Newcastle Academy, Gallowstree Lane, Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 2QS
Part of Windsor Academy Trust
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Newcastle Academy
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ICT

Intent

The Digital Information Technology curriculum is designed at KS3 to prepare pupils for either Creative iMedia or Computer Science at KS4.  This is done by delivering a 50/50 curriculum offer to KS3 pupils over Years 7, 8 and 9 where they will experience both iMedia and Computer Science content.  This includes, spreadsheets, hardware and software, designing user interfaces and programming.

During KS4 pupils will encounter the OCR award in Creative iMedia.

Pupils will be encouraged to extend their knowledge at post-16 and will be introduced to relevant post-16 topics throughout the course.

  

Implementation

KS3

All KS3 pupils will be subject to iMedia.  They will have three hours of iMedia and Computer Science across the fortnight in mixed ability groupings.

During the course pupils will develop specific skills which build upon each other, although not always explicitly, and prepare them for KS4 courses, or beyond.  Some of the skills will be generic ICT skills which will aid pupils in later life, even if an ICT qualification is not taken.

In Year 7 pupils will be introduced to the following topic areas:

  • Introduction to ICT including Office 365
  • Modelling (spreadsheets)
  • Computer Malware
  • Graphics
  • Scratch
  • E-Safety

In Year 8 the curriculum will build upon the areas taught in Year 7adn introduce new topics:

  • Computer Networks
  • Graphical Editing
  • Further Modelling (spreadsheets)
  • Python Programming
  • Computer systems
  • Web site designing

In Year 9 pupils are made ready for KS4 by beginning to develop GCSE level skills through:

  • Creating Digital Graphics
  • Data Representation
  • Interactive Multimedia
  • Python Programming
  • Pre-Production Documentation
  • Algorithms

 

KS4

Teaching and learning will be focused on delivering the academy Quality First Teaching Principles, ensuring that knowledge and understanding is secure and revisited and that pupils are able to perform long term recall of topics.

For Creative iMedia pupils will study the following topics, during their two year course:

  • R081: Pre-Production Documents (External Examination)
  • R082: Creating Digital Graphics (Controlled Assessment)
  • R085: Creating Websites (Controlled Assessment)
  • R087: Creating Interactive Multimedia (Controlled Assessment)

Assessment

How grades are decided for input; what are the grades based upon?

Assessments will take a variety of forms, but will primarily focus on developing the practice required to recall knowledge and demonstrate understanding linked to the examination.  Formal assessments will take the form of written examination questions/papers, whilst formative assessment will be delivered in forms such as online, q&a, revision tests.

Assessments will be graded according to the OCR grade boundaries with a wide range of assessments used to validate the data.  Each topic will be given a grade to assist with the profiling of pupils to improve performance.

Assessment maps will also be used to enable profiling of pupils to identify areas of development.