Gove's new ICT curriculum sees five year olds writing programs and 3D printing in schools

Boolean logic, abstraction and software testing skills all to figure highly in revised ICT

The Department for Education has released its latest English national curriculum framework document, and ICT appears to feature highly on the agenda for a change.

The measures are planned to be brought into effect from the start of the new school year in 2014.

Developments include Key Stage 1 (five to seven year olds) being taught about the definition of algorithms, followed by creating and debugging simple computer programs, as well as being taught to recognise common uses of ICT beyond school.

Seven to 11 years olds, meanwhile, will be coding programs to accomplish specific goals, with a focus on simulating physical systems and processes.

Solving problems "by decomposing them into smaller parts" suggests detailed, possibly team-based software production challenges.

At the same time, in a slight hark back to the "word processing" criticisms of the old curriculum, pupils will still "use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information".

However, they will also "select" this software, which suggests pupils will be encouraged to assess the suitability of software packages for a given task.

Pupils aged 11 and up will be expected to build on their abilities by using "two or more programming languages, at least one of which is textual, to solve a variety of computational problems," as well as "make appropriate use of data structures such as lists, tables or arrays".

While it's as yet unclear whether to "use" these languages means to learn them in a fluent and functional manner, or simply to plug-in code as required, such explicit description of taught coding is what many advisory bodies and lobby groups have been campaigning for.

By Key Stage 4, and sixth form, pupils will develop their "capability, creativity and knowledge" in the ICT space, taking analysis, problem solving and design further, as well as focusing on how changes in technology "affect safety", with an emphasis on "privacy and identity" in the online space.

The measures are described as making students "digitally literate" at a level "suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world".

The document also states that "the core of computing is computer science", and that one of the aims of the new curriculum is to "equip... pupils to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of media".

The Design and Technology subject area will also see pupils "apply their understanding of computing to programme, monitor and control their products".

Hardware to be featured in lessons will include 3D printers, apparently.