Computing and Online learning

Each separate subject here at St Mary's has a Lead teacher. In Computing, the Lead teacher is called Mr Reynolds.  Mr Reynolds has a great love for anything IT linked. He is a real “gadget man” and uses this skill, brilliantly to support and enhance his teaching sequences with his class, Y5. He also has great patience and enthusiasm in sharing his ideas and research with his colleagues. To date, he has had good impact already. Mr Sutton attends all relevant training and online workshops; he also supports Mrs Hill to monitor school’s provision of the IT curriculum and online safety opportunities.

 

Each subject also has a Link Governor, who supports and monitors progress, in conjunction with guidance from the SLT. In the case of IT, this is Mr Wintrip for Online Safety, a retired police officer with a level headed informed approach to life and Mr Baker for the Computing curriculum; these two work well together, to have a working knowledge of the wider learning opportunities at St Mary’s, currently.

 

Each class has its own class page, where homework, projects, home communications etc are publicised and shared on a very regular basis. Some views from parents on these, will also be shared here, in the forthcoming months for you to understand how we work, a little more. 

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Protecting Your Child Online.
The powerpoint below is full of tips to help you to support your child to keep safe online.

Our Curriculum philosophy is below, showing why we do it the way we do it here at St Mary of the Angels.

Our philosophy in Computing is framed around a combination of two pieces of information:

  • the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Computing
  • what we know works best for our children based on what has gone before

Our mission is to develop numerate, literate thinking individuals, with a strong moral compass, based on our catholic ethos, who are  equipped for the 21st century; IT is a perfect tool to support this.

 

Here at SMA we recognise the place of Computer Science, even at the early stages of their primary school journey for all children. We develop a love of and a confidence in following instructions, logical reasoning, interpreting and analysing, sequencing and designing. We encourage problem solving and trial and error. We commend and encourage children to link their IT knowledge and create simple programmes themselves.

 

Here at SMA we strive to ensure that our children are digitally literate, and that they are proud and excited to use these skills in their other learning. We expect our pupils, over time, to see IT as a key communication and multi-sensory tool, which allows them to express themselves, refine their research skills, present and enhance their learning opportunities, with growing confidence and abilities.

 

Here at SMA , we expect children to engage with the world of IT at all levels. We provide opportunities for them to select, combine and use differing systems effectively, in the course of their learning, with increasing confidence, independence, pride and enthusiasm. We also expect them to present information in differing ways, collating, presenting and analysing information appropriately with support, in line with their age/stage of development.

 

Finally, here at SMA, we expect and encourage children to respect and value to place of IT and know the dangers if systems are abused or misused. We teach, in line with our gospel values, the importance of respect for all, and challenge individuals who virtual worlds or IT systems and online platforms inappropriately, with excellent support form their parents. We teach them to know how to be safe online and how to report or react to unsafe behaviours when they manifest themselves, in keeping with our Child Protection Policies and Practices.

The Key Knowledge organisers are used across the year to support Computing in Years 1-6. Some examples of these are found below.  These help you to know what is being taught and when. Hopefully, they also give you a flavour of the type of vocabulary and the type of learning that will take place in each year.

Below you will find the Action Plan and Policy for Computing.

Our Long term overview is below along with the overview for key skills. This helps to map out what is being covered and taught when and where across the school in Computing, currently. It might also help you as parents to plan and link into the work we are covering and when.

 Some examples of our successes are here for you to appreciate. These link in with parent and governor views also.