At St Mary's Catholic Primary School we aim to offer a broad and balanced computing curriculum that prepares to 'use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world.' There are three aspects of the computing curriculum: computer science, information technology and digital literacy. 

The core of computing is computer science, in which pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. 

Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate - able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through information and communication technology - at a level suitable for the future work place and as active participants in the digital world.

At St Mary's Catholic Primary School we use Purple Mash to support our curriculum needs. Within our curriculum Online safety is an explicit strand of work at all key stages. St Mary's will provide:

'A progressive curriculum that is flexible, relevant and engages pupils' interest; that is used to promote online safety through teaching pupils how to stay safe, how to protect themselves from harm and how to take responsibility for their own and others' safety.'

The online safety strand is to be taught across the whole year, incorporated into all our work and pupils recognise the importance of this area of computing, with specific online safety days held annually.  For more information on online safety, please visit our online safety page. 

We are fortunate to have a class set of I-pads for the children to use when developing their computing skills, as well as a number of computers available to use in the Junior classes. We have a set of programmable toys in Key stage 1 and Key stage 2 and access to a wide variety of different programs and apps, that help us provide a creative, fun, engaging curriculum for all our pupils. 

For any further information about our computing curriculum please feel free to contact Mrs. McGrath ( Subject Lead) or Mrs. M.Ormsby ( Computing Governor).