We aim to create confident, resilient, IT literate individuals and computer scientists who are prepared for the next stage of their learning and/or employment journey. We do this by ensuring our learners are well prepared practically with the skills involved in the industry.
We have high expectations for our learners and one way this is achieved is by ensuring there is appropriate challenge. Learners are encouraged to be reflective and to take responsibility for their own learning. Learners are expected to retrieve prior learning regularly and learn by making mistakes, as well as being coached to have the confidence to appraise, evaluate and improve their own work. The coding practical element of the computing curriculum develops learners’ resilience, whilst they master the ability to have attention to detail in the way of decoding instructions and problem solving to create solutions.
We encourage our students to enjoy and value the curriculum we deliver. We will ensure the students understand the relevance of what they are learning. We want learners to discuss, reflect and appreciate the impact computing has on their learning, development and wellbeing as well as their present and future lives.
Implementation
Schemes of learning at Key Stage 3 have been developed to link into the Key Stage 4 Computing and ICT curriculum. The curriculum is designed so that concepts learnt at Key Stage 3, can be advanced at Key Stage 4. The curriculum is focused on creating challenge for our learners and where learners are coached to become resilient by being reflective and solutions focused. This is achieved by: setting learning tasks that involve challenge; independent learning; flipped learning; problem-solving tasks; student reflection on marked pieces of work or through self-assessment.
Both the Computing and ICT curriculum is delivered in a computer-suite and learners access the material through Google Classroom. Learners access resources both in the classroom environment and at home to complete flipped learning and homework tasks. Students have access to a range of online resources and IT is used to enhance the learners’ experience.
We have partnered with PwC Tech Academy locally to deliver a series of workshops at Key Stage 3. The purpose of the programme is to inspire, encourage and prepare our learners for a world of technology through exposure to innovative digital education. PwC Hive Academy CI is committed to providing opportunities and experiences that will inspire the workforce of the future to pursue a career in technology.
PwC deliver bespoke lessons with subject experts at Key Stage 4 to bring the curriculum to life, where students further develop their knowledge and understanding of concepts within the curriculum but with the addition of understanding of how computing and ICT play out in real life organisations.
We feel the way we implement computing helps students realise the need for the right balance and one they can continue to build on in their next stage of education and beyond. We encourage regular discussions between staff and students to best embed and understand this.
Impact
The way students showcase, share, celebrate and publish their work will best show the impact of our curriculum. We also look for evidence through reviewing students’ knowledge and skills digitally through end of unit assessments and through feedback tools on Google Apps for Education, Kahoot and Microsoft Office. Progress of our computing curriculum is demonstrated through outcomes and the record of coverage in the process of achieving these outcomes.
Learner results show us that students achieved the following at GCSE:
Computer science 9-4 = 60%
ICT 9-4 = 75%
Learner feedback is conducted regularly.
The feedback suggests that learners develop resilience and their problem-solving skills and by the end of a programming unit of study, learners report enjoying this practical element of the course, which is often the most difficult and disliked part of the course at the start.
