Miss Hannah Yates
Miss Yates is our Computing Subject Leader
“Computing is great at St Teresa’s because it teaches us how to code, text and be safe online. I love it!” Cianna (Y5)
“We get to do a variety of things and we can be creative – like when we did blogging, we could do our own things. It was great!” Lisa (Y6)
Computing is an integral part of our everyday life and will play an immeasurable part in our children’s futures. At St. Teresa’s, computing is a valued part of the curriculum and the children thrive in each lesson. We want to provide all children with the skills, creativity and enthusiasm to live and succeed in a world increasingly dependent on computing. As computing technology underpins today’s modern lifestyle it is essential that all pupils gain the confidence, innovation, creativity and ability that they need in this subject, to prepare them for the challenge of a rapidly developing and changing technological world.
At St Teresa’s we educate all children to be fully aware of the benefits (and significant risks) of the internet and to know how to safeguard themselves in this area. We want every child to have a thorough understanding of computing science and to be ‘digitally literate’ to use, and express themselves positively and responsibly, developing their ideas and creativity through digital technology. We encourage all children to have an understanding that technology is all around them and to be able to manage their own screen time, knowing that it is important to have time off line.
At St Teresa’s our aim is to provide a high-quality computing education through discrete lessons and through cross curricular activities. Opportunities are made available for all children to interact with a variety of technology in different ways alongside using a number of different resources both at school and borrowed.
In Pre-school and Foundation Stage children can select and use technology for a particular purpose and gain many experiences to explore different devices, including listening and recording devices, interactive whiteboards, computers and touch screen devices. They begin learning about being safe online too and the importance of balanced screen time through stories. Children start to explore coding through the use of bee bots and other computer programmes.
In Years 1 – 6 Computing is taught in discreet computing lessons – which focus on the curriculum skills of information technology (using computer systems to store, retrieve and send information), digital literacy (evaluating digital content and using technology safely and respectfully) and computer science (programming and understanding how digital systems work) - once a week with additional opportunities given throughout the timetable to develop skills further across other curriculum areas. Where appropriate other applications and programs are used alongside Purple Mash to ensure a ‘real life’ experience is made available to make the learning relevant and meaningful to each year group.
