A-Level Computer Science

Our Aim

• Our core purpose is to promote the enjoyment of computer science, whilst building confidence and curiosity in our students by encouraging them that ‘it’s ok to make mistakes because mistakes allow thinking to happen’
• We aim to deepen their computing knowledge, challenge their current thinking, knowledge and understanding and develop their analytical skills in articulating computational thinking concepts.  
• We want students to build on their logical ability, attempting questions once, twice or even three times without giving up. Furthermore, to build resilience in response to the unfamiliar using highly developed analytical, reasoning and problem solving skills that require them to decide on the most efficient course of action.
• Opportunities are sought to teach the history and development of computing through the ages.
• Contextualised computing will show students the relevant application of their study to 'real world' problems.
• Students are encouraged to study computing at University and will be well prepared through the effective delivery of the core content and the insistence on developing computing from first principles.
• These fundamental skills also complement the study of subjects such as Mathematics, IT, Economics and Business alongside generic, logical problem decomposition.

Our Delivery

• The course structure focuses on knowledge acquisition whilst continually building on prior knowledge, building meaningful schema throughout.
• The curriculum has been sequenced in a way that enables students to not only explore new concepts using prerequisite skills from chapters within the unit, but also across the algorithms and programming sections of theory.
• A range of DNAs are used at the start of every lesson and focus on knowledge recall; this will also form the basis of a prior knowledge check and highlight any misconceptions.
• We will introduce new concepts using visual resources and videos, encouraging students to make connections within and between units.
• We ‘model the method’ so that students are clear about how to structure their answers in a systematic way and insisting on the correct use of computing notation.
• Students are given time in lessons to apply this new content and are shown unfamiliar style questions so that they become resilient.
• The questions we select will vary in style and difficulty so that all students are supported and stretched.
• Students are encouraged to self mark so that they can address mistakes/misconceptions within the lesson. This will also enable them to become more confident as they complete the task and understand how a marking scheme works in relation to the appropriation of marks.
• There are opportunities for students to make connections with real life applications and with other topics where this can be applied.
• We model verbal computational reasoning and explicitly teach Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary.
• There is a high-accountability expectation of 2-3 hours Prep to be completed each week. Very often this will require students to consolidate knowledge of what they have learnt and consist of a selection of graded exam-style questions. This may take the form of last lesson, last week, last month so that students are continuing to tap into their long term memories.
• Students will work in lined exercise books. Twice per term students will complete a purposeful topic based assessment and will receive detailed feedback and model answers. All classwork, notes and assessments will be kept in a folder and students must bring this to every lesson. In addition the frequent and consistent use of Google classroom will be used in most lessons, which will be the key repository for all teachers notes and videos used within the lessons.