Welcome to the Computer Science and Multimedia Department 

Curriculum Intent

The Computer Science curriculum is designed to introduce students of the Warriner School to the key concepts of Computing and iMedia. At KS3. This spiral based curriculum introduces the fundamental declarative and procedural knowledge that students will need to be successful in the ever-increasing digital world.

In Year 7 students will build on their KS2 knowledge studying topics including introduction to computing and E-safety at the start of KS3 before moving onto the history of computing and introduction to Python. These topics will build on their procedural knowledge gained at KS2 in internet research and presenting and give them their first introduction to text-based coding moving on from visual based coding they should be familiar with from KS2. They will finish the year by gaining knowledge in creating websites.

As students move into year 8 they will build on their knowledge gained from introduction to computing by expanding on their spreadsheet procedural knowledge learning about modelling and formula-based predictions. Building on their history of computing module they will look at digital graphics where they will gain an understanding of how to work to a brief. The disciplinary knowledge students gained in the spreadsheet’s module will be applied and further developed in the data science and encryption modules before gained more coding knowledge in HTML and programming micro bits using Python.

In year the curriculum again revisits core disciplinary and procedural knowledge as students study podcasting, tying together digital graphics and client briefs. Video editing and binary logic builds on the procedural knowledge gained from encryption and phyton programming before looking at computer systems which uses the knowledge gained from microbits. The end of KS3 is designed around students using all of the disciplinary, procedural and declarative knowledge in completing a project to showcase their learning. Throughout KS3 tier 2 and 3 vocabulary are taught and used to aid students understanding of these core concepts.

At KS4 students can choose to study Computer Science, where we follow the OCR syllabus. Our curriculum allows our students to gain disciplinary knowledge in a wide variety of software tools which will aid their creativity. This allows them to see that computers are merely tools for accomplishing tasks. For example, digital artwork is no different in essence from traditional art, but the tools are different - a computer and a digital editing environment rather than a paintbrush, palette and canvas. The aim is to foster the understanding that the disciplinary knowledge gained in computing classes has a wide range of applications in other fields of study.

Students that choose to study iMedia GCSE will follow the OCR creative iMedia syllabus and our curriculum will allow them to develop disciplinary knowledge to read, understand and create their own algorithms to solve problems. The aim is to develop the tenets of computational thinking: thinking abstractly; thinking concurrently; thinking ahead.

Throughout key stage 4 a high emphasis is placed on Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary which allow students to access subject specific text.