Computing

“Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn.” Steven Hawking.

What is Computing?

In computing, pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, how to use them and how to use this knowledge.

Computing at Cockton Hill Junior School:

Computing at Cockton Hill Junior School focuses on three strands: computer science, information technology and digital literacy.

Computer Science covers the ‘how’. How computers and computer systems work and how they are designed and programmed. Computer Science includes understanding how a school network and the internet works. Information Technology is the application of Computing. Ensuring pupils can use a wide range of products and software to enable them to plan, develop and create. These should cover a variety of media such as video, audio, art, photography or music. Digital Literacy is about the understanding and implications and why you are choosing to use something for a particular purpose. This strand also covers Online Safety, knowing how to use the internet safely, respectfully and responsibly.

Here you will find our Computing curriculum overview as well as unit overviews. These show the key knowledge and skills for each unit as well as some questions you can ask your child at home.

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Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Our curriculum in action

Year 3 : Computing systems and networks - Improving mouse skills

Year 3 started their computing journey in Cockton Hill Junior School with the basics of logging on, saving work and using the internet to navigate to a website. The children were introduced to an online program ‘Sketchpad’ where they were able to improve their mouse skills to select objects, resize them and position them on screen.

Year 3: Computing systems and networks - Networks and the internet

This term, Year 3 learnt what a network is and identified parts of our school network. They found out how websites appear on screens and that information is carried across the internet in data packets.

Year 3: Computing systems and networks - Emailing

Year 3 found out about email as a method of communication. They practised sending emails to each other through Microsoft 365 and learnt how to add an attachment. They know the importance of communicating kindly. They also found out that phishing is a hazard of emailing when someone tries to trick them into giving away personal information.

Year 3: Programming - Scratch

This term, Year 3 started to learn about coding. They used Scratch to explore what the program can do before decomposing projects to look at the code used. They also explored using loops to make repetitions in their programs.

Year 3: Creating Media

Year 3 learnt that technology can be used to share messages about lots of different things. They then planned a book trailer to share their ideas about a book. They used digital cameras to take photographs from different angles and used video editing software to create their trailer adding captions and sound.

Year 3: Online Safety

Year 3 covered online safety messages throughout the year and celebrated Safer Internet Day in February. They learnt that not everything they read or see online is true and that any information given can have facts and opinions. They found that they should always ask permission before posting anything online and how the information shared might make others feel. They learnt which information is safe to share online. They also recognised that things online can make them feel different ways and they should tell a trusted adult if those feelings are uncomfortable. Finally, they discovered that different social media platforms have different age restrictions and some ways in which they can stay safe on those they can use.

Year 4: Computing systems and networks - Collaborative learning

This term, Year 4 learnt how to log on to Microsoft 365 accounts. Once there, they worked collaboratively to see how documents can be changed and edited by multiple users in real time. They were able to share documents with others and create and share a digital survey, formatting a spreadsheet to show their findings.

Year 4: Programming - Coding with scratch

This term, Year 4 built on their Year 3 experience with Scratch to look more closely at the blocks needed for programming. They learnt to adjust their sprite’s position on the stage using the x and y co-ordinate values. They found out that sprites can have more than one script of programming and learnt to create a variable. They also investigated using if/else blocks when creating a mini quiz.

Year 4: Creating media - Website design

This term, Year 4 got creative using Sway on Microsoft 365 to design their own web page. They found out that web sites are collections of pages linked together and that these can contain images, text, videos and links. They learnt to add a title, background, image and hyperlink in Sway, using the stack feature to display their images and create their own web page.

Year 4: Programming - Computational thinking

In this unit of work, Year 4 learnt what computational thinking is and how information can be presented in a simple way to help with this. They found that by using decomposition they could break problems down into manageable, smaller parts and that made it easier to solve problems. They learnt that pattern can be important in helping to identify familiar outcomes and that abstraction is identifying important details. Using these skills, they then applied it to solving computational thinking problems. They found out that an algorithm is a set of instructions to follow and programmed their own algorithm for drawing a square in Scratch.

Year 4: Data Handling

In this unit of work, children learnt to predict and record the weather. They learnt that data could be collected by sensors. They located weather data online and were able to enter it into an Excel spreadsheet before using the sort tool to order their information. They also used the graph feature to show their recorded data in a graph.

Year 4 : Online Safety

This year, Year 4 found out how to safely search for information online and to check for bias or authenticity. They investigated the way people are encouraged to buy online by advertising and influencers and why social media influencers encourage buying. They learnt the difference between facts, opinions and beliefs and were able to sort comments accordingly. Year 4 learnt more about bots and how these are changing our world. They talked about the benefits and risks. Finally, they looked at technology as a whole and how it can be both a positive and a negative distraction in our lives.

Year 5: Computing systems and networks - Search engines

In this unit of work, Year 5 learnt all about search engines. They were surprised to find that different search engines gave different results and that some are more private than others. They found out the importance of the key words chosen when searching and that facts need to be checked on different sites as not everything they read online is true. They learnt about copyright and used images along with facts they had found to create a poster about Space.

Year 5: Programming - Music

Year 5: Data Handling - Mars Rover

Year 5: Online Safety

Year 6: Computing systems and networks - Bletchley Park

Year 6 learnt all about ciphers and secret codes. They found some techniques for deciphering and found out that brute force hacking uses a trial and error approach to try to access private information. They learnt about the first electronic computer that was built to help crack codes during WWII and some of the important historical figures in Computing.