Our curriculum aims for every student to become a wise, astute, discerning consumer of IT products in world increasingly permeated by the pressures of social media. We offer students the opportunity to acquire programming and Business Intelligence skills (which are highly transferrable and increasingly lucrative) to give them opportunities they have may not have previously considered and give them ambitions they may have considered beyond their horizons. We cover all elements of the Program of Study and are introducing a second programming language JavaScript to give the students more scope in the employment sector. We have deliberately chosen a language which though traditionally used for front end scripting can be used server side (back end) to increase the scope of projects they can build. One of the schools aims is Resilience and the habits underpinning this are well embedded in students. This is clearly evident when students are coding or undertaking external challenges such as Bebras. JavaScript being a web-orientated language dovetails neatly with HTML which students and teachers are well versed in. It doesn't require software installation and gives students the opportunity to code interactive websites.
Click here to view Curriculum Intent
Click here to view the Roadmap
Year 7
In Year 7 students will learn about how technology impacts society and how to safeguard themselves whilst using technology. Students also learn how to construct spreadsheets to model / forecast. This gives them the first learning blocks – data types and formulae which they will build on throughout their time in school. Students also start to learn how to code in a markup language to change elements on a webpage.
Click here to view Year 7 Curriculum
Year 8
In Year 8 students will learn build on the HTML coding they learned in Year 7 by programming in JavaScript. They learn how data is constructed and manipulated from 1s and 0s which is vital to understanding the how nodes on a network communicate in Year 9. They learn the historical significance and contribution of key personalities in recent Western thought pertaining to Computer Science, although they will also learn about significant contributions from older, longer established Eastern civilisations as well. They conclude the year building on their knowledge and practical application of Cybersecurity and develop their oracy and reasoning skills when studying social media.
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Year 9
In Year 9 start with learning how computers think using pseudocode and how to troubleshoot code manually. They also learn about the efficiency of a variety of searching and sorting algorithms. These logical constructs lead inevitably to students learning to code in their second coding language python which can be used for a variety of applications such as artificial intelligence, web development and data science. After learning to safeguard themselves and their devices in Years 7 and 8 they learn how network systems are protected from threats before learning how networks are visualised and constructed.
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Year 10
Computing
Year 10 start by learning about the architecture of the Central Processing Unit, how memory operates and the function of secondary storage devices. The use of mathematics to calculate files sizes leads naturally onto how data is represented. While calculating how fast files download students will be naturally curious about how data travels. This is explored when students learn how networks are constructed, the role of network hardware and protocols. The impact of digital technology on the individual, society and ethical issues arising from increasingly capable network devices is then studied.
Click here to view Year 10 Curriculum - Computing
Business
In Year 10 our aim to ensure that students have the theoretical knowledge of Enterprise and Marketing as they prepare for their written exam - R064.
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Year 11
Computing
In Year 11 start by learning how computers think using pseudocode and how to troubleshoot code manually. They also learn about the efficiency of a variety of searching and sorting algorithms, how to use Boolean algebra, truth tables and trace tables. Students then learn about the types of programming language before a dedicated block of time devoted to programming in Python. Our aim to ensure that students have the practical skills to solve problems using pseudocode and Python.
Click here to view Year 11 Curriculum - Computing
Business
In Year 11 our aim to ensure that students have the practical skills of Enterprise and Marketing as they complete 2 pieces of coursework – R065 and R066.
Click here to view Year 11 Curriculum - Business