Computing

“Technology, like art, is a soaring exercise of the human imagination.” – Daniel Bell

At SS Peter & Paul, we are makers and problem-solvers — and we use technology for the common good.

Our computing curriculum is built on the refreshed Purple Mash 2025 scheme and meets the National Curriculum in full across its three strands. It carries our children from giving a floor robot its first instruction in Reception to writing text-based Python in Year 6 — so that they understand how technology works, not only how to operate it.
We want our children to see technology as an opportunity, not a challenge, so that they feel empowered rather than overwhelmed. Children here do not simply use software. They learn to think computationally: breaking a problem into parts, spotting what repeats, predicting what their code will do — and debugging it themselves when it does something else.
Every child in Years 3 to 6 works on their own device — iPads in Years 3 and 4, Chromebooks in Years 5 and 6 — so a computing lesson is practice rather than demonstration. Technology is woven through the wider curriculum, from green-screen film projects to digital music composition. From Year 4, our children study artificial intelligence directly: what it is, what it can do, and its positive and negative effects — meeting it as something to understand rather than something that simply happens to them.
As a Catholic school, we teach that how our children behave online is simply how they behave: with the same honesty, respect and care for others we expect in the classroom. That is why online safety is taught every week, in short sessions from Reception to Year 6, rather than once a term or once a year.

Teachers assess against agreed checkpoints in every unit, using the assessment tools built into Purple Mash. Each year group keeps a digital evidence portfolio, so that what children can do is visible rather than assumed, and online safety understanding is checked through pupil voice across phases — evidencing progression, not simply coverage. Subject leadership monitors one strand each term: curriculum quality, online safety, and technology supporting teaching and learning. Our children leave SS Peter & Paul digitally literate, responsible and ready for the next stage of their education.

By the end of Key Stage 2, our pupils can :
• Select the most appropriate digital tools for a task
• Use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly
• Approach new and emerging technologies with confidence, creativity and independence

Online safety
Online safety is taught every week using 2BeSafe, mapped to the UKCIS Education for a Connected World framework and in line with KCSIE expectations. Safer Internet Day supplements this teaching; it never replaces it. Our full online safety programme has its own page here.