SubjectsComputing

Our Curriculum Intent

In designing our Computing curriculum for Year 7 through to Year 13 students, we ensure the following aspects of the curriculum are embedded to ensure all students can access the curriculum and most importantly, make progress. The curriculum at KS3, KS4 & KS5 is ambitious to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged, SEND and those with high learning needs, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. At KS3, we select and adapt the content to meet the needs of the students and teachers and have consistently engaging lessons which are accessible to all students. Students are not held back by examination constraints, which has enabled us as a department to work collaboratively in striving for success with all. We ensure that the learning in the classroom is not just about delivering a programme of study, whilst focussing on the main considerations:

• What is needed for our students?

• What is needed to allow our department to thrive?

• What is needed to ensure we meet the needs of the school and the wider community?

• Adaptive teaching

• To ensure our curriculum is well-planned, ambitious, and fit for purpose, considering all needs of every learner. We also make informed decisions for curriculum growth based on data gathered from colleagues, specialist staff, SENDCO, teaching assistants & external service

Our intentions also go beyond the learning of the classroom, and we invest in our learners to allow them to:

• appreciate the prevalence, power, and potential of computer technologies.

• develop competence in the use of industry-standard software and as such be prepared for the 21st century workplace.

• learn to use technology safely, respectfully, responsibly, and securely, including protecting their online identity and privacy and learning to recognise inappropriate content.

• understand computational thinking and its application to the design of robust computer code and programming techniques.

• be enthused by computer technology such that they undertake to study at a level beyond Key Stage 3.

Through our varied teaching approach and use of relevant and current resources, we will encourage our own developed model of 5 key thinking skills for success in Computing. As well as being taught to read, write and talk about Computing with confidence and fluency, our students will learn to think critically; concurrently; creatively; collaboratively; and computationally. We believe that these skills will inspire confidence in our students to take on the many types of challenges that formal assessment questions pose and, therefore, improve the chance for their examination success.

Our curriculum aims to prepare our students for their future as digital natives, ready for a global jobs market in which computing technologies will play a fundamental part in the local economy and will support the growth of the ‘Golden Valley’ development and the established GCHQ government agency, becoming the heart of the UK’s Cyber Industry.

Implementation

Our students will study Computing and Computer Science techniques and technology throughout Years 7 to Year 9 with the level of content difficulty gradually being increased to give students a firm foundation in the key concepts of the Key Stage 4 GCSE Computer Science course. At Key Stage 5, we offer A Level Computer Science as a full 2-year A Level course. We deliver all our courses (KS3, GCSE & A Level) with a variety of recognised pedagogical techniques including, but not limited to: Rosenshine’s Principles; blended learning and “flipped” learning. Teachers and students will make use of state-of-the-art computer suites, audio-visual resources, and respected online teaching resources to appeal to a wide range of student learning sensitivities. Our curriculum also makes space for students to undertake a selection of creative projects that involve selecting, using, and combining multiple applications, preferably across a range of devices, to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data and meeting the needs of users. We have an ambitious curriculum to give all learners particularly the most disadvantaged, SEND and those with high needs the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

We can select and adapt the content to meet the needs of the students & teachers, whilst ensuring that the curriculum is engaging and accessible to all students. We have developed a consistent approach to learning, assessments and student reflection and collaborate and communicate effectively to share best practices. We regularly review ourselves against the Academy Teaching Principles to minimise complacency and instil a culture of consistent improvement. The curriculum is enhanced by a wide variety of in-house & co-curricular activities which are offered by our team of staff, and in conjunction with local businesses and government agencies such as CyNam, CyberFirst, ioActive, NCCE, Microsoft, and GCHQ along with a selection of work-related career opportunities at KS5. Students in KS3 and KS4 are entered into yearly Data Face, National Cyber, Girls in Cyber and Computational Thinking Challenges which excite their passions further. This will develop their collaboration skills with other students in and beyond their own Academy environment, promoting soft skills which are crucial to success for Computer Scientists of the 21st Century.

Impact 

The impact of our curriculum at Key Stage 3 has captured the imagination of our students resulting in the number of students opting for Computer Science increasing year on year. The increased popularity of A Level at Key Stage 5 has been underpinned by increased uptake at Key Stage 4 in GCSE Computer Science and so we expect the growth to continue. Onward movement into higher education study in Computer Science at university has started and our students are well equipped to do so at the end of Key Stage 5. The breadth and depth of opportunity in our Computing curriculum is developing students who strongly consider working with computer technologies in their future careers as well as further study beyond the Academy age. This is driven by regular career drives and links to the world of work, through our local partners and emerging Golden Valley development.

The experience of participating in the new Key Stage 3 curriculum, including extensive enrichment opportunities and additional teaching time, will prepare our students even more effectively for the challenges of Key Stage 4 and 5.