Computing

At Monkwick Infant and Nursery School, we believe that learning is a change in the working memory.

We aim to ensure that our children experience a wide breadth of study and have, by the end of each key stage, a long-term memory of an ambitious body of procedural and semantic knowledge.

Our curriculum drivers shape our curriculum breadth. They are derived from an exploration of the backgrounds of our children, our beliefs about high-quality education and our values. They are used to ensure that we give our children appropriate and ambitious curriculum opportunities. 

Cultural capital gives our children the vital background knowledge required to be informed and thoughtful members of our community who understand and believe in British values.

Our curriculum distinguishes between subject topics and ‘threshold concepts’. Subject topics are the specific aspects of subjects that are studied. The threshold concepts tie together the subject into meaningful schema. The same concepts are explored in a wide breadth of topics. This ‘forwards and backwards engineering’ of the curriculum allows our children to return to the same concepts over and over again and gradually build an understanding of them. 

The retrieval of knowledge helps students to relate each topic to previously studied topics and to form strong, meaningful schema. We know that working memory is limited and that cognition load is too high if children are rushed through content. This limits the acquisition of long-term memory. Cognitive science also tells us that for children to become creative thinkers or to have a greater depth of understanding, they must first master the basics, which takes time.

During Key Stage 1, children will gradually progress in their procedural fluency and semantic strength through three cognitive domains: remembering, knowing and reasoning. The aim is that by the end of KS1 our children can display sustained mastery. Children will secure knowledge, facts and concepts and will have the ability to apply, analyse, evaluate and prove. 

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognition science; three main principles underpin it:

• Learning is most effective with spaced repetition

• Interleaving helps our children to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention

• Retrieval of previously learnt content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength. 

In addition to the three principles, we also understand that learning is invisible in the short-term memory and that sustained mastery takes time. Our content is subject-specific. We make intra-curriculum links to strengthen schema wherever possible.

Continuous provision, in the form of daily routines, replaces the teaching of some aspects of the curriculum and, in other cases provides the retrieval practice for previously learnt content. 

Because learning is a change in the long term memory it is impossible to see impact in the short term. We do, however, use probabilistic assessment based on deliberate practice. This means that we look at the practices taking place to determine whether they are appropriate, related to our goals and likely to produce results in the long run. We use comparative judgement to two ways: in the end outcomes of a unit of work and in comparing a child’s work over time.

We use lesson observations to see if the pedagogical style matches our depth expectations and the pupil's voice to quality assure what the children have been taught. 

Our children will become confident computing technicians by understanding these threshold concepts in KSI. 

Nursery, Early Years and KS1

As a school we believe that technology is developing constantly and the children will need this as they continue to develop within the ever-changing digital world. Due to this, we have developed our own curriculum statements introducing the basics to computing and technology that will then be built upon throughout their time at Monkwick Infant School. These statements are split into the headings, key skills, code, connect, communicate, collect (our threshold concepts).

In order for our children to understand computer science and become digitally literate we have devised a computing and technology curriculum that offers cross curricular links and one that consolidates previous taught skills. We have planned a curriculum that allows for inspiring and successful learning opportunities for all. Computing science will be taught in a cross curricular manner through carefully linked topics that engage the children; a curriculum that deepens children’s knowledge so that they have the key skills to become active participants in the ever changing digital world.

Our children will become Computer Scientists by:

• Key Skills:  In the ever-developing digital world, all pupils need to be taught the basic key skills needed to use a range of digital devices. These key skills will be developed and built upon throughout their time at Monkwick Infant school.

• Code: It is essential that children have a fundamental understanding of coding within Computing. The children need to be able to understand that humans control computers and we give them instructions and these instructions need to have logic and sequencing. Children will build upon their knowledge of coding throughout their time at Monkwick Infant School, starting in Early Years. Children will be given individual logins within Year 1 and Year 2 in the form of Wonde emojis.

• Connect: As a school, we believe online safety is paramount to safeguarding our pupils. In an ever-changing digital world, it is essential children understand how to safely connect with others using technology. Children need to have the knowledge, understanding and awareness around online safety. Every child needs to be aware of the age-related risks they can face online and have the confidence to deal with situations and report their concerns to a safe adult. Involving parents in how to promote online safety is key to ensuring children remain safe when both in and outside of school.

• Communicate: Using technology in the world we live in today enables us to communicate with those near and far. Developing children’s understanding of how to communicate and share ideas in a range of different ways will enable them to be equipped for the digital world they will grow up in. Children will use a range of different technologies and apps in order to meet the curriculum objectives. These have been selected as age-appropriate for the children within our school.

• Collect: Children need to be taught that computers are used to collect data in various different ways. We then use technology to save data and retrieve this information in the future.

Vocabulary

As a school we have carefully selected appropriate vocabulary that will help support the children with becoming digitally literate. Vocabulary is vital to deepen our children’s knowledge and so we have created a bank of words to be used during the teaching of Computing and Technology