New Technology
In Year 7 students gain a fundamental understanding of 3 core concepts: foundations of computing, algorithms and programming and creative design. In the first strand students will gain knowledge of the hardware of a system and an overview of how this works and is connected to form the functioning computers that they are using in that moment. They will also begin to look at binary and gain an understanding of why this is important in a computer system, this is also revisited in the creative design unit when students will look at how sound is stored as binary. Lastly they will look at the internet as an introduction to the concept of networking.
From here they will be able to deepen their thinking in Year 8 developing their knowledge of exactly how networks are structured and their inherent security risks, how binary addition works and how logic functions are performed through logic gates. We will also be encouraging students to take a more critical approach to the use of technology and it’s security. Therefore, within this strand, in Year 8 we introduce students to some of the issues that surround the use of the technology they are now familiar with and will have critical discussions about technology usage and individuals rights.
The second strand of study, Algorithms and programming, is developed in a similar way. In this instance we focus on introducing concepts in a visual way in Year 7 and then build upon these in Year 8 by introducing a more complex underpinning skill. Through the use of visual programming in Year 7 students will gain the knowledge of what exactly is an algorithm, why are they important, what are inputs and outputs in a program and what are conditional statements.
These concepts will then be built upon in Year 8 when the students are transferred into a text based language. They will also gain knowledge of a range of mathematical and logical operations, such as MOD, DIV, AND, OR, related to the study from the foundations of computing module. One of the main focuses of the Year 8 scheme of work is to develop students foundation within a text based programming language and by keeping the content of the unit similar to that which they have already studied they will be able to focus on the knowledge of the syntax and structure of a new language. This is then further developed in Year 9.
The final strand of the KS3 curriculum surrounds creative skills. Starting with a sound based project in Year 7 to build on students prior knowledge of their being analogue and digital sound waves, students are expected to gain knowledge of how sound is sampled, how sampling rate affects quality and file size as well as what copyright is and how this impacts of the creation of digital media. Alongside the idea of storage of digital media students will also discuss the concept and impact of compression, looking specifically at lossy and lossless compression methods and the differences between these. In Year 8 this strand is studied through an animation based project. Using the knowledge developed in Year 7 concerning all data being stored in binary and the impact of compression, students should have a solid foundation from which to explore the more detailed concepts of bitmaps and pixels as well as vector based images and be able to gain the substantive knowledge of bitmaps of series of pixels which are made up of binary, and vectors as an equation with only small details stored such as start and end point.
The Year 9 curriculum shifts slightly to introduce a business strand focusing on Becoming an Entrepreneur. The rationale behind this is that for many students who wish to go on and work in the technology industry, utilising the skills they have learnt through their years of study be that 3, 5, or 7 years, it is increasingly common for them to create their own start-up businesses as opposed to embedding themselves in an already established company. Therefore it is critical that students have the fundamental knowledge of what it means to start up their own business and the factors that need to be assessed in order to determine success. In order to support this students will gain the knowledge of features of a success enterprise and skills of a successful entrepreneur, types of market research and why these are needed as well as the types of ownership for a business and relative merits and drawbacks of each of these.
The remaining two modules of Year 9 are designed to once again build upon previous units of study. In the programming module students will use their prior knowledge of how conditional statements work to consider how these can be used to support the user experience and from here will also move to build up further substantive knowledge of validation through try and except rules, and data dictionaries as a method of data stored. In the creative module, students will be utilising their image editing skills and knowledge gained of copyright and creative commons from Year 7 and 8 respectively to produce a games cover to fit a given brief. This unit is designed to build on the knowledge of copyright and creative commons legislation and introduce core image editing skills through photoshop. They will also be investigating what makes a product attractive to
Additionally the curriculum looks to support and develop students understanding of how to use technology safely. Whilst this is a particular focus in the first unit of study in Year 7 and 8 it will also be supplemented with regular online safety updates in response to local, national and global concerns. This is also supported by a programme of assemblies delivered by the Head of Zone throughout the academic year.
Should a student wish to continue with their computational study we offer a range of qualifications. At KS4 and KS5 we focus on Computer Science, Business and Media studies, thereby giving students the option of a technological or creative pathway.