Key Stage 1 computing · Information technology

KS1 digital content: creating and editing on a computer

Digital content is anything made or shown on a device: writing, drawings, photos, sounds and short recordings. In Key Stage 1, children learn to use technology purposefully to make something for a reason and an audience, and to change it afterwards. They build the basic skills of typing, selecting, moving and resizing, and learn that digital work can be improved without starting again.

Creating digital content, explained

The programme of study asks children to use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content. This page covers creating and changing it; saving and finding it again has its own page. The word “purposefully” matters. It means making something for a reason, such as a poster about a school trip, a card for a grandparent or a recording of a poem, rather than just clicking around to see what happens.

Schools choose the tools and the kinds of content. Children might type a sentence in a word processor, paint or draw a picture, take photographs with a tablet, record their voice or build a simple page that combines text and pictures. The skills transfer between tools. Children learn to use a keyboard, touchscreen, mouse or trackpad, to find letters and use the shift key for capitals, the space bar and the backspace or delete key, and to put a full stop at the end of a sentence. Fast typing is not expected, and slow, careful typing is perfectly normal at this age.

“Manipulate” means changing content after it has been made. Children learn to select a word, a picture or a section of drawing, and then move it, change its size, colour or font, or delete it. They learn to crop or retake a photograph, or to record a sound again. The big idea is that digital work is easy to change, so mistakes are not final. Children discover the undo button and are often delighted by it.

Teachers also ask about audience and purpose: who is this for, and can they read it? A poster with very small writing, or a pale colour on a pale background, does not do its job even if it looks colourful. This links closely to English, because the words still need to be spelt, punctuated and sensible. Computing does not replace handwriting. It gives children another way to make and share their ideas.

Alongside the skills sits a note about being a responsible user. Children are taught to ask a trusted adult for help, to use images and sounds that are their own or provided by the school, and to keep personal details such as their full name, address and school out of anything that might be shared.

Words your child will hear

Digital content: Anything made or shown on a device, such as writing, pictures, photos, sound and video.
Select: To choose something on the screen, like a word or a picture, so you can change it.
Edit: To change something you have already made, such as fixing a spelling mistake or moving a picture.
Undo: A button or key press that takes back the last thing you did.
Resize: To make a picture or object bigger or smaller.
Font: The style of the letters on the screen.
Save: To keep your work so you can open it again later.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

Pupils should be taught to use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content
Aim: pupils are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: making a short poster about a favourite animal

Make a poster for a younger child about your favourite animal. It needs a title, one sentence, a picture and clear, readable writing. Use a simple word processor or page-design tool.

Plan on paper first: who is it for, what is the title and what is the sentence? For example, the title “Penguins” and the sentence “Penguins live where it is very cold.”
Type the title. Use the shift key for the capital letter, then check the spelling. Type the sentence below it, press the space bar once between words, and finish with a full stop.
Add a picture, either a photograph or a drawing the child has made. Click on it to select it. Resize it by dragging a corner handle, not a side one. In most tools this keeps the picture’s shape, so it does not look squashed.
Make the writing easy to read. Select the title and make it larger. Choose a font and a colour that stands out from the background. Ask, “Could a younger child read this from across the table?”
Look at the whole poster, and fix anything that is wrong using the undo button or by editing. Then save it with a name that says what it is.

A poster with a clear title, one punctuated sentence, a picture of the right shape and size, and writing that is large and easy to read, saved as “Penguin poster”. Along the way the child has typed, selected, resized, changed text and used undo.

Common mistakes and how to help

Being afraid of breaking something or losing the work after a click

Children have learnt that some buttons are best left alone, and a sudden change on screen can feel permanent.

What helps: Show them the undo button early and let them experiment. “Press undo and see” is a quick way to build confidence.

Dragging the side of a picture to make it bigger, so it ends up squashed or stretched

The side handles change only the width or the height, and the picture loses its shape.

What helps: Show how dragging from a corner usually keeps everything in proportion. Let your child try both and describe the difference.

Pressing the space bar many times to move text across the page

On paper, spaces seem the natural way to move the writing to the middle, and children don’t know there are tools for it.

What helps: Explain that spaces belong between words. Show the centre button or how to select and drag the text box to the right place.

Adding every colour, font and effect available

Tools offer lots of choices and children enjoy trying them, so the result can be colourful but hard to read.

What helps: Come back to the audience: “Who is this for?” Ask your child to pick two choices that make it easier to read, and leave the rest.

How to help at home

Make something for a person. Together, make a birthday card or a thank-you message on a family device. Your child chooses the words, the picture and the layout, and you stay beside them. It gives the work a clear purpose and a real reader.
Take and tidy a photo. Let your child take a few photographs of a toy or a model they have built, choose the best one and crop it so the subject fills the picture. They learn to review and choose rather than keep everything.
Record a voice. Record your child reading a short poem or telling a short story, then play it back. They can record it again if they want to improve it, which shows how digital content can be changed.
Short, playful typing. Ask your child to type their name, a shopping list for a pretend picnic or a sentence about their day. Remind them about the shift key for capital letters and the full stop at the end, and don’t worry about speed.
Check who it is for. Before finishing, ask, “Who will read this and can they read it easily?” Keep screen time supervised, and keep names, addresses and school details out of anything that might be shared.

Leads on to

Key Stage 2: Search engines and ranked results
Key Stage 2: Checking what we find online
Key Stage 2: Combining software to create content
Key Stage 2: Collecting and presenting data