Purpose and Provision
Download a copy of the Computing and Business Departments Purpose and Provision document here.
Curriculum Map
Download a copy of the Computing and Business Departments Curriculum Map document here.
The Computing and Business department is committed to providing all students with an understanding of the role that Computer Science and ICT play in the modern world.
Computer Science here at St Christopher’s provides students with a wide range of skills and knowledge, to be creative and use computational thinking in dealing with an ever-changing digital world. They will be taught how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. They will learn the concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. Students will be given repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems on many different platforms. They will evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems and become responsible, competent, confident and creative users of Information and Communication technology.
The following facilities are available:
- Three specialist, air conditioned, IT suites equipped with the latest technology
- Interactive Whiteboards in all classrooms
- Fast broadband internet access
- A Virtual Learning Environment that students can access from home or school
- A wide-range of industry standard software applications
Key Stage 3
In Key Stage 3, pupils have one hour of discrete IT lessons per week. All pupils in Year 7 are given a baseline assessment to allow us to establish their current capabilities and to identify any gaps in their IT knowledge. The curriculum is as follows:
Unit | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 |
1 | Introduction to IT at St Christopher's | Ethical, environmental and legal issues | Cybersecurity |
2 | Networks | Introduction to Python programming | Revisit Python programming |
3 | Modelling data | The computer system | Next steps in Python programming |
4 | HTML and websites | Media - Vector graphics | Binary |
5 | Scratch programming | Introduction to conversion | Media and Animations |
6 | Multi-media project | Data science project | Programming project |
Key Stage 4
At Key Stage 4 the department tries to cater for all pupils regardless of their abilities. We currently offer two GCSE courses and one GCSE equivalent. Pupils can choose from:
- GCSE Computer Science (OCR)
- GCSE Business 9-1 (Edexcel)
- BTEC Enterprise and Marketing (Edexcel)
Enrichment
The ICT suites are available at lunchtimes for students to use to complete IT homework or coursework. Programming clubs for each year group are available at lunchtimes to extend understanding and application of the computer languages taught within each year group.
Staff
The department has three full time members of staff:
- Mr L Howe - Head of Department
- Mrs H Harber - Business and KS3 Computing
- Mrs S Ashworth - KS3 Computing