Computing

Faculty of Computing and Business

Staff

Mrs K McGloin - Head of Computing

Mr J Brehony - Head of Faculty

Mrs S Pitcher

Ethos

We are a team of specialist teachers dedicated to inspiring the new generation of computer developers through an innovative, dynamic curriculum that reflects and reacts to the ever changing digital world.

Aims

Our aims are to ensure our pupils are:

Equipped with the skills to be responsible and moral online citizens.
Competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
Able to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science
Able to analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems.

Progression

Pupils can progress to

A Level Computing and further study
Apprenticeships
Employment opportunities

KS3 Curriculum 2021-2022

Year 7, 8 and 9

In Year 7, 8 and 9 all pupils follow the KS3 Computing National Curriculum.

Pupils receive 1 lesson per fortnight and are taught in mixed attainment groups.

KS3 pupils begin their study by learning how to stay safe online.

Through the content of the curriculum pupils are taught computational thinking, digital literacy and digital media technologies.

We intend to deliver a challenging curriculum that safely equips our pupils with the skills and knowledge to flourish in a modern, technologically changing world.

Online safety is taught across the Key Stage.

During year 7, 8 and 9 pupils develop their knowledge and understanding of computing.

They explore key concepts and processes and learn algorithms, pseudocode and flowcharts to help them plan logically and to problem solve.

They are introduced to both text and block based programming languages including Python and Scratch.

From this they apply their knowledge of computing to given scenarios. They design, use and evaluate computational abstractions that model the state and behaviour of real-world problems and physical systems with the skills they have learnt.

They develop an understanding of the hardware and software required for computing and how they work.

They are assessed using both formative and summative assessments at the end of each unit of work.

KS4 Curriculum 2021-2022

Year 10 and Year 11

In Year 10 and 11 pupils who have opted for Computing will follow the OCR (9-1) GCSE in Computer Science

This course comprises of three units that must all be completed successfully.

Computer systems
Computational thinking, algorithms and programming
Programming Project (The Programming Project does not count towards a candidate’s final grade, but is a requirement of the course)

Assessment

Y11 Component	Marks	Duration	Weighting
OCR J277 Computer systems (01)	80	1 hour 30 mins	50%
Computational thinking, algorithms and programming (02)	80	1 hour 30 mins	50%

Y10 Component	Marks	Duration	Weighting
OCR J277 Computer systems (01)	80	1 hour 30 mins	50%
Computational thinking, algorithms and programming (02)	80	1 hour 30 mins	50%