What do we teach in Computing at Bridge? 

Computing at Bridge

At Bridge Junior School, our aim is to encourage students to be ‘young citizens of conscience’ and lifelong learners through a rapidly changing world. Our computing curriculum has been designed to equip children with the creative and transferable skills to in order to prepare them for the technological revolution and the world of work. We want children to be safe in the digital world by supporting them with techniques and knowledge to remain safe online. It is essential for children to know how to access ideas, experiences and knowledge from a wide range of sources, thus encouraging them to make links across their learning. The deliberate practice we would like our children to develop regularly are Computer science, Digital literacy and IT. We will build knowledge and skill incrementally to ensure they can use technical vocabulary and apply transferable computing skills to the tasks set. Through the computing curriculum, children are enabled to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information with technology. The computing curriculum helps to build this deliberate practice regularly and equips children with a love and proficiency in computing, which will help them in all areas of the curriculum.  

Staying safe online

Here are some tips and useful links to help you to keep your children safe online:

• Make sure your child understands if someone asks to meet them in the real world, they must tell you about it. If someone they don’t know who asks to be their online friend, they must ask you first.
• Know how to use the CEOP Button and how to report to the CEOP Centre if you are concerned about someone’s online behaviour towards your child.

• Parents and children can both report at CEOP or ThinkUKnow
• Visit www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/ or www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers for more information
• Visit the age-appropriate related sites: 5-7s (Hector's World), 8-10 (Cybercafe)

Useful video resources can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/topics/stay-safe

Tips & Useful Links:

Make sure your child understands they should keep new online friends strictly online.

The following links provide some great information:

http://www.ceop.gov.uk/

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/parents

http://stopcyberbullying.org/

http://diana-award.org.uk/anti-bullying/

http://www.childline.org.uk/

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/hectorsworld

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/cybercafe/cyber-cafe-base

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/topics/stay-safe

Child-friendly search engine for kids

http://swiggle.org.uk

Computer Languages used at Bridge:

• Scratch - Scratch Offline Editor (mit.edu)
• Kodu 

In Bridge Junior School we have a variety of hardware and software for the children to use. Children use laptops, iPads, digital cameras etc, as shown in the photos above, to aid and support their learning in a particular topic. We are registered with various websites where children can utilise online learning and have installed offline software. Additionally, we also work with the children to improve their digital literacy skills through classroom lessons and displays. Children use programming languages 'Scratch' and 'Kodu' to code on laptops and iPads in Computer Science.

Our onsite technician, Mr. Knifton, looks after our school network as well the hardware associated with it.