Computing

COMPUTING

Curriculum Purpose

Preparing students for careers and furthering social justice

Computer Science is a modern, fascinating subject. The world depends on computers - In KS4 students learn about how computer programming can create solutions to everyday problems and future challenges. It can open up a whole world of opportunities.

Our curriculum and lessons will give students the opportunity to choose from a wide range of Computing careers e.g. Robotics Programmer, Games Developer, E-Commerce Manager, Cyber Protection Officer, Social Media Manager and many more. To do this, our students will achieve a P8 score of +1. A thorough academic science education will also provide a strong foundation that will benefit students to interact academically with peers, within computer science and other professional roles.

The purpose of the computer science curriculum is to provide students with a strong understanding of how the technology that surrounds them actually works, and in addition, equips them with the knowledge that will allow them to adapt to the constant technological changes that will inevitably occur during their lifetimes.

Knowledge acquisition as a measure of progress

Our curriculum and lessons will give students the knowledge (core, procedural and hinterland) to critically synthesise and analyse matters that involve computer science.

At GCSE, students follow the OCR Computing for GCSE Course. In Year 10 they gain an overview of computer systems and data representation and then Computer networks and network security. In year 11, students learn about specific search and sorting algorithms, also some software development concepts which include IDEs, debugging, and testing.

The needs of our community

Our curriculum and lessons will reflect positively the community of students within our school and actively question inequalities in computer science.

Teaching Computer science for its intrinsic value

We believe that the world is an amazing place. Computer Science helps us understand just how amazing it is. Our curriculum and lessons will give students the knowledge that will amaze, solve problems and develop a healthy scepticism.

Curriculum Rationale

What do we teach and why do we teach it?

Computer science, at its core, is about solving problems. Some of these problems are currently unknown and future careers are yet to be defined, whilst others are well established and require high levels of expertise. Companies specialising in communication, space science, aerospace and defence, many of which are in and around Bristol, require and rely on billions of lines of code that are developed by highly skilled practitioners. By teaching computing we are offering these opportunities to our local community.

At Trinity, computing is taught through three key strands – hardware (the arrangement of electronic components, information storage and processing), networks (the ways computer systems communicate with one another in increasingly flexible ways) and programming (the coding of software).

Why do we teach it in that order?

During year 9, students are introduced to the three strands with an emphasis on coding to instruct computers. At GCSE, the course has two parallel teaching streams: (1) Hardware and Networks and (2) Programming. Programming in particular requires problem solving skills that must have secure, flexible and background knowledge. Learning episodes are constructed that interleave abstract and concrete concepts. This means that knowledge is acquired with the flexibility that makes a good problem solver. Contextual and conceptual variation, together with the explicit teaching of critical analysis and deeper thinking allows students to develop these skills.