Computing
We are following the new National Curriculum 2014 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum for Computing
What will your child be learning?
There are two distinct stages at St Anne's for the new computing curriculum:
Key Stage 1 (5-6 year-olds): Children will be learning what algorithms are, which will not always involve computers. When explained as “a set of instructions” teachers may illustrate the idea using recipes, or by breaking down the steps of children’s morning routines. But they will also be creating and debugging simple programs of their own, developing logical reasoning skills and taking their first steps in using devices to “create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content”.
Key Stage 2 (7-11 year-olds): The children will be creating and debugging more complicated programs with specific goals and getting to grips with concepts including variables and “sequence, selection, and repetition in programs”. They will still be developing their logical reasoning skills and learning to use websites and other internet services. And there will be more practice at using devices for collecting, analysing and presenting back data and information.
MGL will be helping staff to get their knowledge and understanding up to date.
The children will use the laptops and IPADS as part of their learning.
An important part of the curriculum is e-safety- learning to stay safe on the Internet. This is covered in all year groups.
There are several web sites that are useful for parents to look to support their child's learning in this area and to develop your own knowledge and understanding.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/
http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-and-carers/parents-guide-to-technology
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
What can parents do to help their children with computing?
Simply be interested! Just as you chat to children when they come home about what they have been reading, writing, drawing and discussing at school, so you can talk to them about what they’re doing with computing and coding.
If you are intimidated by the idea of programming, talking through what you children have been doing may be a good way to demystify the subject. I suspect children will be delighted to tell parents something they don’t know about! Even if you’re daunted by programming as a subject, seeing it through the eyes of a child will hopefully make it much less intimidating.
There are ways to go further, including learn-to-code apps like Tynker, Hopscotch, ScratchJr and Hakitzu that can be downloaded and used at home; an online coding contest Shaun the Sheep’s Game Academy began earlier this year. The BBC is getting coding into some CBeebies and CBBC TV shows in the coming months.
The Scratch programming language,which we will be using in school, is freely accessible online at home too and many of the IPAD APPS are cheap to purchase, so that your child can continue with his or her learning at home.
Our new medium term plan can be viewed below.
