Course outline / overview:

Key Stage 3:

KS3 for ICT runs from Year 7-8 and incorporates a wide array of skills from both the business/education and entertainment aspects of ICT. The students acquire and develop key skills such as reasoning, trial and error, deduction, planning, production and evaluation.

We offer the students the opportunity to study and develop in several areas including:

• Games development; using a dedicated Playstation Move system to teach students the concepts behind motion sensing and augmented reality, which they then apply to their own creative studies.
• Word processing skills.
• Presentation Skills
• Basic business management skills.
• 3D modelling; using software that follows the key disciplines of industry standard software. Students learn how to create a still picture that is entirely computer generated, and in doing so learn the foundation skills of computer animation and special effects.
• Photo Editing; using industry standard software. We also challenge students to consider the social and ethical impact of this type of image manipulation, such as the airbrushing that is now commonplace in magazines.
• Website creation; using industry standard software, students learn how to create a basic website layout, and populate it with exciting content such as video and interactive games/animation.
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Key Stage 4: Edexcel DiDA

Key Stage 4 ICT starts in Year 9, where students follow a vocational course called AiDA (Award in Digital Applications) delivered through Edexcel. This course is all coursework based, with no exams, and is continued up to the end of Year 11.

ICT is a compulsory subject for Year 9-11 and is also offered as an option where students can work towards a CiDA (Certificate in Digital Applications – 2 GCSEs), CiDA+ (Extended Certificate – 3 GCSEs) or DiDA (Diploma in Digital Applications – 4 GCSEs). These courses are broken down into units and offer pupils the benefits of developing and accessing a wide range of skills which tend to be very popular amongst our students. The major selling point of the course is that students achieve 1 to 4 GCSE equivalents from ICT alone, depending on the number of units they complete.

The content of units engages and motivates students with real-life topics and practical tasks to develop and test their ICT skills. Some of these units include:

• Unit 1 – Using ICT (Compulsory unit) Current Topics include projects on E –Safety and the 2012 Olympics
• Unit 2 – Multimedia
• Unit 3 – Graphics
• Unit 4 – ICT in enterprise
• Unit 5 – Games Authoring

Students will be directed towards the units to complete during lessons, this will be up to a maximum of four from above. By doing so Yr 9-11 students have the opportunity to achieve 4 GCSE equivalents grade A*-C.

Key Stage 5: OCR Nationals Level 3

This course is based around six units of work, which all involve practical and real-life situations around ICT and its uses. The course allows students to gain an in-depth understanding of ICT in the modern workplace, giving an insight into ICT’s role in specialist careers. This course is assessment continuously throughout its delivery and as a result offers an exam free alternative to study. The units covered are:

• Unit 1 – Digital Business Communication
• Unit 2 – Collaborative Writing
• Unit 3 – Problem Solving
• Unit 4 – Creating a Digital Showcase
• Unit 18 – Computer Games Technology
• Unit 24 – Internet Past, Present and Future