GCSE Computer SciencePRESENTATION TO PARENTS AND PUPILS

SJCR 2015

Why Computer Science ?

Who will teach it?• Mr. Simon J.C. Rood

• 10 years as a software developer & team leader

• Finance and Areospace sectors

• 10 years as a teacher of Computer Science

• Previous department won ‘Good Schools Guide’ for the last 8 years

• DFE Master Teacher

• Computing at School South West Coast Hub Leader

What skills will I need ?• No previous IT or Computing knowledge is required

• Do you like to solve problems?

• Can you work independently or are looking to develop this?

• Desire and motivation to learn to program… which is great fun!

• Creativity

• Perseverance

• Desire to understand

What will we learn?• How to program or code, including variables, functions

and procedures, decisions, iteration, etc.

• How to solve problems by top-down design, prototyping and testing effectively

• Understand how the computer works and its architecture

• Understand networking fundamentals and web concepts

• Learn Database concepts and SQL

What platform and language will we use?

• Visual Basic.NET

• Free, Professional

• Easy to learn and user-friendly

• Teaches all basic concepts well

How will we be assessed?

60%

2 x 25 hour programming project

problem solving, design and test

New tasks every year including:

software, gaming, web and mobile applications

40%

1:30 hour paper

short to extended answers

Content from across syllabus:networking, databases, algorithms, architecture

4512

Series1

Practical Programming Computing Fundamentals

What can this lead on to?• AS and A Level Computer Science

• Eventually degree level Computer Science

• All STEM subjects

• Finance & Economics

• Anything that uses Computing… which is nearly everything…

• Your own idea or business…

Is this ICT re-branded?• No… ICT remains a separate qualification.

• Universities do not see ICT favourably.

• We do not currently teach ICT to GCSE & GCE level at Canford.

• Russell group universities DO see Computer Science as a good supporting subject

• Computer Science is now part of the EBacc and counts as a Science.

Out of Date?• Computing moves very quickly… so won’t any content

be obsolete?

• No…

Core Knowledge

New Developments

Any Questions Please ?

Thank you…