Computing and control (KS2)

KS2 D&T

Computing and control is the newest part of design and technology, and the one most schools find hardest to place. It asks children to program something they’ve built, so the code has a physical purpose. Here’s what the curriculum expects.

What children learn about computing and control at KS2

What the national curriculum expects

Computing and control appears under technical knowledge at KS2 only, as a single requirement: pupils should apply their understanding of computing to program, monitor and control their products. It’s deliberately open, so schools choose the technology. It connects directly to the computing curriculum, where pupils design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling physical systems.

Key knowledge and concepts

Writing instructions that make something you built do a job

Sensors and switches in, lights, sound and movement out

Using a product to measure or detect something

Making a product respond automatically to what it detects

Finding out why a program isn't doing what you intended

Planning a product around what it needs to sense and do

Where this topic sits within KS2

Computing and control is a KS2 strand within design and technology technical knowledge, and it overlaps directly with the computing curriculum. Many schools teach it jointly, so the programming happens in computing and the product it controls is built in design and technology.

How to access this topic

Computing and control don’t sit on their own in the curriculum. The Cornerstones design and technology curriculum is fully sequenced from EYFS through Year 1 to Year 6, so you can see what comes before, what follows and how the whole picture fits together. We’ve done the thinking, so your planning time goes into teaching, not sequencing.

Find out more about the curriculum

Explore the Design and Technology Curriculum

Quick Teach Individual lessons and resources for supplementing what you already teach.