Our Science, Technologies and Computing curriculum block aims to develop pupil’s technical, digital and practical abilities to perform everyday tasks and gain knowledge and understand of their own environment. It aims to enable them to participate in a modern, technical world and build a range of knowledge and skills in order for them to gain independence and confidence in their abilities. Pupils should become confident users of different tools, appliances, equipment and apparatus that help us to complete specific tasks. They should understand how to gain information from devices and equipment and understand how this information can be used in their everyday lives.
Pupils should develop a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to make products that can be used in their lives outside school. They should be able to explore different materials and their uses and relate these to practical purposes. We want to encourage pupils to use creativity and imagination to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems through first hand experiences and gained knowledge. The practical skills that they learn should be transferable outside the classroom into their own lives and communities.
Science, Technologies and Computing is about developing thinking and problem solving skills. Pupils will be encouraged to explore, observe, solve problems, think critically and scientifically, make decisions and communicate why they have made decisions based on knowledge they have gained. They should know how they can affect the world around them and why things might happen. They should understand changes, why they might happen and how they can influence change. Pupils should be encouraged to develop a curiosity about the world around them, including living things and explore how things work and why things might happen. Pupils should be equipped with the knowledge and skills to enable them to know how digital systems work and enable them to become digitally literate and active and safe participants in a digital world.
Our pre-formal pupils are encouraged to have an awareness of how they can control and affect their own environments via tools and digital means. A range of adaptive technologies including within our sensory rooms, allow our pupils to develop a solid understanding of cause and effect and how they can influence things happening around them. Opportunities to experience different materials and environments including outside school forms a huge part of the curriculum with curiosity actively encouraged. Pupils should have the opportunity to make choices and to show preferences.
Semi-formal pupils follow several different Equals programmes within the Science, Technology and Computing curriculum block. They include The World About Us, My Thinking and Problem Solving, My Outdoor School and My Art. Pupils have practical, hands-on activities which allow them to explore their environments and how they can influence and effect changes. Pupils are taught how to use tools and to begin to make selections based on their purpose and application. They engage in activities which encourages thinking and problem solving and develop creative skills to meet specific purposes. Pupils have opportunities to use digital devices and know how to use these devices safely and with purpose. They have opportunities to observe and use technology within the community and how they can use this to solve problems.
On our formal pathway, pupils follow National Curriculum inspired program of formal Equals Design and Technology, Equals Science and Computing. Mayfield School is well resourced with a dedicated Design and Technology suite and Science room and associated resources. Digital devices are commonplace including laptops and Ipads which pupils are encouraged to use across the curriculum. Pupils should be given the opportunity to design and evaluate their own ideas based on prior learning and experiences. Their learning will go beyond the classroom and they are encouraged to link their learning to real life experiences. We have links with the Primary Technical College hosted at West Lakes School and STEM workshops.
Pupils will have a good understanding of how things work and how this affects their own actions. They will have a solid understanding of cause and effect in all it’s forms including how their actions influence change both reversal and irreversible. They will use their own knowledge to predict what might happen and how this might be used.
Pupils will be digitally literate in their own environments. They will know how to be safe and use devices responsibly. They will understand how digital devices and resources might be used to meet a particular purpose.
Pupils will develop practical thinking and problem solving skills. They will be able to use creative means to suggest solutions to given tasks including when the use of tools is appropriate. Pupils will draw on prior learning to understand why something may happen.