Computing & Creative iMedia – Mayfield Grammar School Gravesend

“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”

Edsger Dijkstra

The intent of the Computing & IT curriculum is to develop student knowledge and skills in the following areas:

digital literacy;
computer science;
IT.

The aim of digital literacy will support their skills so that they can apply their knowledge across their subjects. The aim of developing their IT knowledge is so that they can develop their understanding of how computing technology can be used, including online safety.

The aim of the computer science is to develop their knowledge and skills into how computers work and how to write computer programs and also to be able to evaluate moral, legal and ethical issues related to the use of computers.

Key Concepts

The key threads that are the basis of the curriculum are:

Digital Literacy

Independent research

Students will learn how to use search engines and other methods to research and demonstrate sources of knowledge that they use across their subjects.

Familiarity with terms and common platforms

Students will learn the specific language relating to computing technology and they will learn familiarity with using a general purpose computer.

Collaboration

Students will develop their collaborative skills to work as part of a team.

Adapting to new technology

Students will learn about new and developing technologies and the impact that these have on society.

Teaching or explaining technologies you use

Students will be able to describe the impact that technologies have on different areas of society.

Computer Science

This will enable students to understand the key components that are inside a computer, they will understand how networks including the internet are created.

They will be able to discuss legal, ethical and moral issues related to computers.

They will be able to apply computational thinking to solve problems that they have abstracted for a wide range of scenarios.

They will develop their coding skills so that they are able write their own computer programs and be able to test and evaluate these.

Creative iMedia

Student will learn about the hardware and software that are used to create IT systems and they will be able to create their own work using these systems.

They will learn to use a range of applications including Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Animate to create a wide range of graphics, websites and animations.

They will be able to test and evaluate their work.

Key Skills

The keys skills include the following:

Literacy – Students will develop their ability to communicate effectively using IT through the use of a range of ICT software. They will learn how to develop their arguments and develop their skills to think critically and evaluate their work.

Numeracy – Students will learn skills to analyse data using databases to create queries to analyse one or more related tables. They will also use Excel to perform calculations and apply formulae and functions. They will learn how to create graphs to represent data and also to understand the effects of modelling data.,

IT skills – Students will use a wide range of ICT software to enable them to use their skills across the curriculum.

Problem solving – Students will be encouraged to develop their ability to solve problems, to abstract key points and to solve problems using appropriate methods and software.

What is taught?

Year 7 Curriculum Overview

Year 8 Curriculum Overview

Year 9 Curriculum Overview

GCSE Computer Science Curriculum Overview

GCSE Creative i-Media Curriculum Overview

A2 Computer Science Curriculum Overview

Academic Literacy in Computing

Literacy is at the core of computing and IT lessons, it is reinforced using a range of methods including:

Variety of activities including gap fill, mind-mapping of ideas, matching up of terms and definitions, individual sentences to answer tasks, listing of words/phrases.
Focus of keywords/key terms.
Written evaluations of work completed.