How we intend on computing being taught in our school?

At Our Lady and St Anselm's, our mission statement is 'Growing Together in Faith, Hope and Love'. We strive to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for our pupils, promoting valuable learning opportunities, whilst ensuring that we maintain our Catholic ethos and our desire to encourage each child to grow as confident and respectful individuals.  We understand that a good quality computing education is essential for pupils, and we want our children to develop high expectations of themselves and aspire to be responsible, resilient citizens; to be able to use and embed computing in a range of everyday situations throughout life in the 21st century.

What we aim to achieve in computing?

We aim for pupils to be able to collaborate with others, demonstrating excellent communication skills; but also to be independent thinkers, creative in their approaches to analysing and solving problems.  They should feel equipped to be able to use technology responsibly and safely, and self-assured in making decisions.  As part of a nurturing and caring  school community in Whitworth, we recognise that our pupils need to develop more awareness and understanding of both risks and safe practice when using technology appropriately in our increasingly digital world. We therefore place strong emphasis on raising and tackling online safety throughout our school.

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Mrs Lord is our computing subject leader. At Our Lady and St. Anselm's, our pupils are encouraged to develop skills in Digital Literacy, Information Technology and Computer Science. Our pupils are given opportunities to use computing skills across the curriculum. This ensures that they have a greater understanding of the principles of computing; can analyse and evaluate information in order to solve problems.

Mrs Lord also leads the eCadet team who promote online safety throughout the school. The eCadets meet weekly and discuss how to keep the children at OLSA safe when using the Internet at school and at home. Children at OLSA use the Internet on a regular basis as part of their learning, so it is vital that they are equipped to keep themselves safe online.

Purple Mash

We teach computing through Purple Mash. Purple Mash has various programmes to support the different components of the computing curriculum, for example, 2Code, 2Email, 2Blog. We also provide other opportunities to enhance the computing curriculum, for example, by using the cameras on the tablets to create films; Blue-bots to support map work.

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Computing Policy

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Visitors

Computer Xplorers

Every year, the children in KS2 have an opportunity to work with Computer Xplorers. During the sessions, the children develop their knowledge and skills in coding. Richard from Computer Xplorers also runs some after school club coding sessions with the children from Year 2 - Year 6.   

Clubs

Every week in assembly, our team of eCadets share tips on how to stay safe online and tell our pupils about any issues which have been raised in school. Their tips are also placed on the school newsletter to be shared with parents and carers too.

The Childnet Digital Leader Programme

The eCadets have started the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme, which will train them to be online safety peer mentors in school.

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