There will be a pre-course programme for all students taking Computer Science, where students will complete a Computing based project in order to start building their Computing skills before the course. Should any students struggle on this programme we will have a discussion with yourselves about potential alternative subjects that may be more suitable. This is given to students at the end of Year 9.

Aims

Students studying this specification will enable:

• Computational thinking as its core, helping students to develop the skills to solve problems, design systems and understand human and machine intelligence

• Applying the academic principles they learn in the classroom to real-world systems in an exciting and engaging way

• Giving students a clear progression into higher education, as the course was designed after consultation with members of BCS, CAS and top universities.

Component 01: Computer systems

• Introduces students to the central processing unit (CPU), computer memory and storage, data representation, wired and wireless networks, network topologies, system security and system software. It also looks at ethical, legal, cultural and environmental concerns associated with computer science.

Component 02: Computational thinking, algorithms and programming

• Students apply knowledge and understanding gained in component 01. They develop skills and understanding in computational thinking: algorithms, programming techniques, producing robust programs, computational logic and translators.

Practical programming

• Students are to be given the opportunity to undertake a programming task(s) during their course of study which allows them to develop their skills to design, write, test and refine programs using a high-level programming language. Students will be assessed on these skills during the written examinations, in particular component 02 (section B).

Assessment Structure

• Practical Programming – Non-Examined Assessment

• Computing Fundamentals – Examination

Paper 1 – Computer Systems

Paper 2 – Computational thinking, algorithms and programming

You need to

• Have a keen interest in Computing and programming.

• Have the practical ability and skills to take on a challenging programming based task.

• Enjoy maths and problem solving.

For further information, see Mr Mudaly (Lead Teacher)