At Hilltop Primary Academy, we aim to give our pupils the opportunities to develop skills and gain knowledge that will equip them for an ever-changing digital world and fully prepare our learners for their future. Our Computing curriculum focuses on a progression of skills in digital literacy, computer science, information technology and online safety. We intend to model and educate our pupils on positive, responsible and safe use of technology. Areas of our curriculum are revisited repeatedly through a range of themes to ensure the learning is embedded and skills are progressively developed from early years to KS2 and beyond.

We follow the National Curriculum programme of study which covers all three areas of Computing: Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy. Computing is planned, taught, and assessed using the online scheme of work, resources, and assessment tool from Teach Computing, which shows clear skills and knowledge progression.  This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. 

In computer science, we teach children to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computing, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. To analyse problems and encourage children to develop their computational thinking skills to find a solution when writing their own computer programs.    

As part of information technology, children learn to use and develop their ideas through their creative use of computing, for example writing and presenting as well as exploring art and design using multimedia.

Within digital literacy, children develop practical skills in the safe and appropriate use of computing and the ability to apply these skills to solving relevant, worthwhile problems. Online safety is taught regularly within computing lessons as well as being taught as a unit each year through our PHSE curriculum.

By the time children leave our school they will:

  • Be competent, safe and responsible users of computing technology.  
  • Have developed skills to express themselves and be creative in using digital media. 
  • Can understand and apply the fundamental principles of computer science.  
  • Have developed resilience, so that they are equipped to evaluate and apply their skills in computing and different challenges they may face in the future