Computing

You have grown up in a world where technology is evolving rapidly, creating new subject areas to explore and changing the way people work in every area from medicine and fashion to engineering and economics. So whatever your career plans, you know it is vital to develop your grasp of these ideas and concepts that will shape your world. 90% of jobs that will be available to you will be based around technology. The job prospects are excellent and the field is rigorous, intellectually vibrant and multi-faceted. High on the agenda for business, science and government, computing provides a challenging and engaging platform for you to understand, explore and change the world around you.

Students choosing this option should enjoy conceptual thinking and understanding detail.  The study of computers, and particularly learning to program, will improve analytical thinking and problem solving skills.  Students who are good at maths and logic problems often do well with the subject. With more and more traditional career paths under threat of computer automation, a GCSE in Computer Science is fast becoming a must have qualification.  A recent study from PwC put as many as 30% of UK jobs may go due to advances in artificial intelligence.

Half Term 1 - Introduction to Digital Literacy

We have this as our first topic as we want to introduce our students to the computer systems that we use and make sure that all the students are confident on our computers and of the Internet as a whole. Making our students aware as to how to be safe online is our utmost priority and should come before anything else.

Half Term 2 - Computational thinking, Algorithms and Programming

Before students can start to program or create software; they need to understand how to think like a Computer Scientist and they need to solve problems by using Computational thinking. Computational thinking is the underpinning of all program writing. Algorithms are a way to express the problem that needs solving.

Half Term 3 - Computer Basics

This topic comes after a practical topic and this topic focuses more on the theory of computers and their physical side. This is taught now as it gives the students a chance to understand the breadth of Computer Science and that it isn't all programming. This topic gives the student the knowledge of how a computer works and why.

Half Term 4 - Programming and Problem Solving

Our fourth topic is a follow on from topic 2. Here students are given a problem and they have to use their prior knowledge to  solve the problem. The topic also links in with data representation as the challenge is to create a binary converter. The students will first learn what binary is and how to convert it and then they will be asked to create a computer solution.

Half Term 5 - Creative digital solutions

The fifth topic helps show the students more breadth to Computer Science and IT by introducing the creative side to IT. The students will learn about different types of graphics and how they are used. This topic is creating a logo and social media posts on a graphics package.

Half Term 6 - Enrichment Project

The last topic of year 7 in Computer Science and IT is an enrichment project. This project starts after the end of unit assessments and is teacher specific. This topic is not necessarily part of the curriculum but does introduce the students to computer science. Example projects include: building lego robots, programming Minecraft on the Raspberry Pi, Creating game on Microbits.

Half Term 1 - Binary and Boolean Logic

Year 8 starts with the binary and Boolean Logic topic as this explains how computers work and builds on from two topics from last year. Students should remember what binary is, this topic takes it further by introducing binary addition and multiplication.

Half Term 2 - Computer Systems

The second topic also builds on from year 7 to how a computer works and what components it needs. This topic specifically looks at how the internet works, this will then help students understand how websites work before they create one themselves.

Half Term 3 - Website Creating

The third topic builds in from topic 2. The students learnt the theory behind the Internet - this is a practical topic where students build their own websites. They will use HTML to build a website and CSS to add colours and features. Some will have javascript to their websites to add functionality.

Half Term 4 - The fourth topic again is a practical topic where students learn how to program their own games. Here they will learn programming techniques that will build on from their programming skills in the previous year. Here they will look at selection and iteration and functions within programming.

Half Term 5 - Scratch to Python

This topic again builds from topic 4. Until now, students have been programming using visual programming languages - this topic will aid the jump into year 9 by showing how the scratch programming can be similar to the text based programming by linking the 2 pieces of software together. The students in this topic will get their first taste of Python programming. The language they will use if they chose Computer Science for GCSE.

Half Term 6 - Enrichment Project

The last topic of year 8  in Computer Science and IT is an enrichment project. This project starts after the end of unit assessments and is teacher specific. This topic is not necessarily part of the curriculum but does introduce the students to computer science. Example projects include: building lego robots, programming Minecraft on the Raspberry Pi, Creating game on Microbits.

Half Term 1 - Computational thinking and Algorithms

We study this first topic in year 9 as this is the cornerstone of Computer Science. Students must understand Computational thinking and what is an algorithm before they can understand how to program. This is built on from key stage 3.

Half Term 2 - Programming Techniques

The students then move on to basic programming techniques and being able to build programs from simple algorithms. They blend pseudocode with programming. From analysis, design and development of programs.

Half Term 3 - Computer Architecture

The students then learn about the architecture of a computer. This unit is built from the Computer basics topic in key stage 3. The students learn how the processor works and what is needed for a computer to run.

Half Term 4 - Data representation

The students learn more about binary and denary. Again, this is built from previous knowledge in key stage 3. Here the students now learn about addition, subtraction, multiplication and then also learn about hexadecimal. This is taught here to build on from how a computer works to the language of computers.

Half Term 5 - Programming Techniques

In half term 5, the students now go back to more practical work and learn some more advanced programming techniques. This will be teamed with more pseudocode and algorithmic questions which are similar to the GCSE paper 2 questions.

Half Term 6 - Ethical, Moral and cultural issues

This topic will be a research project for students and this is studied now as they have a full understanding of the computer and how it works but will also need to understand the issues regarding the use of computers around the world.The topic will also cover current affairs and help with long answer questions.

Half Term 1 - Programming Project

The students have to complete a non examined assessment for their GCSE. THe students are required to spend 20 hours on this project. The project is started now as the students have spent the past year learning the skills to complete it and the exam boards conditions are that they have to complete the project within their second year of the course.

Half Term 2 - Programming Project

The students carry on with the rest of their hours towards their project.

Half Term 3 - Systems Architecture

The students now move onto Paper 1 knowledge of their GCSE and they start with the Computer architecture. They start with this topic as its the basis of how a computer works. The students will need to understand what a computer is, and how it works before understanding the other theory topics.

Half Term 4 - Memory and Storage

The students study memory and storage after computer architecture as this is the natural occurrence after the computer processes the information it saves it in memory and stores it. The topic follows the life cycle.

Half Term 5 - Networks

This topic is studied next as it is a natural progression. A network is a group of computers. This topic is fairly advanced and there is vocabulary in this unit that students will have learnt from previous topics such as computer architecture.

Half Term 6 - System software and security

The last topic of year 10 will be systems security and software. Software is what runs on the hardware so this topic needs to be delivered after the hardware units. This topic covers the fresh topic of cybersecurity and cyber crime. The topic will also cover current affairs and help with long answer questions.

Half Term 1 - Programming Project

The students have to complete a non examined assessment for their GCSE. THe students are required to spend 20 hours on this project. The project is started now as the students have spent the past year learning the skills to complete it and the exam boards conditions are that they have to complete the project within their second year of the course.

Half Term 2 - Programming Project

The students carry on with the rest of their hours towards their project.

Half Term 3 - Systems Architecture

The students now move onto Paper 1 knowledge of their GCSE and they start with the Computer architecture. They start with this topic as its the basis of how a computer works. The students will need to understand what a computer is, and how it works before understanding the other theory topics.

Half Term 4 - Memory, storage and Networks

These topics are studied next as it is a natural progression. A network is a group of computers. This topic is fairly advanced and there is vocabulary in this unit that students will have learnt from previous topics such as computer architecture.

Half Term 5 - System software and security

The last topic of year 10 will be systems security and software. Software is what runs on the hardware so this topic needs to be delivered after the hardware units. This topic covers the fresh topic of cybersecurity and cyber crime. The topic will also cover current affairs and help with long answer questions.

Half Term 6 - Revision

The rest of the year will be spent revising for both papers.