Computing

Our Philosophy:

Computing capability is an essential attribute for 21st century life. We live in a technological world and there is no escape from the reality that technology is integrated into the lives of young children. Just as we ensure the children in our care are ready for the adult world by teaching them maths and literacy, we should also make sure that they are fluent in computer literacy and most important online safety. At Brighton Avenue Primary School, we consider Computing to be a core curriculum subject and it is therefore given a high priority in school. We therefore aim to incorporate Computing into teaching and learning as much as possible, through both discreet lessons and cross curricular opportunities. We believe Computing should be a core part of the curriculum giving learners access to an ever-widening range of information, equipment and materials. We take steps to regularly update our curriculum to ensure it is agile enough to accommodate the ever-changing innovation in the tools and activities which are prevalent in society to date. We recognise that the best prevention for many issues that we currently see relating to technology and social media is through education.

Our Aims:

The principals of teaching Computing at Brighton Avenue Primary School are consistent with our school philosophy and take into account the National Curriculum Guidance for Computing. (See Computing Policy for further information).

Principles of Teaching Computing:

• To become critical thinkers and able to understand how to make informed and appropriate digital choices in the future.
• To understand the importance that computing will have going forward in both their educational and working life and in their social and personal futures.
• To understand how to balance time spent on technology and time spent away from it in a healthy and appropriate manner.
• To understand that technology helps to showcase their ideas and creativity. They will know that different types of software and hardware can help them achieve a broad variety of artistic and practical aims.
• To show a clear progression of technical skills across all areas of the National curriculum - computer science, information technology and digital literacy.
• To be able to use technology both individually and as part of a collaborative team.
• To be fully aware of online safety issues and protocols and be able to deal with any problems in a responsible and appropriate manner.
• To have an awareness of developments in technology and have an idea of how current technologies work and relate to one another.
• To ensure teachers have access to quality CPD and good practise is shared within and outside of school.

Online safety

Keeping children safe while using the wide range of technology available to them, both at school and in the home environment, is of the upmost importance to all staff at Brighton Avenue. These skills are well embedded within our computing curriculum.

Securus Filtering and Monitoring Software is in place at the school to monitor the online & offline activity of pupils against a wide range of concerns; to find out more about this check out the document below.

Being online presents lots of great opportunities for children, from supporting them with school work to communicating with friends and family. However, being online can also come with numerous risks. At home is where your child will spend most of their time online, so it is vital for you to know how to help keep them safe.

Key considerations

Sharing information:

Does your child overshare when they are on the Internet? Do they know not to share personal information such as their full name or address online? Spend time talking to your child about what is safe and not safe to share online.

Age restrictions:

Are you aware of the content your child is accessing? Some content out there is not suitable for children. If children are playing games online, they usually come with an age certification but when accessing online content through a video streaming platform, this is not always the case. Encourage your child to ask you for guidance when accessing new content or websites so you can help show them if it is safe and/or suitable for them. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Gaming:

More and more games are regularly available for your child to access online. Online games may involve online chats, live chats or include pop-up advertisements that encourage your children to buy products or more lives. Regularly chat to your child about what games they are playing online and what peripheral content they might be subjected to. Websites such as https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ can also support you with keeping up to date with new games that are available and their age restrictions.

Online Bullying:

Children find it a lot easier to be hurtful towards others when they are online than face to face. Encourage regular talks with your child about how to be kind when they are online. When online, your child could also be a victim of bullying. If you do suspect your child is being bullied, talk to them and ask them to explain what is happening. All apps and websites have the ability to block and report users. You can use this website to find out how help to keep your child safe from cyberbullying: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-childabuse/types-of-abuse/bullying-and-cyberbullying/ kapowprimary.com

Online grooming:

It is important for your child to understand that not everybody they meet online is who they say they are. Regularly review your child’s friends and contacts and ask them who they have been talking to online. Any incidents can be reported to https://www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre/

Screen time:

With an increased dependency on technology, it can sometimes be hard to reach a balance between screen time and ‘non-screen’ time. Encourage activities away from the screen such as playing a board game or going for a walk.

Online Safety checklist for you at home:

• Ensure that location is disabled on any device your child uses so your child can’t accidentally share their location.
• Either ensure that no credit cards or bank details are linked on your child’s device, or if they are, make sure they can only be used with a password.
• On some devices, parents receive a message when their child tries to download any apps – on Apple, this is called Ask to Buy and can be used on Family Sharing.
• Ensure that devices are set up appropriately for children by choosing “child” during the set-up process.
• Check children’s privacy settings on any social network they are using to ensure they cannot be contacted by people they don’t know.
• Have regular conversations with your child to find out what they are doing online, to find out if they are having any worries and problems.
• Encourage a healthy balance between ‘screen’ and ‘non-screen time’. Parental settings do allow for devices to be locked after a set time.
   

Please find below more information about online safety and some of the resources we have accessed to support our planning and teaching (See Acceptable Internet Use Policy and Child protection policy for further information):

Every week, we will update our 'Weduc' app with similar online safety guides, like the ones below, for parents and carers. We believe in empowering parents, carers and trusted adults with the information to hold an informed conversation about online safety with their children, should they feel it is needed. These guided focus on some of the many issues we believe parents should be aware of. If you require further advice, please do not hesitate to speak to any member of staff in school.

Further to this, we ask staff, children and parents to sign an acceptable use agreement (please see below). We ask all students, staff and adults involved in the life of Brighton Avenue to sign an Acceptable Use Policy , which is a document that outlines how we expect them to behave when they are online, and/or using school networks, connections, internet connectivity and devices, cloud platforms and social media (both when on school site and outside of school). These rules have been written to help keep everyone safe and happy when they are online or using technology. Sometimes things go wrong and people can get upset, but these rules should help us avoid it when possible, and be fair to everybody. School systems and users are protected and monitored by security and filtering services to provide safe access to digital technologies. This means anything on a school device or using school networks/platforms/internet may be viewed by one of the staff members who are here to keep children safe. 

23-24

Safer Internet Day - 6th February 2024

As part of our Computing learning, we always remind our pupils how to be safe online.  This week we drew special attention to this as it was Safer Internet Day on Tuesday.  Across the school, pupils took the opportunity to engage in age-appropriate activities to explore some of the key messages about how to be safe in the online world and look out for each other's and own wellbeing.

Below are some photos from our fun day.

Here is a link for parents for further information:

https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2024/parents-and-carers

VEX Robotics - Spring 1
 

On Monday 15th January our VEX Robotics Team went to NISSAN to compete in the Robotics Championships. They completed a variety of challenges, including driving their robot around a field to gain as many points as they could by knocking over blocks, collecting blocks and parking. They also completed coding challenges where their robot continued to collect blocks and complete its obstacle course. The children also worked alongside other schools, they had to ensure they had a game plan so that each school could work to its strengths. As well as this, the team were interviewed by a set of judges, where they discussed how they have continued evaluating and creating solutions to problems they have come up with. The children were absolutely AMAZING!!!!! They have had an extremely successful day where they have learnt new skills and developed their engineering and coding skills! Mrs Jones and Mr Livings are super proud of you. 

Autumn 2 - Visit from Dr Steve Bunce from The Partnership for Robotics, Royal Grammar School Newcastle

Dr Bunce came to work with our VEX IQ team, together we worked on a strategic plan for our competition. After some problems with coding, we reset the motors and re-programmed our inputs and came up with a range of solutions. We had a fantastic afternoon and achieved so much!

Autumn 1, 2023: VEX IQ After-school club

Following on from the success of our VEX IQ extra-curricular club in the 2022-2023 National Championships (see last years STEAM and the DT pages), the children and staff are excited to continue the VEX IQ club with Mrs Jones and Mr Livings.

VEX Robotics is one of the leading platforms for educational robotics around the world. With the plastic VEX IQ platform for Key Stages 2 and the metal VEX EDR Cortex and V5 kits for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 it is perfectly placed to allow students to grow and develop in an open-ended, problem-solving and engaging way. The programming software, ranging from Modkit, a simple drag and drop format, through to the more advanced Robot C based on C++ language makes VEX accessible to all.

The VEX Robotics kits are used as part of extra-curricular VEX Robotics. The VEX IQ competitions are the largest and fastest growing robotics competition in the world with events held each year across the UK. Involvement in the competition develops key skills including teamwork, time management, perseverance – all of which are valued by employers.

We’re looking forward to what knowledge and skills the children will share with the rest of the school!

Mr Livings & Mrs Jones

 Autumn 1, 2023

Mrs Jones successfully applied for and we were able to participate in a fully funded coding, training course.

On Tuesday and Thursday 24^th and 26^th October, the Year 5s went to Nissan, Sunderland, to take part in the coding and programming workshop: the children and staff said it was amazing!

The coding and programming workshop, allowed the Nissan Skills Foundation to engage with the Year 5s and deliver a coding programme that made daunting topics like the engineering behind an electric vehicle fun and to encourage children to consider careers of which they may have never dreamed!

The Nissan Skills Foundation was created to engage young people across the North East in the world of engineering, manufacturing and design whilst also raising aspirations. At Nissan, they aim to inspire the next generation to discover new passions in STEAM by delivering a range of fun and exciting programmes: the children said it was inspirational to see the range of careers they can have!

Nissan Skills Foundation Core Objectives:

• Raise interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in primary, secondary and tertiary schools
• Raise the aspirations of local youngsters to show that social issues, economic background and gender are not barriers to a potential career in Engineering and Mathematics
• Raise awareness of opportunities and the desire to work in the Manufacturing and Engineering sector
• Engage with the broader community

Summer 23

LKS2 have been building their own websites. Please see the links below and take a look. They look so professional!

Y4JM have been learning about HTML and CSS. They were able to edit some very popular websites to say whatever they wanted!

VEX IQ National Championships 04.03.23 - 06.03.23

Wow! What a weekend we’ve had at the VEX IQ national championships! We travelled down on Saturday and had a early night ready for 2 full days of the competition. An early start on Sunday morning meant we were on time to have our robot checked before the games began. After a total of 9 matches on Sunday we went back to our accommodation exhausted, and ranking 12th at the end of day one. Monday was another day full of games. After a successful morning we were ranking 5th and made the finals in the afternoon. We placed third in the final during our teamwork matches. What an achievement to place 3rd out of all the primary schools in the UK. The children who came did Brighton Avenue proud.

10.02.23

UKS2 have been using their Computing and animation skills, using Stop motion animation software, to show off their learning in Science.

Safer internet Day 07.02.23
 

Safer Internet Day is celebrated globally in February each year to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people, and to inspire a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively.
Take a look at the range of activities each class got up to. 

VEX IQ 06.02.23

WE’RE GOING TO NATIONALS! Amazingly, our STEM team have qualified for the VEX IQ National Championships! We were so disappointed at the end of the regional competition that we didn’t qualify for nationals, despite performing so well and coming 6th overall in the north east. However, it turns out there was somewhat of a miscalculation of points and we are now rightfully going to the National Championships at the beginning of March, to show off our Robot’s skills. Take a look at the video of the children hearing the news that they qualified.  We are all so proud! 

VEX IQ 17.01.22

Today, we visited Nissan for a drop in session in preparation for our competition next Tuesday. We had the opportunity to meet other teams, refine a our code with a little help from the experts and then have a few practise games. We’re feeling much more prepared for next week.

02.12.22 VEX IQ

This week our VEX IQ team were lucky to work with Dr Steve Bunce who visited us from the Royal Grammar School. Dr Bunce was extremely impressed with how far we had developed our game strategy for our robotics. He questioned us so that we problem solved and made new adjustments to our robot. We had such fun and learnt so much! He was so impressed that he is going to return to school next Tuesday tp work with us in our club. What an amazing team we are!

Today we launched our VEX IQ project. We worked so well as a team to build the game board and the different elements. It was difficult to follow the instructions but we managed it and just look at what we created. Now it’s time to start developing and programming our robot. Watch this space!

Year 2 have been completing their unit ‘What is a computer?’. They have learnt about what makes a computer a computer and the inputs and outputs and their role within a computer. The children then created their own computers that had inputs and outputs. They came up with some amazing inventions from ice cream makers to scooters that cleaned up rubbish!

Exciting news! We will be involved in one of the largest educational robotics programmes in the world. With funding from the Reece Foundation and support of the Nissan Skills Foundation, VEX Robotics and the REC foundation, a group of UKS2 children will be trained in robotics and entered into a competition at NISSAN. The children will compete against other North-East schools, with the opportunity to compete nationally. The selected children will be involved in a STEM after school club! Keep an eye on this page for updates!

Year 3 have been learning about Online safety and thought about how they may react to different scenarios. They have also been learning that technology can be designed to act like or impersonate living things (e.g. bots) and discussing what the benefits and the risks might be; then subsequently designing their own class bot.

Some of our children have been improving their typing skills using typingclub.com 

Why don't you see if you can have a go at improving your typing skills?

"I love using typing club on the computers" Year 2 Child

"I like doing Computing lessons because you learn stuff you don’t know about devices and we know how to stay safe" Year 4 Child

"I enjoy computing because I like be able to change different things on the computer and websites. I can then go and do it at home as well." Year 6 Child

"I like it when we learning abut coding in Computing" Year 5 Child