Trotts Hill Primary School and Nursery
At Trotts Hill we aim to ensure that all children become digitally literate in this ever changing technical world.
Our curriculum is designed around four key areas, as outlined in the National Curriculum, computer science, information technology, digital literacy and online safety. The combination of these areas allows children to gain skills to develop ideas that they are able to use throughout their lives in a digital world and leave primary school computer literate. It is our intention to enable children to find, explore, analyse and present information using technology creatively.
Staff are encouraged to model positive use of technology and ensure their lessons are accessible to all pupils. We want children to be fluent in a range of tools and hope that by the end of Upper Key Stage 2, children will be independent and confident to apply their technological knowledge.
We are highly motivated to ensure that all children will leave Trotts Hill with a strong and secure understanding of how to stay safe online.
Online Safety
Internet Guidance for Parents
Please read the guidelines for parents. The guidelines are linked to different games and apps.
Please read this terms Internet Safety Newsletter.
Please read this term's online safety newsletter for parents and carers. There is some useful information with age guidance for smartphone usages, ABC guidelines to help you manage your child's online safety, gaming tips and advice on using chatrooms.
Digital Leaders 2024-2025
These are the new digital leaders for this school year. They have an important job to maintain internet safety, look after the laptops and share SMART rules with their classes.
This half term, the digital leaders have run a coding club for children in year 2 to year 6. They have learnt new coding skills and been able to complete different challenges using these skills.
A word from some of the children:
Millie – I’ve enjoyed playing different coding games and really liked that on the last week we got to choose whichever coding game we wanted to play. I like making the fish move in different directions.
Daniel – I think coding is fun and I’ve loved coming every week.
A work from some of the digital leaders:
Leo – It’s been so fun being able to help other people with coding.
Charlotte – I’ve enjoyed helping people and I like when I help them and they are able to go onto harder challenges afterwards.
Purple Mash
We use the Purple Mash platform (amongst others) to support our learning across the whole school.
The children used a counting tool in a spreadsheet to investigate the probability of results when throwing many dice.
The children programmed a microcontroller with two outputs to make a light flash and a motor rotate for a specified number of times.
This half term, Year 4 having been learning how to use 2Logo. They began by inputting simple instructions such as FD, BK, RT and LT. They then used this to help them create different shapes and letters. The children then learnt how to use the REPEAT command to help make shapes. A square can be made using REPEAT 4 [FD 5 RT 90]. The children then used these commands to create their own shapes and patterns.
Archie - Repeating a square makes a circle pattern!
Alma - I've made a flower pattern by repeating a square and a triangle.
Year 3 are learning how to use PowerPoint presentations. They have successfully learnt how to add and change text. In this lesson the children were adding an extra slide and adding pictures.
Year 3 were learning about computer connections and networks today. Firstly, they explored their own connections and then became computers and sent messages around the classroom. They compared how efficiently it was sending a message with and without a network switch.
Today, Year 3, learnt how to include timers in their coding activities.
This week we celebrated Safer Internet Day in class and in assembly. The theme for 2024 is ‘Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online’.
All classes reviewed how to stay safe online and watched a video of top tips produced by the Digital Leaders. We also looked at how technology has evolved over the years (there was life before iphones!). Finally all classes discussed how the internet can be used for positive reasons and talked about charities and being kind online.
We looked at how technology has evolved over the year and then made videos which could promote a cause online, using the internet to inspire.
Today, Year 3 continued learning about the features of a PowerPoint presentation. They explored the design tools, added extra slides and inserted media.
Year 3 have been learning about Desktop Publishing in computing. They have learnt to format text, add images, save and retrieve learning.
In Year 4, we have started to look at photo editing. We talked about how images we see online are not necessarily the ones taken by cameras. The children cropped photos to change the main focus of the image, rotated images that were the wrong way round and experimented with colour, applying different tones to create different effects.
In, arguably, the most important lesson of the year, the children worked collaboratively to explain the SMART rules. The rules provide them with clear guidance on how to keep themselves safe online.
Year 6 have been learning how to use Excel. The unit culminated in using a spreadsheet to model a real life situation, where children planned an event, using their knowledge of formulae to calculate costs and profits.
Year 6 programmed micro:bits to perform a variety of tasks, including acting as a compass, a counter and a step-counter which gave positive messages when certain milestones were reached.
Year 5 simulated real digitally controlled machines by writing code to instruct components to make a series of light sequences or activate motors.
Year 3 were introduced to finding and adding information to cells in a spreadsheet. They followed instructions to create pictures.
The year 4 units of work in computing have really inspired the class. They have achieved excellent outcomes and worked enthusiastically. In spreadsheets, the children learnt how to use formula as well as inputting data. In logo, the children were able to programme their turtles with detailed code to create different repeating patterns, In photo editing, the children used a professional package to manipulate photos. This unit was really interesting as it led to discussions about how what we see in advertising isn't always real.
In Spring 2, year 2 learnt about spreadsheets. They created pictograms physically and compared this with creating a pictogram on the computer. The children were able to understand the benefits of creating spreadsheets digitally. Throughout the unit, the children practised using the copy and paste tool as well as the totalling tool. Year 2 were able to produce their own pictogram on Purple Mash using 2Calculate after collecting their own data from the class.
We created a webpage and then simulated a key word search. Points were given for the appearance on the word in headings, paragraphs and links. We considered what improvements we could make to improve the ranking of our page.
Year 5 have created an algorithm to make repeated patterns rapidly.
Year 3 used simple commands in Logo, including repeat and forwards, to create simple shapes.
Year 5 have been adding formulae and using a counting tool on a spreadsheet.
This half term, year 4 have been working hard to learn new skills using 2Logo. Children have been able to follow simple instructions including the commands FD, BK, LT, RT, SETPC, SETPS, PU and PD as well as use these commands to create their own letters and shapes.
In Spring 1, Year 6 studied Networks. We learnt the difference between the WWW and the internet, discovered what a LAN and a WAN is, researched the age of the internet and reflected on what the future might hold for technology, as well as how much it has already developed in our lifetimes.
To begin Safer Internet Day, the digital leaders led a whole school assembly about being safe on the internet. They explained what the day was all about and discussed that this year, the school would be focusing on being respectful when playing games online. The digital leaders read out different scenarios of messages online and asked the rest of the school to decide if they thought that the final message was acceptable to send or not. They were also able to come up with alternative messages that could have been sent instead.
Children learnt lots about keeping safe on the internet and being respectful online while playing games. Each class completed some learning around the theme 'All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online'.
