Computer Studies / Computing

Course summary

With modern technology evolving rapidly and playing an ever-greater part in our lives, computing skills have become central to the way we learn, live and work. Using an array of commercial software packages, pupils gain an insight into how Digital Technology impacts on text, number, image and sound processing and they learn how to master these skills and apply new technologies effectively in a real-world setting.  The subject also explores how science and technology interact with each other, and the course encourages critical thinking, challenging pupils to consider what recent technological advances mean for the human user and society as a whole. As pupils progress through the school, they firstly master controlling the software, before moving on to designing and creating their own programmes. Coding and programming are a key part of the curriculum as pupils move up through the school. Using industry-standard languages, they learn how to problem-solve and how to think logically and creatively in a way that can be applied to many scenarios. Opportunities to study Computer Science in various forms at university are widespread and several pupils each year follow this route. GCSE Studying this subject at GCSE challenges and inspires pupils, as they gain a fuller understanding of the relationships between the programming code and hardware. The course prepares pupils to make informed decisions when selecting the best strategies for creating applications. Pupils develop creative and technical skills, along with the knowledge and an understanding of programming through a range of practical and problem-solving contexts. Use of modern technologies and their impact on society is also considered. The transferrable concepts of computational thinking are also introduced. A LEVEL At A Level, the course focuses even more on computational thinking, a form of reasoning used by both humans and machines. It is an important life skill, which is relevant to other subjects too. The A Level course is broadly split into two areas. The first is the fundamentals of how technology works, the hardware, software, and networks involved and the legal and ethical issues that technology can create. The second area is the fundamentals of programming using concepts of data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented programming. The course is completed with an in-depth programming project of the pupil’s own choosing.