Computing & Business
Mrs Kenyon
Head of Computing & Business
The department prides itself on making its learning as meaningful, enjoyable and accessible to students as possible whilst promoting the confidence and desire so students to produce work of quality. In order to achieve these objectives a strong understanding of the computing strategies and business methods is essential, together with a technical competence in a wide range of software and programming languages. We want to equip all of our students with the knowledge and skills to succeed in an ever-changing technological world.
Computing & Business Curriculum:
What can a student expect from the Faculty?
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.Ambitious, knowledge rich curriculum
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.Qualified and enthusiastic teaching staff
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.Help, guidance and support
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.Quality first teaching designed to challenge, inspire and ensure progression
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.An interesting selection of courses that are relevant for future employment and education
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.Knowledge and skills across three pillars of progression (Computer Science, Information Technology, Digital Literacy)
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.Understanding of the business world
Extra-Curricular Clubs
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1.Preparation for external exams in Key stage 4
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2.Regular half term holiday extra support
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3.Computing lunchtime club
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4.Computing House competitions
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5.Girls cybersafe challenge
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6.Off site visits
Vision & Aims
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.To provide an environment where pupils find the Computer science principles both enjoyable and rewarding.
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.To develop thinking skills and approaches to problem solving and design.
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.To develop the capacity for creative thought and actions; the ability to innovate, initiate and make effective personal responses.
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.To develop a wide of ICT skills for now and the future
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.To develop the creative and technical skills needed excel in the creative field of Computing.
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.To ensure all students know how to use computers safely and responsibly.
Key Stage 3 - Curriculum Overview
At Key Stage 3 the department offers students the opportunity to cover all three pillars of progression as well as covering areas of Business. We sequence projects across KS3 to ensure that pupils know and remember more. Students will develop computational thinking, use specialist software and know how to use computers safely and responsibly. Students are encouraged to work in ways that will prepare them for both the rigour of GCSE and the creativity of OCR Nationals based courses. We aim to equip students with the skills and knowledge they will require to excel in an increasingly digitised and automated world. We aim to use technology to foster curiosity, confidence, creativity, and resilience thereby empowering students into becoming regional and global citizens capable of actively and ethically communicating and collaborating in a digital world.
Key Stage 4 - Curriculum Overview
In KS4 we cover a range of GCSE subjects, offering courses such as GCSE Computer Science and Cambridge Nationals Enterprise and Marketing.
GCSE Computer Science will teach students areas such as computational thinking, problems solving and computing fundamentals. This builds on from prior knowledge gained at KS3, including Python programming. Future careers in Computer Science are ever increasing including careers such as Digital forensics and game developers. The course will help them to develop creativity, logical thinking, independent learning, and self-evaluation through a range of practical programming tasks.
OCR Cambridge Nationals subjects allow pupils to apply knowledge gained to specific scenarios through internally assessed projects (coursework). Enterprise and Marketing allows students to gain knowledge, skills and understanding of the main activities that will need to happen to support a start-up business, and what the key factors are to consider when starting up a business. Everyone will end up working in some sort of business, so this subject will also give an insight in to how businesses operate. It will equip all students with the necessary enterprise skills to enter the ever-changing world of work.