Primary Computing Curriculum
Class Teaching, Staff Training, Planning Support
Specialist Support and Resources
We offer specialist teaching to cover the new computing programmes of study. We are able to cover content in an engaging and effective way using a range of iPad Apps ( iPads will be provided for use by staff/pupils). The activities have been prepared by experienced teachers through close communication with the app developers and programmers.
By teaching these lessons to pupils aged 7 - 11 years old, they will learn to work with a range of programming apps, in an engaging, challenging and fun way. The apps have been chosen as a way of introducing pupils to the ideas they'll use in programming, and could form part, but not all of the new Computer Science curriculum. Online resources such as Scratch and Kudo should also be considered and different programming languages, such as Python and HTML.
By completing these lessons the pupils will be more familiar with certain programming concepts, which are standard across different programming languages. If the pupils in your class have no prior knowledge of programming it is important to give them experience with basic programming apps such as A.L.E.X. before they’re are ready to tackle some of the more advanced programming techniques in later lesson plans.
The lesson plans include; learning objectives, video tutorials, activities, questions and assessment opportunities. In each lesson the pupils should learn to test programs that they’ve created and understand how it works and have time to reflect, evaluate and consolidate their learning. The pupils should be prepared that their code isn’t always going to work first time and be taught to debug through trail and error as part of the learning process and encouraged to discover “what will happen if I do this?” Mistakes in programming should be seen as normal. Programmers will make mistakes.
Opportunities should be given to pupils to share their finished programs. Giving the opportunity for pupils to create something for a specific audience is a crucial part of the learning process and gives the pupils real pride in their work.