Computer Science

COMPUTER SCIENCE CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

Intent

At Langham Oaks School we believe that our students should have the opportunity to follow a Computing curriculum that prepares them for life in modern Britain and take advantage of opportunity this can offer them in both Britain and the wider world.

Good quality IT skills enable student to engage positively within the modern workplace, while Computer Science skills enables students to take an active part in the design, development and creation of new technologies to be used in the world in which they live.

The core to the subject is the understanding of how technology works, can be developed and utilised, and we draw and extend understanding from a range of other subjects outside of IT and Computing including DT, Graphics, Maths, Science and PHSE and embed clear and high quality literacy and numeracy skills through software development, problem solving and evaluation skills.

We provide a broad range of skills and experiences at KS2&3 which are then further developed as students enter KS4.  Students then follow Computer Science at Entry level, where they will go on to develop key problem-solving skills useful in a range of disciplines as well as the coding and software development skills that will give them an opportunity to work or for further study in the developing area seen to be key in the modern world.

Implementation

The Computer Science curriculum is implemented across the 3 phased of Engage, Develop and Achieve:

Engage – Students in the early years focus on the building of core skills and familiarity with computing system

Develop – Students in KS3 look to develop standalone skills within logic and programming

Achieve – Students in KS4 look to link the confidence from the Engage phase with the skills from the Develop phase to develop code to solve specific problems.  Achieve students gain an Entry Level Computer Science accreditation

Planned opportunities for Reading

The relationship between reading and ability to code is fundamental, reading forms a core part of every activity within Computer Science.

Examples of where reading is planned into the curriculum include:

• Instructional guides to support the pursuit of independence
• Briefings and scenarios for which solutions need to be found
• Reference language guides for both coding and planning

Impact

The core impact ensures all students have the opportunity to gain Entry Level in Computer Science. This serves the purpose of both accrediting the students’ knowledge, while also contributing to their overall attainments.   The curriculum plan allows for the teaching of theory, followed by application of the theory in the form of practical lessons and computer labs. The curriculum plan includes cross-curricular links for literacy; developing language through identified key terms and subject specific vocabulary, which are included in lesson presentations.   There is a spelling focus on both English UK spelling as well as English US, which becomes particularly important as students progress into KS4 programming.   As Computer Science has close ties to Mathematics, numeracy is also a fundamental part of activities. Lessons often contain differentiated activities for students to complete involving the use of number based and logic.