Computer Science

Computer Science encourages students to:

• understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of Computer Science, including abstraction, decomposition, logic, algorithms, and data representation

• analyse problems in computational terms through practical experience of solving such problems, including designing, writing and debugging programs

• to use their outstanding mathematical understanding and application skills.

You should, if you:

• enjoy exploring the different aspects of computing 

• want to understand the components that make up digital systems, and how they communicate with one another and with other systems

• want to understand the impacts of digital technology to the individual and to wider society 

• want to apply mathematical skills relevant to Computer Science.

• want to further your Computing skills for the workplace.

Our GCSE Computer Science course gets students working with real-world, practical programming techniques that give them a good understanding of what makes technology work.  This qualification has built-in progression to further studies and is recognised as developing the skills that employers’ value. 

Topic 1: Computer Systems: architecture of the CPU, CPU performance, Memory and Storage, Computer network, connections and protocols, System software, and cultural, ethical and legal impact of digital technology.

Topic 2: Computational thinking, algorithms and programming - This component investigates problem solving, algorithms and programming fundamentals, data types, programming languages, data structures and data types and security and authentication.

The qualification is split into two exam units and one programming project:

Paper 1: 

Computer Systems 

Paper 2: 

Computational thinking, algorithms and programming 

Programming project (20 hours):

This component requires students to produce a programmed solution to a problem. Design, Write, Test and Refine a solution to a computing problem.