Computing

Introduction

The All Hallows Computing department consists of 4 specialist teachers who have a love & passion for Computing. Our goal has always been, and will continue to be, to pass on this passion and love for our subjects to our students. We want to inspire future generations of Computer Scientists, Website designers and Programmers…we want the next Elon Musk, Una Kravets, Tim Berners Lee to come from All Hallows having been inspired by us! We are enthusiastic about our subjects and we love it when we see students who share that passion and enthusiasm. We want to teach students in an engaging way. We also want them to have the opportunity to try out the widest range of topics and tasks that we can facilitate. We want to open doors for them to a world of endless Computing opportunity.

Logical thinking and problem solving are key to many of the schemes of work in this subject. We want our students to be challenged. We want to give them transferrable skills which they can use, not just in other subjects but in later life. Skills like algorithms and flowcharting are essential elements of computing.  We will teach these skills using a range of hardware such as CPUs and Microbits to bring their learning to life.

The Computing curriculum at All Hallows gives pupils the opportunity to study the 3 main strands of Computing – Computer Science, Digital Literacy and E-Safety.

Computer science is at the heart of our Computing curriculum. Computer science is all about digital systems, information and computation. We want our students to be able to put this knowledge into practise through programming. We want our students to be able to use ICT to create a range of content and be able to create ideas and solve problems through the use of Technology.  We want to equip them with problem solving skills through the use of ICT.

The Digital literacy topics in our curriculum aim to provide our pupils with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate confidently, creatively and effectively through the use of ICT. Pupils will study using a range of industry leading programs which will fuel their creativity and give them the knowledge and confidence to take those skills on to further study or employment. Pupils will use the industry leading programs to design for clients whilst producing carefully considered pieces of work which reflect not only GCSE requirements but also real life scenarios in a range of employment opportunities. Businesses are looking for digitally literate employees and our curriculum will help pupils to feel confident and secure in their knowledge, understanding and skills of information technology so that they can show colleges, universities or businesses they are an asset to their institution.

The E-Safety element of our curriculum aims to ensure that our pupils know how to use technology safely, responsibly and securely. Our intent is to ensure that our students know about their online footprint, can protect themselves and their identity and can recognise the difference between appropriate and inappropriate content and conduct. We need to ensure that our pupils know how and when to report their concerns. Pupils will discuss and learn about moral and ethical issues linked to the technology that they are using, as well as studying how the law applies to their online conduct.

The Computing curriculum at Key Stage 3 allows for a gradual progression of Computing knowledge, understanding and skills. All 3 strands of Computing will be visited over the 3 years with the depth of projects that pupils study developing over time.

Our computing curriculum allows for pupils to work independently. Pupils will work on tasks by themselves using the knowledge they have gained from teacher demonstrations and activities aimed at deepening their learning through retention and retrieval activities through end of unit tests  and problem solving tasks. These activities could be practical tasks or they could be discussion tasks.

Our computing curriculum gives pupils plenty of opportunities for working collaboratively too. This could be in pairs or small groups or as a class. Pupils give peer feedback on a regular basis so that pupils can see how they can improve.

The curriculum provides opportunities for pupils to not only solve practical tasks but to also to have discussions about Computing. Pupils will have opportunities to discuss the social, cultural, ethical and moral arguments linked to Computing. Pupils regularly present findings and deliver presentations to the rest of the group. These activities help pupils to gain confidence in speaking in front of others, helps to develop their listening skills and it helps them to increase and deepen their academic vocabulary. Being able to have a discussion with other people and listen to other views even if it is not their own are skills that they will be able to use in life after school.

Staffing

• Mr D Jousiffe (Head of Department)
• Mr C Thomas (Assistant Headteacher)
• Mr P Carr (Head of Computing)
• Mrs L Rostron (Teacher of Computing  & Technology)
• Mrs J Caw (Teacher of Computing & Technology)

Accommodation

The ICT Department has two purpose built rooms each containing 33 computers. We also have several specialist software applications such as Adobe creative cloud, Scratch and Python in addition to the Microsoft Office Suite.

Extra Curricular Activities and Visits

We offer a computing club every Tuesday afterschool for programmers and gamers. We also take part in various competitions throughout the year to allow our pupils to showcase their skills and knowledge. Some of these are run in conjunction with STEM club. GCSE and Cambridge national skills sessions also run throughout the year.