An Aspirational Curriculum:

We believe that each child at Rickleton has the potential to be successful in any area of curricular or extra-curricular life now and for their future. The curriculum they access must be the driver of this in offering them deep learning and inspirational experiences in a broad range of areas. Working out where their talents lie and the things they enjoy are a huge factor in this and we expect that all children give their all in all lessons.

In September 2023, we introduced our 'aspirational concepts' to support children and staff to understand the key skills and knowledge which they are building when studying a subject and where this could lead them in their future. We want our children to be driven by their future possibilities and see each lesson as a stepping stone towards this.

As Computing also encompasses the vital area of E-safety, we also support our pupils to grow their aspirations to be safe and respectful users of online technology.

A Clear and Well planned Curriculum:

Subject leaders have worked hard to ensure that our curriculum fulfills not only national expectations but also the learning necessary to allow a child in Rickleton, in the North East of England, to be successful.

By carefully considering how knowledge and skills progress, ensuring that learning carefully builds on and consolidates prior knowledge, children have the best chance to feel confident and successful in their studies and to retain their learning as they move forward in their education.

The documents below show what we want children to achieve via the subject and how we plan to make this happen (commonly known as Intent, Implementation and Impact). They also show how topics and and skills are planned to give pupils a deep knowledge and hopefully a passion for the subject to support their future aspirations.

Project Evolve

As Computing also encompasses the vital area of E-safety, we also support our pupils to grow their aspirations to be safe and respectful users of online technology. We use the Project Evolve Toolkit to ensure our lessons are both up to date and relevant to the ever-changing online world. This toolkit is based on the UKCIS framework ‘Education for a Connected World’ and helps us to ensure that we are equipping our pupils with the knowledge and confidence to deal with challenges they face online.

More information can be found on their website https://projectevolve.co.uk/toolkit/

'Teach Computing'

At Rickleton, we use the ‘Teach Computing’ scheme of learning which is built around an innovative progression framework and supports the ‘implementation’ aspect of our Computing Curriculum. 

More information can be found on their website at https://teachcomputing.org/curriculum/key-stage-2

Online Safety Opportunities

As well as following a thoroughly planned online safety curriculum, many additional opportunities are taken to share the important messages of staying safe online with our community.

Meet 'Rick the Robot'

In 2024, as part of our KS2 families competition, our children were challenged to design an Online Super Hero to represent ways we can stay safe on line using our Super Powers. The winning design, created by Harry K in Y6, was Rick the Robot.

We think he is a fabulous example of how we can use all of our body to keep us safe online. Rick will become a mascot for Online Safety at Rickleton, as a way to remind pupils of the most important online dangers.

Magenta Class Parent Digital Citizen Assembly

Our Y6 children took the opportunity to share important Online Safety messages with parents via their class assembly. These assemblies are always well attended and it gives the opportunity for our oldest pupils to involve their parents and guardians in some of the most important messages for pupils who will soon be moving to the next phase of their education.

Y6 led Family Internet Safety Day assemblies

As part of Safer Internet Day, assemblies for KS2 happened in 'Family' groups. This allowed all of our Y6 children to plan an assembly to deliver in class to their peers. The hope behind this is that Y6 pupils take ownership of the important messages by planning and delivering them and that our younger pupils heed the messages carefully because they have come from older pupils who they look up to.

Y6 King Family lead whole school Safer Internet Day Assembly

Following the family assemblies mentioned above, King Family delivered their Internet Safety assembly to the rest of school. Selected for the confidence they showed when delivering to their own family group in class assembly, the Y6 children showed incredible enthusiasm and team work skills to fine tune their assembly to deliver it to over 400 children in the hall this morning. They did a wonderful job and we hope it had a positive impact for younger children, hearing online safety messages from the older pupils. Slides from their assembly can be seen below.

Curriculum Opportunities

Nursery

In Nursery, children have been learning about keeping safe online. They have also been exploring how things work and had a go at programming Bee-Bots using simple algorithms.

Reception

In Reception, children have used iPads to practice formation of numbers using the Ten Town app. They can now use many age appropriate apps and software. They have also learned how to take photos of each other using the iPads.

Furthermore, they have also learned how to use the internet to search and find relevant information.

Year 1

The children year 1 have learnt lots of new information about staying safe online including the importance of not sharing personal information, talking to strangers and clicking on things they are unsure about. During Computing lessons, they have started to learn about algorithms and the importance of getting sequenced steps in the correct order.

Year 2

Year 2 have been learning about ‘digital footprints’ and thinking about what they use technology for. They have also been building upon skills learnt in year 1 by deepening their understanding of what they can share online through creating their own farmyard profiles. The children have also learnt what a branching database is and have started to develop their coding language in preparation for using turtle logo.

Year 3

Year 3 have been learning about ‘cyberbullying’ and have looked at the differences and similarities between this and bullying which linked to this term’s ‘Anti-bullying- week. They have also started to be creative using Power Point to develop their ICT skills.

Year 4

In year 4, children have delved deeper into online safety by discussing safe and unsafe behaviour on the internet. They have also been building upon the ICT skills developed in year 3 by creating master slides in Power Point in addition to developing their presentation skills.

Year 5

Year 5 have been learning about the importance of creating strong passwords and the consequences of using weak passwords. Additionally, they have also been learning about why people choose to edit images and the consequences of this. In Computer Science, they have been using scratch to develop their understanding of variables.

Year 6

Year 6 have been displaying that they are ‘Digital Citizens’ by showcasing their learning on cyberbullying, potential risks and relationships online. They have really enjoyed their Computer Science lessons which involved writing code to programme a small circuit board called a ‘Crumble’. The children were able to code the crumble to make LED’s flash and motors turn which formed part of their DT ‘design a toy car’ project.

Coding!

On Tuesday,  a group of children took part in a coding masterclass provided by Microsoft. They worked through the ‘ Voyage Aquatic’ challenge developing their digital coding skills whilst also working on their problem solving skills when faced with code that didn’t work. They thoroughly enjoyed the session!