In a world that is increasingly digitised and automated, it is critical to support students in new ways of collaborating and communicating and to develop skills such as computational and systems thinking. At Willetton Primary School Digital Technologies is offered as a specialist learning area for all students from Years 1 to 6.
The Digital Technologies learning area provides opportunities for students to develop a deep knowledge and understanding of information systems and how to be safe, respectful, creative and discerning decision-makers when they select, use and manage data, and digital systems to meet needs and shape preferred futures.
This learning area helps students to become innovative creators of digital solutions, effective users of digital systems and critical consumers of information conveyed by digital systems. Students are provided with authentic learning challenges that foster curiosity, confidence, persistence, innovation, creativity, respect and cooperation.
Students use Osmo, Microbits, Dash robots, Bee Bots and Makey Makey. They learn to code with code.org, Grok Academy, Blockly, Make code and the offline version of Scratch on the laptops.
Willetton Primary School partners with the Cyber Safety Project. The CSP is a trusted eSafety provider for proactive online safety and digital wellbeing education. At WPS we endeavour to empower every student to manage their digital safety and well-being. All lessons are aligned with state and Australian curriculums and are reviewed each year to ensure they are current and reflect the ever-changing digital world. The curriculum is delivered to students in Kindy and Pre-Primary and from Years 1 – 6 in the Digital Technologies specialist learning area with the aim of providing students with future skills, lifelong habits and self-regulation when using digital technologies. Students engage with videos, physical, digital and creative activities in the 16 part learning suite. Students learn to manage their own privacy and security and to be responsible digital citizens.
Students from Years 3 to 6 are able to engage in an international Computational Thinking Challenge. The challenge provides students with an opportunity to develop some of the skills from the World Economic Forum’s top skills for 2025; analytical thinking and innovation, complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, technology use, monitoring and control, design, programming and reasoning. Students learn about Computational Thinking in Digital Technologies and practice these skills in context. Students learn decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, modelling, simulation, algorithms and evaluation. Over the past 2 years WPS has had a number students attain a perfect score in the Bebras challenge which is hosted by the Australian Maths Trust.
In 2025 students in years 4 - 6 who demonstrate an aptitude for coding will be given an opportunity to participate in the Lego Spike extension program with a view to competing in the Lego League competition.
New to WPS in 2025 is an external coding program being delivered on-site on Tuesday afternoons. This will be open to all students at a cost.