you to delve into the importance of online safety and has lots of activities that you can complete as a family to all maintain open discussions and set boundaries for life online.

 Code Club KS2

 https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/codeclub

Code club is an international network of free coding clubs for 9-13 year olds. Here you’ll find step-by-step instructions for our coding projects, which will teach you how to create games, animations and more with code.

Goole Library

Did you know that if you enrol at the library, you can use their computers for free? Goole library also offers coding activities and clubs as part of their offer. Pop in and speak to them about how you can sign up!