Department vision
Our vision is to provide students with fundamental communication and technological skills that they can apply in a professional and personal capacity; to use logical computational thinking in real-life problem-solving scenarios; to understand the legal and ethical responsibility in their behaviour and in staying safe online and in modern life; to provide students with the ability to make appropriate and safe decisions when using modern day technology.
What will my son/daughter learn at Key Stage 3?
All students have discrete lessons in Years 7, 8 and 9 in dedicated computer suites. Students follow a program of study that allows them to;
- Recognise how to use technology safely and responsibly, including protecting their online identity and privacy.
- Understand the hardware and software components that make up computer systems, and how they communicate with one another and with other systems
- Undertake creative projects, such as video editing, animation and website development, for a given audience
- Use programming languages, such as MS Logo and Python, to write their own computer programs
- Design ICT-based models to meet particular needs through spreadsheet and database development.
Year 9 Students: – You will be learning to program using Python. To get ahead of the game, please click on the link below and download Python 3.8.3, which is the version that will be used during lessons.
Which GCSE specification do we prepare students for?
Students study the AQA GCSE in Computer Science.
What will my son/daughter learn at Key Stage 4?
By the end of the course, students will develop an understanding of how technology is created. They will become skilled at analysing problems in computational terms, through practical experience of solving such problems, including designing, writing and debugging programs.
Subject content: Fundamentals of algorithms; Programming; Fundamentals of data representation; Computer systems; Fundamentals of computer networks; Fundamentals of cyber security; Ethical, legal and environmental impacts of digital technology on wider society, including issues of privacy; Aspects of software development.
Assessment – External Examination
Paper 1 – Computational thinking and problem solving – written exam (50%) 2 hours: Computational thinking, problem solving, code tracing and applied computing as well as theoretical knowledge of computer science.
Paper 2: Written assessment – written exam (50%) 1.45 hours: Theoretical knowledge from a range of computer science content.
Are there any websites that will support my son’s/daughter’s learning?
BBC Bitesize KS3 Computer Science
BBC Bitesize GCSE Computer Science
Introduction to Python (w3schools.com)
Head of Department: Mr R. Graham
