COMPUTING:

At Market Harborough Church of England Academy, we aim to deliver a Computing Curriculum that inspires our children to be critical thinkers and effective communicators; we believe that having a strong foundational knowledge in computing enables them to develop these essential skills.  With our dedicated Computer Suite and Specialist Computing Teacher we deliver a strong base for a deep understanding of this key element of primary education. Our computing curriculum, based on the NC programme of study, has been broken down into 4 key areas to enable children to progress their skills and understanding as they move through the school. 

The key areas are as follows:

• Computer systems and networks – how technology works. 
• Programming and computational thinking– systematic and logical thinking that embraces efficiencies and refining if ideas.  
• Creating Media - how to communicate using technology - including how to operate basic interfaces and a range of programmes including Microsoft Office tools.  
• Digital Citizenship including online safety – how to use the technology effectively, appropriately and safely.  

It is our belief that Computing at its core is about communication and a way of thinking.  Through the explicit taught development of computational thinking we can create a community of critical thinkers that are confident in reviewing their own work, looking for ‘bugs’, or errors.  They will also develop tools for improving and refining ideas and finding efficiencies, both systematically and confidently.  Good computing embraces a culture of mistakes, and learning from them – correcting programming errors and enjoying the process of refining ideas and thinking of different ways of achieving the same goals (e.g. programming loops for efficiency) are skills that are wholly transferable to the wider world and the communities our pupils will go on to shape.