Computing

ICT and Computing at Longcause
 

Our Curriculum has been broken down into specific areas:

Online Safety:

At Longcause, Online Safety is recognised as the essential core aspect of Computing.  Constant focus is afforded to how we can stay safe throughout our experiences with internet usage and with new and emerging technology.  We have constructed an Online Safety curriculum that has been tailored to our student's needs, enabling us to provide them with the best opportunities to keep themselves safe online. You can read more and find further information about Online Safety here. This has also incorporated the recent Education For a Connected World framework from the DfE. We consolidate this section of our curriculum with an annual Online Safety and Safer Internet Day in February.

Please refer to the Online Safety information at the bottom of this page for support and guidance, and our Online Safety Policy on the Safeguarding page of our website here.

Data:

This includes learning how to use a variety of programmes before progressing to Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, in order to represent data gathered from market research and opinion polling for presentation or analysis.

Multimedia:

This part of the curriculum teaches our students to use computers to create documents, images and animations. Here we also develop the skills to use and edit pictures and video footage, then make use of presentation software including Microsoft Powerpoint, and more recently, Adobe Spark to showcase their learning.

Programming:

This is mainly taught through the progressive use of Codeapillars, BeeBots, Spheros and Mindstorm EV3 before moving onto more intuitive software such as Kodu, Scratch and Tynkercad. All students are given the opportunity to create their own digital landscapes and games as they progress through the curriculum, alongside being encouraged to use reasoning into how simple algorithms work. 

Technology in our Lives:

Throughout the Technology in our Lives unit, we focus upon many of the contemporary trends that permeate people's everyday usage of ICT.  This includes internet and email usage, blogging, video conferencing and the creation of apps. To promote a positive use of the internet we have set up our own Facebook page to keep parents and the local community informed about what we are learning in school, and how we are learning to stay safe on the internet.