Great Smeaton Primary School

Curriculum - Computing

Our high-quality Computing curriculum, with an emphasis on providing a safety-aware computing education, equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Children have opportunities to develop the principles of information and computation and put this knowledge into practice, increasingly through programming.

The curriculum has been designed to engage and inspire children and encourage them to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. We provide a carefully selected and sequenced progression, incorporating key declarative and procedural knowledge, enabling pupils to become increasingly digitally literate and safety aware. This includes being able to express themselves and develop ideas through information and communication technology, whilst building their own cultural capital.

At Great Smeaton, we use a specially designed programme called ‘Purple Mash’ which supports the school with the delivery of high-quality computing lessons from EFYS all the way through to Year 6. Every year group has a unit on online safety and this is also revisited throughout the year. These lessons are always fun and engaging and pupil feedback has been excellent!

We are delighted to have a bank of laptops and ipads to ensure children leave our school as responsible online citizens, with the digital resilience to cope in our ever-changing world.

We also provide ‘Digital Parenting' Information, to help families to support safe use of the internet.

Internet Safety

The internet is an amazing resource which enables children and young people to connect, communicate and be creative in many different ways, on a range of devices. However, the internet is always changing, and being able to keep up to date with your children’s use of technology can be a challenge. You may sometimes feel that your children have better technical skills than you do, however, children and young people still need advice and protection when it comes to managing their lives online.

Internet Safety is an integral part of the Computing Curriculum here at Great Smeaton School and children are routinely taught different aspects of safety on a termly basis.

In addition to this, our school newsletter often contains advice on how to stay safe online at home and in school. This regularly includes information about apps and games children are playing as well as support for parents in facilitating discussions about this topic. Copies of the newsletter, including historic copies, can be downloaded from the 'Newsletters' section of the website.

On this page, there are a number of documents as well as some weblinks that may help you to keep your children safe online.

For further support with this matter, please ask your child’s Class Teacher or our Designated Safeguarding Lead Miss Munford-Fenwick.

On The Internet Book

'On the internet' is a learning-to-read book for children aged 4 and above. The large, bright illustrations show all the different ways that the internet can be used for.

Find 'On the Internet' here: https://www.childnet.com/resources/a-learning-to-read-book

Other Childnet books for younger children include:

Smartie the Penguin (3 to 7 year olds)
https://www.childnet.com/resources/smartie-the-penguin

Digiduck's Big Decision (3 to 7 year olds)
https://www.childnet.com/resources/digiduck-stories

Social Media and Cyber-advice Posters (PDSC/ChildSafeVPN)

Police Digital Security Centre (PDSC) is a not-for-profit organisation, owned by the police, who believe that the majority of cyber crime can be prevented by taking a few simple steps.

PDSC partners, ChildsafeVPN has created a set of useful infographics about cyber-safety aspects of the main apps and sites that young people may come across.

The posters are particularly useful for parents.

You can download the posters here: https://www.policedsc.com/security-advice/safeguarding

Free National Online Safety Courses for Parents

https://nationalonlinesafety.com/courses/online-safety-klass-for-parents-and-carers-ages-4-7

https://nationalonlinesafety.com/courses/online-safety-klass-for-parents-and-carers-ages-7-11