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Creating a school vision and intent for computing

Technology is an essential part of our everyday lives. Teaching key skills in computing is key to preparing pupils for the digital world – nurturing digital literacy, logical and creative thinking, and independent learning. From computer science (CS), information technology (IT) to digital literacy (DL), computing can help give pupils the tools to understand information, which will help empower them in later life.

The Computing Quality Framework (CQF) can help inform and guide your school vision for nurturing these skills. The CQF is broken down into seven key benchmarks, which you’ll use to assess and improve your school’s computing provision. Once you’re able to show good practice, you can apply for the nationally recognised Computing Quality Mark (CQM).

The first benchmark, Leadership and Vision, can help spearhead the intent and values of your computing provision on its path to progress. One way to show evidence of achieving this benchmark is to set out a clear school vision and intent for your computing provision.

In this guide, we’ll explain how to write a vision statement for your school’s computing provision. We’ll outline the basics of a school vision statement, including how to apply it to computing education, with school vision examples. Finally, we’ll cover how to submit your evidence on the Computing Quality Framework dashboard.

In this guide:

  • What is a school vision statement?
  • What is the purpose of a school vision statement?
  • Why are school vision statements important?
  • How to write a school vision statement for computing
  • School vision examples for computing
  • How to submit evidence of your school vision to the CQF

What is a school vision statement?

A school vision statement is a clear and inspiring declaration that outlines a shared vision for what the school wants to achieve. A school vision describes the long-term goals and ambitions to pupils, staff, parents and governors to help guide school strategies and priorities. In essence, it’s an overarching statement for the future that reflects your school values and paints a picture of how the school can make a positive impact on pupils.

A school vision statement can sometimes be a short strapline to demonstrate the goals and values of the school as part of a prospectus. It can also be part of a detailed white paper that outlines the key aspirations, outcomes and implementation strategy to help progress a particular department.

What is the purpose of a school vision statement for computing education?

School vision statements can be applied to any department to outline and declare what your school plans to achieve. Creating a school vision for your computing provision can help align computing education with your wider school goals, mission and culture, and set out clear outcomes for pupils, parents, staff and governors.

Your school vision will help demonstrate subject leadership by describing how you aspire to shape the school’s approach to teaching computing . In doing so, you’ll set out a strategic plan that targets national curriculum requirements and accreditation goals.

Why are school vision statements important?

School vision statements provide an inspiring overview of the school’s commitment to learning and development, helping pupils prepare for a bright future. By creating a school vision statement for your computing provision, you’ll be able to clearly and succinctly set out your plan of action, key outcomes and metrics for success. An effective school vision can help motivate pupils, staff, parents and governors and set out directions for planning, resourcing and tracking progress.

How to write a vision statement for computing education

A well-crafted vision statement can form the foundation of your targets and goals, reflecting the values and principles you stand for as a school. As part of a detailed mission and strategy statement, it can also help outline your priorities. In other words, how you’ll make it happen.

Find out how to write a vision statement for your computing provision below with our key steps:

1. Assess your current position

Before you start any ideation for your school vision and intent, it’s important to establish your current position. You can use the CQF to help complete your initial self-assessment.

You should also gather input from teachers, members of senior leadership, parents and school stakeholders to review your current standing, what you want to achieve and why.

As you begin your self-assessment, consider the following questions:

  • Where are we now?
  • Where do we need to be?
  • What do we want to achieve for pupils?
  • What actions will we take to get there?
  • How do we inspire with our vision?

Planning a visioning meeting with all key contributors can help you collaborate as you lay out your values, targets and strategic process.

2. Write your school vision for computing education

Creating your school vision can take time and consideration. This is your opportunity to measure your goals, targets and desired outcomes against the national curriculum and any other accreditations you hope to gain as a school.

Meanwhile, decide whether you’re going to produce a short school vision statement or create a detailed mission statement report for your computing department. With a detailed report, you can explore how your goals will impact pupils directly and how you’ll put them into practice.

Establish curriculum intent

This is your opportunity to outline your computing curriculum intent, including how you will address:

  • Digital Literacy
  • Computational thinking
  • CS
  • E-safety
  • Electronic data interchange (EDI)
  • Careers

It’s important to create a vision that’s clear and direct, establishing your aims and ensuring that it’s inclusive for all students. It’s important to make your vision ambitious but achievable. You should also determine how leadership and governors will be involved.

Outline key impacts

As you write your school vision, consider how your school’s computing provision help instil confidence in pupils who are learning how to use digital systems. As you work through the CQF, this might include key examples such as:

  • Building secure knowledge across key strands (including CS, IT and DL)
  • Ensuring progression and ambition for all
  • Teaching pupils responsible and ethical digital behaviour
  • Developing teacher confidence and sustainable leadershi
  • Providing inclusive access for all pupil
  • Preparing pupils for the real world

If you’re creating a detailed statement that will lay out the intent and actions for your computing provision, break down your report into:

  1. Aims – Detailed targets that outline exactly how you plan to drive long-term progress for computing education at your school
  2. Implementation strategy – Examples of how the department will carry out these objectives for pupils across each key stage.
  3. Impact – Results and key outcomes outlining how your strategy will benefit pupils, such as developing digital skills and literacy, fostering responsible technology use, problem-solving and creativity.

3. Review your school vision

While school governors and academy trustees are often involved in the strategic direction of your school vision, it falls to the headteacher and senior leadership team to establish, progress and review your objectives and outcomes.

Your vision statement for computing at your school should reflect your dedication to academic success, inclusivity, personal growth and future thinking.

4. Deliver your school vision strategy

Next, prepare to deliver your strategy to improve computing at your school across your curriculum. This might involve:

• Ongoing teacher training

• Supportive coaching

• Implementing channels to communicate successes and challenges

Following the CQF can help you progress your computing provision using the suggested actions. Each benchmark is designed to help you to deliver your school vision and intent effectively.

School vision examples for computing

To help you get started, explore our example school vision statements for computing education below:

  • "Our computing curriculum aspires to spark curiosity and allow all learners to gain a fundamental understanding of technology and digital literacy. Our curriculum will help empower students to become confident problem solvers, creative thinkers and adaptable users of technology, preparing them for success in their personal, academic and professional lives.”
  • "Through our computing provision at [X School], we aim to open doors to innovation. Our curriculum will encourage all pupils to nurture their curiosity, think creatively, and apply their knowledge of technology and digital information safely and confidently. Our tools will prepare learners to thrive in further education and employment as successful and active participants in an increasingly digital world.”
  • "At [X School], our forward-thinking computing curriculum aims to future-proof pupils with the critical thinking, coding, and digital literacy skills necessary to navigate and contribute to a digital society. We aspire to provide high-quality computing education that will help build resilience and ensure all learners leave school with the knowledge and skills they need to shape a better future.”

How to submit evidence of your school vision to the CQF

To apply for the Computing Quality Mark (CQM), you’ll need to show that your school or academy’s computing provision meets all seven benchmarks of the Computing Quality Framework (CQF).

  • You’ll grade your computing provision on each benchmark based on five level statements between one and five – five being the highest.
  • Then, you’ll submit evidence to demonstrate how your school meets these measures. Once your computing provision is at level four or above across all seven benchmarks, you can apply for the CQM award.

You’ll submit two pieces of written evidence to the CQF ‘Dashboard’.

First, you’ll explain why your computing provision is level four or above. We’ll help you answer this by offering guided questions in the evidence commentary section of the ‘Dashboard’.

Next, you’ll need to provide links to documents and content that will back up your commentary. This might include:

  • Governor meeting minutes
  • School prospectus
  • Vision statement
  • School development plan
  • Staffing structure (computing lead roles)
  • School newsletters/website posts/SM posts which include the subject of computing
  • Evidence of collaboration with and support of other schools
  • National Professional Qualification (NPQ) certification
  • Teacher PDL status
  • Summary of current measures
  • Quote from a member of the senior leadership team (SLT)

You can find out more about how to review your progress on our CQF FAQs page.

Transform your computing provision with the NCCE Computing Quality Framework

Computing education can help set pupils up on a successful path to digital literacy. With your support, learners can grow their ability to use computers and digital systems to spark new ideas and develop key critical thinking and collaboration skills.

Learn more about the NCCE Computing Quality Framework for Schools as we guide you through each step of the computing curriculum. Get access to online support, resources and action planning courses to help you achieve the Leadership and Vision benchmark, and beyond.