Computing
At Old Earth, we provide a safe, secure, balanced Computing curriculum delivered through the award-winning platform - Purple Mash, which is continually evolving to keep up to the ever-changing technological world around us. The Purple Mash planning and assessment scheme is used throughout school providing National Curriculum coverage and progression for all learners. Our pupils develop essential Computing skills using a range of up-to-date technologies and have a strong understanding of E-Safety, taught through both focused Computing lessons and in PSHE. We provide our children with a safe environment to communicate electronically mirroring real life social media.
-
E-Safety is of paramount importance in our school. The E-Safety code (SMART) is highlighted through assemblies and embedded throughout the Computing curriculum. Our Digital Leaders have also shared their own knowledge & understanding in child-led assemblies. The ‘Worried about something - I need help’ form and CEOP button have been installed on the school website for children to report any online concerns. Children are actively using this to report concerns. The National Online Safety Resources (guides to various online games and social networking sites) have been uploaded to the website, posted on Twitter and promoted regularly in our weekly newsletter.
Pupils, staff and parents have signed updated Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) to ensure schools rigorous expectations are always met.
The school website is updated with current and informative information which children and parents find easy to navigate.
Daily life across school is shared through our safe, monitored whole school and year group Twitter pages, giving children a safe introduction to social networking. The school encourages parents to interact through both the Twitter pages and our website.
We have a strong link with the team at Education City and are a ‘Champion School’ providing support to other schools and testimonials of good practice. We subscribe to Education City giving us free home access for every pupil. In the past this has included visits from characters at Sports Day, free gifts and motivation/reward for our pupils. We are using Education City for our remote learning in most year groups, including it in our blending learning and homework activities.
The Computing strand leadership team monitors planning and have found that the work planned matches the curriculum and differentiation matches the needs of our learners.
Chromebooks and Samsung tablets are now primarily used throughout school.
