“Coding is today's language of creativity. All our children deserve a chance to become creators, instead of consumers, of computer science.” Maria Klawe
Maria Klawe is a computer scientist and served as the fifth president of Harvey Mudd College from 2006 to 2023.
Computing at St Thomas'
Technology plays a large part in everyday life for our children, our families and our staff.
Our intent for teaching Computing is to equip all our children with the knowledge, skills and understanding of computing which are necessary for them to successfully navigate an ever-changing digital world. We aim to empower our children to become logical thinkers, creative problem solvers and ultimately responsible digital citizens.
We use the ‘Teach Computing’ curriculum, written by the Department for Education, to help us deliver the teaching for Computing and ensure that our children have the most current content available. Our Computing curriculum covers three main areas: information technology, computer science and digital literacy. As children progress through St Thomas’, they will have experience in:
- Information Technology - word processing, presentations, data handling
- Computer Science - Coding and programming, understanding computer networks
- Digital Literacy - Using technology safely, analysing digital content
The curriculum is planned so that children have a range of opportunities to build on their knowledge and skills as they progress through school. We also build in opportunities for children to revisit, pracitse and use their knowledge and skills in purposeful learning opportunties across the curriculum. In addition to the explicit teaching of computing, we ensure that our children see the relevance of computing and plan opportunities for them to use their knowledge and skills across the wider curriculum.
All our Computing work and our PSHE work has a strong focus on teaching online safety to ensure our children have an awareness and understanding of how to safeguard and protect themselves and others online. We use the Project evolve materials to help us to teach onine safety to all our pupils. This programme is relevant and helps us to keep our teaching up to date as technology evolves rapidly, ensbling us to help our children learn how to keep themselves safe on line, how to use technology in a reponsible way and what to do if something online is worrying them.