At Garden Fields we intend to:

• Ensure pupils become positive digital citizens by teaching them how to stay safe online, understanding the risks and building resilience to manage and navigate the online environment.
• Teach pupils to become responsible, respectful and competent users of data, information and communication technology.
• Increase pupil’s confidence and creativity in their uses of technology for a wide range of purposes.
• Support pupils in becoming digitally literate by using both cognitive and technical skills taught explicitly in Computing lessons and interwoven into other subjects.

We teach the National Curriculum through the Purple Mash scheme of work to ensure that there is a clear progression of skills and knowledge. This provides pupils with an in depth understanding of the three strands of Computing. Lessons are sequenced and knowledge and skills are built upon year after year to maximise opportunities and learning for all pupils. At Garden Fields Computing is taught explicitly through weekly lessons and embedded into other areas of the curriculum to enable children to make links with their learning. We work in partnership with Sandringham School as part of the MAT to enrich our provision and prepare pupils for their future education.

At Garden Fields we strive to ensure that all pupils have equal access to our Computing curriculum. In both Computing lessons and other curriculum subjects pupils have access to class iPads, Chromebooks, bee-bots, pro-bots, code-a-pillars, microphones and headphones in school, along with additional technologies provided by the teaching hub of Sandringham.

Each child has a login to Purple Mash that can be accessed both in school and at home. Work can be saved and accessed by the class teacher for assessment and to observe pupil progress.

Each year, we celebrate Safer Internet Day, with activities planned from Reception to Year 6.

A weekly coding club has been implemented to extend pupils understanding of coding and promote a love of the subject.

The impact of our Computing curriculum is to promote the opportunity for every child to be a confident, creative and responsible digital citizen. We aim for the children to leave Garden Fields School with a secure grasp of how to use technology for a wide range of purposes. We want them to have the opportunity to work with a range of devices and experiment with the new skills they have been taught. Furthermore, we want children to understand how to respect the dangers of the internet, have strategies to cope with uncomfortable content and know where to get help and support. Ultimately, we aim to provide children with the knowledge, skills and enthusiasm to use technology to their benefit in their further education, educational career and beyond.

Miss Sheppard (KS1) & Miss Mobbs (KS2) are the Computing Subject Coordinators.