BBC Education
BBC Education
Computing & ICT
Curriculum Intent:
Our aim is for students to develop understanding for all of the technology that surrounds them. We want students to not only understand how to use technology effectively, safely and responsibly but also how technology is developed and constantly redeveloped into new and exciting tools.
Students will become confident and robust problem solvers and understand how to better use computers as a tool, a tool that can be configured and reconfigured to solve any number of problems that face us now and that will face us further into the future.
Year 7 and 8: Through a range of practical and thought provoking topics we aim to develop confidence, understanding and application across the following strands of study: How computers can be used to solve problems - How computers store, manipulate and transmit our data - How to use computers effectively, responsibly and safely.
GCSE Computer Science: Problem solving skills will be enhanced through a series of enriching programming topics. Students will not simply learn to program computers in one language such as Python, or VB.net, rather, they will be knowledgeable of programming itself. They will also gain a deep understanding of computer sciences core concepts which they will gain through classwork and meaningful research.
A level Computer Science:
Students expand on the understanding they gained at GCSE by following a much more in depth specification covering formal and practical programming as well as deep and technical learning about how computers operate. Taught primarily in Python, students will ehance their technical understanding of programming and build a skillset desireable to both further education and work settings.
While not thought of as a creative subject, A Level computer science offers a variety of possiblities for students to explore their design and creativity skills. Most notably through their final coursework project which allows students freedom to solve the problems that they find most interesting, in ways they would not typically explore.
As a subject we pair most naturally with Mathematics and Physics but we welcome all students with a passion for computing and have had many success stories from students pairing computer science with Art and Design courses.
GCSE CS: AQA 8525
A level CS: AQA 7517
Learning Explorations Year 9
Explorations are a key part of the student journey and we look to explore skills that will benefit students in a variety of subject areas to improve students use of ICT and understanding of the technological developments that are happening in their chosen fields.
AI has been a popular but polarising recent development. In Year 9 we look to explore how advancements in this field are affecting our day to day lives as well as our potential future careers.