BBC Schools - Computing

Resourcing primary computing Most folk involved in English schools will already be well aware that there are some significant changes planned for the national curriculum this September. After two years of ‘disapplication’ we are about to see the old ICT replaced by a new subject, computing. This includes a significant element of programming, alongside other aspects of computer science, as well as the critical digital literacy necessary for young people to address issues of safety, responsibility, privacy and security. The opening sentence of the new programme of study puts it well: ‘a high quality computing education equips pupils with computational thinking be creativity to understand and change the world’. Neither the baby nor the bath water of ICT has been thrown out: the creative projects that pupils undertook under the old curriculum still have a place in the new one. So, what sort of infrastructure, hardware and software might a school need to do justice to the new curriculum requirements? Connectivity is king