Computer Science

Curriculum Intent

To provide pupils with a foundation in Computer Science that develops the skills acquired in the Enquiry Skills curriculum in KS3. The qualification has been chosen to give students the opportunity to develop a range of skills relevant to further study or to pursue a career in this subject area.

Strengths of the Department

Pupils studying this subject have consistently performed well in external examinations with the expected pass rate in the range of 80% or above with nearly 30% achieving the top grades of 7-9. This is significantly above the national pass rates for this subject.

The department also works with a range of local companies to provide learning experiences that take pupils beyond the classroom. Some of the companies that we have worked with in the past 12 months include, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, UKFast, M247, JP Morgan and GCHQ. The department also organises a trip to CERN in Switzerland on a bi-annual basis in conjunction with the Science and MFL departments.

Exam Board: OCR

Content Overview of OCR GCSE Computer Scienc

Component 01Component 02Programming Project

Computer Systems

(Assessed by: 1 hour 30 minute external examination)
Introduces students to the central processing unit (CPU), computer memory and storage, wired and wireless networks, network topologies, system security and system software. It also looks at ethical, legal, cultural and environmental concerns associated with computer science.

Computational Thinking, Algorithms and Programming

(Assessed by: 1 hour 30 minute external examination)
Students apply knowledge and understanding gained in component 01. They develop skills and understanding in computational thinking: algorithms, programming techniques, producing robust programs, computational logic, translators and data representation. The skills and knowledge developed within this component will support the learner when completing the Programming Project.

Programming Project

(Assessed by: 20 hours of class time)
Students use OCR Programming Project tasks to develop their practical ability in the skills developed in components 01 and 02. They will have the opportunity to define success criteria from a given problem, and then create suitable algorithms to achieve the success criteria. Students then code their solutions in a suitable programming language, and check its functionality using a suitable and documented test plan. Finally they will evaluate the success of their solution and reflect on potential developments for the future.

Moodle Course