Intent

Children at Edwalton will understand what it means to be a good digital citizen and make good choices about their online behaviour and treatment of others. Our intent is to educate the children about how technology can enrich their learning and their daily lives by allowing them the opportunity to investigate and explore the digital world around them. By giving the children critical analytical skills they will understand how to evaluate information and communication to determine what can be trusted, treated with caution or reported (for example in the case of cyberbullying). The children will be able to confidently utilise digital technology to create and present examples of their learning (such as the creation of the Stargazing documentaries in Year 5) as well as develop computer science skills such as coding, which will link to their future view of the world.

Implementation

All staff will work to a framework (Purple Mash) which outlines the key skills that are required across each year group. The children’s knowledge and skills will develop year on year as the delivery of the curriculum becomes embedded and therefore the scope and scale of the projects delivered will also increase in complexity as they progress through the school. By Year 6 the children will be able to create their own digital games by using the skills and knowledge gained over the course of their time in the school. Across all year groups children will be given a range of opportunities to use technology across subjects to create their own projects linked to the context of the school – for example using technology for creating content for fundraising for the farm or raising awareness of environmental issues such as films to raise awareness of deforestation. Furthermore, technology will be used as an enabler to deliver core curriculum content in an engaging and meaningful way in school and at home, for example TT Rockstars for Maths and Spelling Shed for English.

Impact

Children from Edwalton have a wealth of digital knowledge and will be critical thinkers when it comes to digital content and be able to evaluate benefits and risks associated with online behaviour. They will draw the links between the online and offline world and how they are integrated and therefore their behaviour online needs to have the same checks in place as if they were offline (e.g. stranger danger). This has been evidenced when pupils were recently interviewed and children in Year 2 were able to clearly articulate the SMART rules for staying safe online. Children develop computing science skills that are at a minimum in line with expectations of the National Curriculum and in many cases exceeding what is expected for their age group in order to best prepare them for the digital world of the future. As importantly children will find computing a fun and engaging subject that they want to explore safely and independently.