At Whitelands Academy we believe that our students should have the opportunity to follow an IT and Computing curriculum that prepares them for life in modern Britain so that they can take advantage of opportunities that this can offer them in both Britain and the wider world.
Our curriculum is ambitious and academic
We believe that good quality IT skills enable the student to engage positively within the modern workplace, while Computer Science skills enable students to take an active part in the design, development, and creation of new technologies to be used in the world in which they live.
The planned curriculum includes a breadth of knowledge relating to computer science, information technology and digital literacy. Declarative knowledge (‘knowing that’) and procedural knowledge (‘knowing how’) are identified, sequenced, and connected in the curriculum.
Skilful use of technology is underpinned by procedural and declarative knowledge.
We have the same ambitious expectations for all students and so aim for all students to achieve the same learning objectives with scaffolding to support any students who need it through our SEN 6 strategies.
Our curriculum is broad and balanced
We follow the National Curriculum however we intend to broaden this to ensure that students understand how technology works, how it can be developed and utilised and how we can extend our understanding of a wide range of other subjects by using different software.
In KS3 we aim to challenge our students early by introducing them to the programming concepts of Sequence, Selection, and Iteration. With these skills they will be able to understand and utilise computational thinking.
Students are offered Coding and computer clubs and trips have been embedded into the curriculum design.
Our curriculum promotes core literacy
Students will develop literacy and numeracy skills through software development and will further develop their problem-solving and evaluation skills throughout their curriculum. We include key words in every lesson, introduced using dual coding, which enable the students to be able to relate and understand the unit more successfully.
Our curriculum is engaging
It incorporates knowledge and understanding and application of the key concepts and principles of Computer Science which help them to:
- Understand the fundamental principles and concepts of Computer Science.
- Be able to apply key algorithms and data representation and mathematical skills through practical and theoretical work.
- Understand the key components that make up digital systems and how they communicate.
- Understand the impacts of digital technology to the individual, wider society, the ethical changes and cultural impacts as well as the positive and negative impacts digital technology has had on the environment.
- To equip learners with a range of creative media skills and provide opportunities to develop, in context, desirable, transferable skills in areas such as research, planning and evaluation.
Our curriculum builds on foundational knowledge
To ensure that all students understand the key concepts and can assimilate what they have learnt, each lesson is designed specifically to enable the students to recall the knowledge from previous lessons. This will include DNA (Do Now Activity) KOs (Knowledge Organisers) and Home learning quizzes where the questions are planned using the theory spaced learning.