“Our aim is to ensure our learners are confident and responsible users of information technology. The common thread throughout our curriculum is to equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive and make a positive impact to the digital world that surrounds them.”
In the Computer Science department at Wood Green School, we endeavour to develop students’ computational thinking and problem-solving abilities, equipping them with the skills essential to be successful, not only in Computer Science, but in other subjects and to be productive in their future careers.
We intend to develop students’ knowledge, skills and understanding through exposure to key computational concepts. Our broad and balanced curriculum is constructed to equip students with the skills and understanding to live and work in a technological world. This includes being able to use a variety of applications and coding software.
We want students to build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers who can apply their skills to any number of challenging situations. Students are expected to develop into resilient learners who can solve problems effectively and have the confidence to recover from mistakes.
The Computing curriculum has been designed to ensure learners have sufficient knowledge to identify dangers online and recognise how to stay safe, understanding how computers work and are confident when using them.
The units of study at KS3 give a basis of knowledge, skills and understanding to allow students to progress onto the KS4 GCSE Computer Science course, but that is not the principal goal. We aim to develop all students into effective practitioners in the workplace and in education who are prepared for the demands of Computing and IT in the ever-changing technological world today.
The current KS3 Curriculum has the following structure:
From September 2023, students will engage in an updated curriculum which will more closely reflect the modern computing skills and knowledge needed for the world today.
In Year 7, students will be introduced to the basic ICT skills they will need to support other subjects across the curriculum including an introduction to the applications used on the Wood Green school network such as Office 365 (Word, PowerPoint, using school email via Outlook) and Bromcom. The core constructs of programming will be introduced when developing algorithms through Python programming and the workings of a computer are to be explored when learning about internal and external components. We will also introduce students to spreadsheet modelling and link tasks to real life scenarios. For our clear messaging in a digital world unit students shall use essential skills such as planning, searching for relevant information and presenting effectively. In our gaining support for a cause unit learners will develop software formatting skills and explore concerns surrounding the use of other people’s work, including licensing and legal issues.
In the updated curriculum, throughout Year 8 students will continue to build upon the skills they develop in Year 7, mapped out in our spiral curriculum. The spiral curriculum has been developed so fundamental ideas are repeatedly presented throughout the curriculum, but with deepening levels of challenge and increasing complexity in lessons and reinforcing previous learning from Year 7 and 8 and, in part, throughout the academic year.
Programming will be taken to the next level where students will look at using python to examine sequences of data. Networks are to be explored, and this includes the hardware involved and cyber security threats are explored with these networks. Students will then again explore their creative problem-solving by producing solutions to build web pages and editing digital graphics. This year is used to develop students’ programming and computational thinking skills in preparation for choosing their KS4 options.
Below is the KS3 Computing curriculum map for September 2023 onwards, followed by an assessment map which indicates the number of times students’ progress will be monitored through assessments during the school year.
The KS3 WGS Baccalaureate activities for the Computer Science subject Award
At Key Stage 4, the course builds on the knowledge, understanding and skills established during years 7 and 8. There is a heavy focus on programming skills, and students are allowed to experiment with various languages and activities. Students revisit theory already covered in written and multiple-choice topic assessments. More theory units are introduced to allow for a solid basis of understanding and engage learners and get them thinking about actual world applications. Theory units follow the AQA specification:
In year 10, a programming project is undertaken alongside theory units. The project involves students analysing a programming problem, designing a solution, and implementing their design. Completing the project gives students the relevant experience they can relate to in the Component 1 exam.
During Year 11, students continue to study the exam board specification theory units and revisit theory already covered in written and multiple-choice topic assessments.
GCSE Computer Science specification
Computer Science GCSE revision resources
The Key Stage 5 curriculum builds upon knowledge gained during KS4 and provides the technical knowledge and experience required to progress into higher education. The aims of the A Level qualification are to enable learners to develop:
The curriculum intends that students should adopt high aspirations and that most should aim to progress onto university or higher-level apprenticeships.
Grade 5 or above in Computer Science and Mathematics.
The A-Level Computer Science course will enable you to:
• develop your problem-solving skills
• exercise your creative thinking.
• explore your interests in the field of Computer Science
In A-Level Computer Science you will study the following topics:
Computer Science links well with all A levels but is particularly good in combination with Maths. It is also beneficial if you have studied the AQA GCSE Computer Science beforehand as a great deal of the topic areas build on from the core knowledge learnt at GCSE level.
