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Science & Technology Long Term Planning

For what seems like 'forever', I along with two of my colleagues have been working our way through the new Science and Technology area of learning and experience. Only focusing on the primary school related Progression Steps (PS) 1 to 3. Actually to be more accurate, I've only focused on the last 'What matters' statement related to Computer Science and my colleagues have been looking at their respective areas of expertise in Science and in Design and Technology. For several months we have been pulling together a long term progression document that we hope will help schools in the design of their new curriculum. Basically, we have been looking at the Descriptions of Learning (DoL) for each of the first three PS and then trying to work out what we think would be a suitable progression to address that end of PS statement. As it says in the Science and Technology guidance, the expectations are "framed broadly so that they can sustain learning over a series of years" and that "they are not designed as stand-alone tasks, activities or assessment criteria." So for example, in PS3 there is a DoL that says:

"I can identify repeating patterns and use loops to make my algorithm more concise."

From a curriculum design perspective a school will need to think about what prior knowledge the pupils have and then what steps do they need to carry out before the learner could honestly say they were confident at this? Building on algorithm work from PS2, my progression looks something like this:

  • Identify a repeating pattern and use the repeat command to shorten the algorithm.
  • Create procedures using familiar instructions to make a program more concise.
  • Reuse repeats / procedures in a program in a different context.

In my opinion, the above introduces a simple progression. For example, look at an algorithm to create a square - forward 10 right turn 90, forward 10 right turn 90, forward 10 right turn 90, forward 10 right turn 90. What do the pupils notice about this algorithm? It repeats forward 10 right turn 90, 4 times. We can then introduce the repeat command in Scratch or LOGO for instance. From this we can then move onto procedures which will make the algorithm even more concise. Finally, I would want to see the pupils creating repeats / procedures in programs of their own making.  

From a curriculum design perspective, schools will also have to think about what year group this is introduced and if it's being reinforced in other years too. In our document I've introduced this in Yr4. Repeating patterns / loops, are regularly used in coding activities and it may just mean that later year groups can just make sure that the pupils are being regularly reminded of repeat features in the programs they use or create themselves.   

As I mentioned flippantly at the beginning of this post, it does feel like I've been working on this document for an awful long time....and I've only been looking at the Computer Science section for PS1, 2 and 3. After being closely involved in educational technology for over 20 years, I like to think that I know something about this subject. However, some of the DoL for computer science have go me very confused. Points of confusion / frustration:

  • PS2 - I can use computational thinking techniques, through unplugged or offline activities.  Why is computational thinking (CT) explicitly mentioned here and not in PS1 or PS3? Where's the progression? It could be argued, why is it in here at all, as computational thinking has a whole section to itself at PS1, 2 & 3 in the Digital Competence Framework (DCF). For what it's worth, I actually believe CT should never have been placed into the DCF and that the WG should have waited until the Science & Technology AoLE came out and then slotted it into this. In my opinion, CT would have made far more sense to teachers if it was linked in with coding.  
  • PS2 - I can follow instructions to build and control a physical device. This statement has been driving me crazy as I'm unable to find suitable devices to do this. I recently asked a group of technology coordinators for help on this but no one could really provide a good answer. The nearest I got was one who said he'd bought some drones. I went off to look at this in more detail and got a little concerned when some of the websites I was going to were saying that they were recommended for ages +14. PS2 covers Yrs1, 2 and 3 therefore we are talking about pupils from about 5 to 8 years old. The nearest I got to addressing this is Lego products but as one teacher told me, the "price is ridiculous for the amount of kits needed and number of really small parts is a problem". I've looked on TTS which is always a fab website for technology products, and even on here I can find nothing suitable. Is it just me? If you can help me with this I would be so grateful.
  • PS3 - I can explain how my data is used by services, which can help me make more informed decisions when using technology. This is just one of several data related statements at PS3 which I'm struggling with. Firstly, is this something that a school in its long term planning needs to touch upon in Yrs4, 5 & 6, or is something for just one year group to look at. Is there a progression of lessons to build up to this DoL or would we be happy with just a 'one-off' lesson to say, "We've covered it!" which would be very much against what the guidance says. Also, to what depth would we need to go into to address this? Is it enough to explain that companies take varying amounts of our data and may or may not use it or share it with other people (3rd parties) and that the pupils should be taking this into account when using services? I'm very unsure as to how far we go with this and it's pretty difficult to find any age appropriate lessons to cover this. Which brings me neatly onto my last point.
  • Lesson examples. Forgive me if I'm wrong here or that they are published and I've missed them, but weren't the 'pioneer schools' in Wales supposedly helping to develop the Curriculum for Wales before the publication? If so, it would be really helpful to all schools if they published the lessons or supporting materials associated with the Science and Technology AoLE. In fact, greater elaboration on every DoL would be of great help as it feels like I'm just guessing at what some of it means...and surely I can't be the only one? 


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