Form 1 (Year 7)

In Form 1 students are taught for one double period of computing every two weeks. In this first year the focus is on ensuring all students have a firm foundation in standard applications, and an awareness of some social and ethical issues surrounding computing in society including personal privacy and safety online. Topics covered include:

Working with a network: Students practise how to log on to the network, access their work areas, create folders, name and save files, etc.

Internet: Fact or fiction - testing veracity of information, personal safety online, effective search skills and navigation, plagiarism and Copyright.

Word Processing: Students reinforce fundamental skills and learn additional techniques, together with appropriate presentation styles specific contexts and audiences.

Presentations: Students develop new skills eg manipulating digital pictures, scanning pictures into an application and using animation, whilst also learning the fundamentals of good presentation design eg storyboarding.

Desktop Publishing: Students gather, process and output information in text and image form. They develop new skills such as using frames, scaling, using different fonts, overlapping frames, manipulating digital pictures, and scanning pictures into an application.

Form 2 (Year 8)

In Form 2 students are taught for one double period of computing every two weeks. Many skills will be taught though a context of web design.

Building a Web Site:

Students learn how to design and construct Web pages and how to lay out a Web site.

Information: Reliability, Validity and Bias: Students learn how to find relevant data and construct Web pages with it, and how to expand the layout of a Web site. They will learn how to ask more precise questions to reach relevant data more quickly and easily.

Data: Use and Misuse: Students learn how to find relevant data and construct Web pages with it, and how to expand the layout of a Web site. They should also demonstrate an understanding of use and misuse of data.

Public Information Systems: Students continue to improve their planning and presentation skills and explore data analysis and presentation embedding spreadsheets within web pages.

Assessment: Students are examined in ICT at the end of Form 1 and Form 2. There is also a program of continuing assessment based on their presentation of assignments.