Computing

Why study Computing?

Computing  is part of just about everything that touches our lives from the cars we drive, to the movies we watch, to the ways businesses and governments deal with us. Understanding different dimensions of computing is part of the necessary skill set for an educated person in the 21st century.

How will I study Computing?

The computing curriculum teaches pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to solve problems. They will learn the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work and how to create programs and systems of their own. As a result, our pupils will become responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology, with the skills to solve problems, design systems and understand human and machine intelligence. They will learn how to apply the academic principles they learn in the classroom to real-world systems in an exciting and engaging way.

What will I study at Key Stage 3?

Students in Year 7 will explore data representation in the form of binary-denary, hexadecimal, bitmap and vector images. They then move onto basic algorithms where they examine computational thinking, written description and flowcharts. Pupils will gain an understanding of hardware and software before moving onto programming techniques such as arithmetic operators. They then begin working with spreadsheets and experience methods of data manipulation such as the Sum, Min/Max functions. It is also important for pupils to have some grounding into cybersecurity and user interfaces where they understand threats to computers and prevention.

In Year 8 pupils will look at data representation in the form of image representation and file sizes, before examining system architecture through the fetch-decode-execute cycle and primary and secondary storage. Their programming techniques develop further through iteration, strings, lists, and data types. Their spreadsheet skills develop further with exploration of macros, and the IF function, before investigating different user interfaces as part of cyber security.

In Year 9 , learners deepen their understanding and examination of data representation where they examine binary shifts, units and compression and characters (Unicode). They also deepen their understanding of programming techniques through arrays, string manipulation and Boolean operators. Their work with spreadsheets develops through understanding how to link sheets, advanced calculations, and further their manipulation through conditional formatting and transposing data. They will also further explore algorithms through trace tables and logic gates (Boolean Logic).