Inputs – How do we control a computer?

12th September 2025Ruth Shields

In year 1, we have been learning about how to control a computer and that we usually do this by pressing buttons. Before we started our new learning, we recapped our learning from last week. We recapped our actions to help us remember monitor, mouse, keyboard and printer before using an interactive game to place the labels in the correct place.

The children were really excited to learn that Miss Shields had a remote control that allowed her to control the actions of the children. When she pressed the blue button, the children had to jump up and wave their arms. When she pressed the red button, they had to tap their knees. Then when she pressed the green button, they had to lie down and pretend their were sleeping. This was great fun which helped us understand that buttons result in actions.

We then worked together to design a robot that we thought would help Mrs Barber. The children suggested help with RWI and all the things she needs to remember.

Inputs in computing

12th September 2025Ruth Shields

In computing, we started the lesson by recapping the different parts of the computer and the purpose of these parts. We then started to investigate inputs which was focused on type buttons we have on different devices. When we press buttons, we are giving the computer commands and asking it to perform a job. We then designed our own robot thinking about the commands we would like to be able to give it. Miss Shields modelled drawing a robot that could do her weekly shop but most importantly put the groceries away. It was great seeing the children confidently sharing their robot design in-front of the rest of their crew.

How does a website work?

11th September 2025Ruth Shields

Year 3 have been learning about how a website works and how we receive information on our computers. They learned that when we type in a website, we send a request to a server that sends the information back to our computer. In some cases, the server may need to request the information from the cloud which stores data before it’s sent back to the computer. Children then worked independently to demonstrate their understanding by drawing a diagram of how information is sent.

Exploring Scratch – position and orientation

11th September 2025Ruth Shields

In computing this week, children in Year 4 were continuing to explore Scratch which is something we learned about last year. However, we were developing our understanding by learning about the position and orientation of our sprite. This allowed us to make links to our prior maths units of coordinates and angles. It was so lovely seeing the experts support the less confident children as well as them grappling with it when it got a little tricky.

Parts of a computer

11th September 2025Ruth Shields

Last week in computing, we learned about the different parts of a computer and ensured that we knew the correct names to use. We discussed the purpose of each part of the computer so we understood their job. Children then completed a task where they had to label the different parts of a computer independently which they did a great job of.

Computing – Crack the Code

3rd September 2025Laura Hamill

During our first computing lesson today, we began by talking about what coding is and why coding was used during the war. We then had some time to work in pairs to break some different cipher codes; some involve moving letters around the alphabet while others have hidden items within the text.

Computing – Understanding reliable sources

10th December 2024Olivia Fox

Today in computing, we looked at the difference between reliable and unreliable. We learned that not all things we read or see on the internet are real or true… Even if information looks realistic, we have to ensure that we check our sources before we believe what we are reading/seeing. Today, we looked at some information on a website about a ‘Tree Octopus’. After using our background knowledge, lots of discussion around what we were reading and analysing photographs, we agreed that this website was not reliable and the Tree Octopus does not exist!

Computing meets PVPG

17th November 2024Hannah McLoughlin

Recently, we have been enjoying our computing lessons so much that the children are using AI(artificial intelligence) at home. It is so lovely to see this high level of engagement and even a couple of children have made story books (with the help of AI). It has now become a regular occurrence to read them as we walk down the corridor to break. With us hooked with AI, Miss thought it would be a good idea to incorporate this into our grammar application lesson. The children loved prompting AI to generate a short paragraph with no punctuation that they had to then identify the verb/verb phrase, subject, coordinating conjunction, leftovers and then punctuate to identify the main clauses. Obviously this was my favourite short paragraph!

Computing – animation

18th June 2024Ruth Shields

After returning from half term, we had an opportunity to work more independently on the skills we practiced before half term. Before half term, we were asked to create an animation however, this was something we’d very little experience with it so depended on the expert.

In this session, children were able to complete the task with minimal support showing they had learned how to successfully put the blocks together to create an animation.