As a Free School, One In A Million has always sought to use the most state-of-the-art ICT. This includes ensuring all students have access to either an iPad or a Chromebook. In addition, we have a computer suite that houses iMacs and all classrooms have Whiteboards. There is WIFI access throughout the school.

KEY STAGE 3

To make sure our students have ICT IT skills fit for the 21st century, we aim to ensure that our student can:

• Design, use and evaluate computational abstractions that model the state and behaviour of real-world problems and physical systems
• Understand the hardware and software components that make up computer systems, and how they communicate with one another and with other systems
• Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using, and combining multiple applications, preferably across a range of devices, to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data and meeting the needs of known users
• Use two or more programming languages, at least one of which is textual, to solve a variety of computational problems; make appropriate use of data structures; design and develop modular programs that use procedures or functions
• Understand how instructions are stored and executed within a computer system; understand how data of various types (including text, sounds and pictures) can be represented and manipulated digitally, in the form of binary digits
• Understand a range of ways to use technology safely, respectfully, responsibly and securely, including protecting their online identity and privacy; recognise inappropriate content, contact and conduct and know how to report concerns.
• This last point is really important to us. We understand that using technology is both a privilege in that it aids learning and communication but also a responsibility as the inappropriate use of technology can not only be hurtful but, in some cases, illegal. With that in mind our ICT and computing courses comply with our rigorous safeguarding and child protection policies.

Students in Key Stage 3 study the following topics:

Year 7: E-Safety, Networks-Hardware and Software, Spreadsheet Modelling, Web Design, Computational thinking using sequencing and iteration through Flowol and Scratch Programming.

Year 8: E-safety and Social engineering, Data Representation, Graphic Manipulation, Textual programming and Animation.

Year 9: E-safety and Cyber security, Python programming, Interactive Multimedia project consisting of - Game creation, promoting game by producing media publications and project management skills.

Key Stage 4 (Option Choices)

Creative iMedia (OCR)

This qualification will assess student’s creative media skills through their practical use. They will provide students with essential knowledge, transferable skills and tools to improve their learning in other subjects with the aims of enhancing their employability when they leave education, contributing to their personal development and future economic well-being.

The qualifications will encourage independence, creativity and awareness of the digital media sector. Completing this qualification will introduce the foundations for further study or a wide range of job roles within the media industry.

In Year 10, students will be taught one full unit on Visual Identity and Digital Graphics. In this unit, students will learn how to develop visual identities for clients. They will also learn to apply the concepts of graphic design to create original digital graphics which incorporate their visual identity to engage a target audience. Students will also start the second unit: Interactive Digital Media. Where students develop their knowledge and understanding about where and why different interactive multimedia products are used and what features are needed for a given purpose. They learn how to interpret a client brief, and how to use time frames, deadlines and preparation techniques as part of the planning and creation process.

Within Year 11 the course is based around completing the Interactive Digital Media unit and then exam preparation for their external assessment unit based on Creative iMedia in the Media Industry. In this unit, students will learn about the sectors, products and job roles that form the media industry. They will learn the legal and ethical issues considered and the processes used to plan and create digital media products. They will learn how media codes are used within the creation of media products to convey meaning, create impact and engage audiences. They will learn to choose the most appropriate format and properties for different media products. Completing this unit will provide students with the basic skills for further study or a range of creative job roles within the media industry.

GCSE Computer Science

Computer Science will encourage students to; think creatively, innovatively, analytically, logically and critically, understand the components that make up digital systems, and how they communicate with one another and with other systems, understand the impacts of digital technology to the individual and to wider society, apply mathematical skills relevant to Computer Science, understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of Computer Science, including abstraction, decomposition, logic, algorithms, and data representation, analyse problems in computational terms through practical experience of solving such problems, including designing, writing and debugging programs.

Year 10 – Students will be taught one unit on Computer systems: they will prepare for the exam for their external assessment unit which will assess the following:

• Systems architecture
• Programming fundamentals
• Producing robust programs
• Boolean logic
• Programming languages and Integrated Development Environments
• Memory and storage
• Ethical, legal, cultural and environmental impacts of digital technology.

Year 11 – Students will be taught the final unit on Computational thinking, algorithms and programming: they will prepare for the exam for their external assessment unit which will assess the following:

• Algorithms
• Programming fundamentals
• Computer networks, connections and protocols
• Network security
• Systems software.

All students will be given the opportunity to undertake a programming task(s), either to a specification or to solve a problem (or problems), during their course of study. Students may draw on some of the content in both components when engaged in Practical Programming.

What Parents/Carers can do to help:

Your child has been given a Knowledge Organiser for each topic they study. This summarises the key information they must know if they are to be successful in this subject. Please encourage them to learn this off by heart and revise topics regularly.