Blog home
The Blog

Fresh Ideas and Inspiration for education

The New National Curriculum for Computing

So what is the New National Curriculum? In 2012, the Secretary of State for Education confirmed that the National Curriculum for ICT would be disapplied from September that year but the subject of ICT would remain mandatory in schools. After a number of redrafts the National Curriculum for Computing was officially released in July 2013 with 'computing' replacing the subject name of ICT in schools from September this year.

Posted on Monday 24th March 2014

The National Curriculum for Computing marks a significant shift in what children are to be taught. ‘The core of computing is computer science’ and will include:

  • Understanding fundamental principles and concepts of computer science
  • Analysing problems in computational terms
  • Writing computer programs
  • Evaluating and applying information technology
  • Making safe, responsible and creative use of ICT

Although many of the above points were part of the old National Curriculum, the emphasis has moved much more towards computer science and activities that previously fell under the heading of Control Technology. It is anticipated that rather being passive users, children will begin to develop a deeper understanding of how computers work by learning to program, solve problems and learn how to become an ‘active participant in the digital world

Andy Bush

Pro-Bot

Andrew Bush – Is an experienced Senior Consultant for eLearning and ICT. With 10 years teaching experience and 14 years in an Advisory role, Andy really is at the heart of delivering educational technology across the Key Stages. He is up to date with developments in Ed tech, and offers a creative flair to applying learning and teaching within ICT and Computing skills. Andy is also a developer of Electronic learning resources for TTS.

For more information download this easy to follow guide for primary teachers. It gives an overview for non-specialists of the 2014 Computing curriculum in non-geeky language.

You can read the second post from Andrew Bush on the New Curriculum for Computing – programming by clicking here