Computer Studies / Computing

Course summary

ICT – both desktop and mobile – is becoming totally integrated within education at Queen’s College and is embedded across all subjects in the curriculum. Every department has integrated computer modules and apps into their schemes of work and the School’s wireless network is extensive. There are 330 connected computers on site giving instant access to the Internet, e-mail and other resources. The majority of the computers are Intel based PCs and laptops however pupils are increasingly using mobile devices and tablets such as iPads and Netbooks and even mobile phone technology, both in and out of the classroom. In A level Computer Science, the student will follow the OCR curriculum. This entails study in the following components: 1. Computer Systems (40% of total / written paper) • The characteristics of processors • Software and software development • Exchanging data • Data types, structures and algorithms • Legal, moral, cultural and ethical issues • Boolean Algebra and Floating Point Arithmetic 2. Algorithms and Programming (40% of total / written paper) • Elements of computational thinking • Problem solving and programming • Algorithms to solve problems • Standard and advanced algorithms