Intent

At Cherry Orchard, we want to prepare our learners for their future by giving them opportunities to gain knowledge and skills that will equip them for the ever-changing digital world.  Technology is instrumental in pupils’ lives both at home and at school and in their future employment.  Therefore, we want to model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and appropriately.

Our curriculum is based upon a progressive model that equips pupils to use information technology (IT), digital literacy (DL) and computer science (CS).  We have developed a clear scheme closely following the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) Teach Computing curriculum.  The curriculum content is organised into interconnected concepts. The end points for each strand are clear and this can be viewed through computing evidence books or folders and in pupils’ online storage spaces.  Each lesson is planned so that it reinforces prior knowledge and builds upon pupils’ knowledge and skills. 

Computer science is the core of the computing curriculum, where children are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to apply this knowledge through programming. Using this as a foundation, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate at a level suitable for the future workplace as active participants of a digital world.