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Howden School

Howden School

ICT & Computer Science

Students will study one hour of Computing each week in year 7 and 8. At Howden School we offer two GCSE courses which the students can pick from if they desire; OCR Computer Science or OCR Cambridge National in Information Technologies.  Whether students pick a Computing option to study at GCSE level or not, each student will study Functional Skills in ICT for one hour a week in year 9 and 10.

'We live in an ever-changing digital world in which both Computer Science and ICT are fast becoming the norm in many aspects of our lives. The digital age has vastly transformed the way we communicate, access information and learn. At Howden School we firmly believe we need to teach students the necessary skills to not only make the best use of the digital age but to feel confident in doing so for their future life after school. It is our aim as part of our curriculum at Howden School to develop each student’s confidence and competence with a computer. To achieve this, we place great emphasis on a student’s ability to problem solve; developing this in each of our lessons to ensure students are comfortable when choosing their GCSE options.'

Mr. L. Marshall, ICT and Computer Science Teacher

Key Stage 3 

Year 7

Students begin with a general introduction to Computing and then study the following units that rotate between Computer Science and ICT:

  1. E- Safety
  2. Python Turtle
  3. Flowol
  4. Spreadsheets
  5. Binary
  6. Algorithms

Year 8

Students will study the following units that rotate between Computer Science and ICT:

  1. The history of Computers
  2. Advanced Scratch
  3. Logo
  4. Kodu
  5. Databases
  6. Howden Music Festival
  7. Python

Key Stage 4 

GCSE Options

OCR Cambridge Nationals in Information Technologies

What is it all about?

Cambridge National in Information Technologies has been developed to give students a real understanding of their digital environment, develop key skills, and prepare them for their future use of IT in their chosen careers across a wide range of job roles.

Using real life examples from smart watches and music apps to cyber security and fake news, your students will be taken on a journey of discovery on how information technologies are applied, and revealing to them the extent to which digital footprints impact their everyday lives.

Written paper: written exam 1hr 45mins 50% of GCSE

Coursework: in lessons approx. 20hrs 50% of GCSE

OCR Computer Science

What skills can I get from it?

The course will help you learn about critical thinking, analysis and problem solving. We hope you will find it a fun and interesting way to develop these skills, which can also be transferred to other subjects and even applied in day-to-day life.

  • The computer systems and programming unit will teach you the theory about a wide range of issues such as hardware and software, the representation of data in computer systems, databases, computer communications and networking, programming and more.
  • The practical investigation is all about engaging with computing in the real world. You will look at a computing topic in more depth and carry out a practical investigation into a computing issue.
  • The programming project will call on you to design code and test a solution to three tasks using a suitable programming language.

Paper 1 written exam 80 marks 40% of GCSE

Paper 2 written exam 80 marks 40% of GCSE

Practical coding 20 hours 80 marks 20% of GCSE