ICT

The recognition that ICT skills and knowledge are important in today’s society together with the recent major improvements in the facilities and examination results have made ICT one of the most popular GCSE and A level choices within the school.

In Years 7 and 8 the course builds upon the skills acquired in the previous years with an emphasis on research and production. The aim of these courses is to equip students with the ICT skills needed for Key Stage 4 courses across their individual curriculum.

In Years 10 and 11 the course follows the Edexcel 2IT01 specification. The assessment includes four systems analysis projects worth 60% of the total marks and one written 2 hour examination paper.

The lessons are taught in the Senior School ICT suite consisting of two fully equipped rooms:

• IT1 - 30 machines, one scanner, two networked printers, DVD Rom drives, projector linked to the teacher’s machine for demonstration purposes
• IT2 - 18 machines, one scanner, one networked colour printer, DVD Rom drives, projector linked to one of the machines for demonstration purposes
• Digital camera and digital camcorder

Since all courses have a large practical assessment, both IT rooms (IT1 and IT2) are open upon request during lunchtime and after school until 5.30pm. This is only for the production of coursework. During each session the rooms are manned by a sixth form student currently doing AS or A2 and a member of staff. They are there to assist students with their projects.