Cherrywood Community Primary School
Computing
Curriculum Intent
At Cherrywood Community Primary School, we believe that computing education is essential for all children as it is at the heart of every 
modern household and is key to their journey through life. Children at Cherrywood are encouraged and supported to be able to use and express themselves as well as develop their ideas through information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world. We strive for pupils, who are equipped to use information technology, to create programs and a range of content whilst instilling fundamental behaviours, which will empower children to keep themselves safe online. The Computing curriculum has four key areas – Computer Science, Digital Literacy, Use of Technology and Safety.
Each year, the children undertake learning, which consolidates and builds on previous learning using common software packages such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, Publisher and Excel. Computing is planned and del
ivered in a way that is incorporated in as many subjects as possible: from English, art, mathematics to science and, design and technology, ensuring children are given opportunities to apply and consolidate their skills across all curriculum contexts as well as to provide an environment where access to computing resources is natural and commonplace. By doing this, we are also preparing our children to start secondary school with a solid subject knowledge which will enable them to access and further develop their knowledge of the subject, should they wish.
At Cherrywood children are given opportunities to work collaboratively as well as individually and it is through those opportunities that children develop their resilience as sometimes several attempts are required to achieve the desired outcome – whether this is collecting weather data linked to their rainforest topic or getting a series of sprites to complete tasks in a self-written program – children are encouraged to use a range of skills such as: communication, problem solving and debugging to achieve their end product.
The t
eaching of 
the Computing curriculum at Cherrywood is highly practical including a range of approaches: from unplugged activities to practical ones and all with the main focus of exploring (tinkering) and experimenting rather than passively listening to lengthy instructions. This approach enables all children to be successful and make excellent progress as a result.
The overall aim is to equip pupils with a high-quality Computing educa
tion in order for them to use computational thinking and creativity to understand, change the world and prepare them for the future. In order to keep pace with educational developments, children have access to the most effective and emerging technologies which include a range of equipment such as: laptops, Chromebooks, iPads, Lego robotics and Raspberry Pis, to ensure those goals are achieved.
Golden Threads
“Everyone should learn how to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think!” Steve Jobs
At Cherrywood we believe the teaching of Online Safety to be of paramount importance as children are more and more exposed to the exciting world online with all the risk and dangers it might offer. For this reason, Privacy and Security is one of our Golden Threads. We want our children to leave Cherrywood with a good understanding of how to stay safe online, by keeping their personal information safe.
Our second Golden Thread is Digital Literacy. We want children to be able to log in in, select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information. For this, and in order to keep pace with educational developments, children have access to the most effective and emerging technologies which include a range of equipment such as: Chromebooks, iPads, Lego robotics and Raspberry Pis and Micorbits, to ensure those threads are achieved.
Computing in action
