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West Moors Middle School

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ICT

At West Moors Middle School, we believe that Computing is an essential part of the curriculum; a subject that is not only taught as a stand alone subject but is also woven into every other area of teaching and learning. In Computing, we intend to create enthusiastic and resilient digital citizens who are able to use technology in and out of the classroom effectively and safely.  Through the study of Computing, our students will acquire a wide range of fundamental skills, knowledge and understanding that will equip them for the rest of their life. We help them to operate in the digital world with practical skills, whilst also giving them the experience of  how to create and develop these programs. The programme of Computing at West Moors Middle follows the National Curriculum and we are a member of National STEM program using the National Centre for Computer Excellence (NCEE) in our application of the curriculum. Our aim is for all children to develop a secure understanding of a wide range of transferable skills, that will enable them to inspire, operate, succeed  in and out of their Computing lessons.

Across both Key Stages, children have the opportunity to use a wide range of hardware and software that will allow them to code virtual and physical systems, solve problems, understand computer networks, use the internet efficiently and effectively, use technology safely and responsibly and produce work in a range of mediums such as video and photo. New learning is modelled by the teacher, retrieval is assessed at the start of every lesson and children have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning in context.

These elements are encompassed:

  • To acknowledge the skills necessary for ICT capability.
  • To use ICT tools and information sources to find, analyse, process and present information.
  • To model and sequence events
  • To use information sources and ICT tools to solve problems.
  • To use ICT to support learning in a variety of contexts.
  • To understand the implications of ICT for working life and society.
  • To be aware of E Safety.

How Parents Can Help

The best way to support your child with any aspect of computing is to enjoy using technology with them and model the safe and responsible use of it.

Our facilities:

West Moors has excellent facilities with a recently upgraded ICT Suite of 32 terminals, 32 laptops, 32 Ipads. The laptops and computers run on Microsoft, whilst we use a range of specific coding programs, which can be found below.

Useful Computing Websites

codecademy.com 

This is a great website to help you practise your coding skills that you have learnt in school.

scratch.mit.edu

With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations.

transum.org/software/logo

You can use this to draw shapes by moving the turtle around the screen using the following commands. This will help you with your computational thinking.

microbit.org/

commonsensemedia.org/

They aim to empower parents and teachers by providing unbiased information to help them harness the power of media and make it a positive force in children’s lives. There are family guides and they tackle many topics of concern.

vodafone.co.uk/mobile/digital-parenting

A comprehensive magazine from Vodafone with ideas to build confidence and resilience online.