Welcome to the ICT Department at Waddesdon Church of England School
Head of ICT
Daniela Piroddi
Teachers
Avnish Majethia James Grace Frank Goates
Systems Manager
Robert Hodgins
Technician
Shaun Johnson
Subject Overview
Teaching Aims and Objectives
Course Information
Marking and Assessment
Homework Policy
Examinations
Department Resources
Department Policies
Subject Overview
The school is fortunate to be well-equipped with modern PC computer hardware and software. The whole-school network connects all buildings using fibre-optic technology. There are four dedicated computer rooms plus another suite with PCs, which is used for Music Technology. The main computer suites are installed with interactive whiteboards and digital projectors for class demonstrations. Students have access to over 150 computers on the school network, both during and outside their normal lessons, all using the latest Windows and CD multimedia software. We have a well-developed school website which not only provides information about the school but is also widely used to celebrate school life.
Throughout Years 7 – 11 students are provided with lessons dedicated to IT, which are taught by specialist staff. The topics covered include computer awareness and health and safety, practice with various application programs, such as word processing, spreadsheets, data-handling, multimedia and presentation, desk-top publishing (DTP), control of external devices and web design.
Information retrieval from the school intranet and internet play a significant part in any project work in IT and also in many other areas of the curriculum.
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Teaching Aims and Objectives
Aims
To develop in all students:
- Confidence and proficiency in the use of ICT
- The ability to decide when it is appropriate to use ICT and utilise suitable software
- To provide continuity and progression in the Key Stage 3 National Strategy for students in Years 7 and 8
- To provide the opportunity for students to study a Full-course GCSE in ICT at Key Stage 4 and a single award qualification at post-16
- To encourage students to develop an understanding of the wider application and effects of information technology
- To enhance and enrich learning across the curriculum, promoting self-study and group work
- To provide students with a broad and balanced view of the range of applications and information systems and an understanding of their capabilities and limitations
- To provide an environment that enables every individual, regardless of gender, race or ability, to develop their ICT skills to their fullest potential.
Objectives
- To provide an Information Technology curriculum that delivers the National Curriculum in each key stage
- To provide an Information Technology curriculum that relates to the wider applications and effects of IT in everyday life
- To provide opportunities for students to use Information Technology independently and to show awareness of how IT improves efficiency and supports new ways of working
- To provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge, skills and understanding of IT to a range of situations
- To provide opportunities for students to consider the social, legal, ethical and moral issues surrounding the handling of data.
- To provide opportunities for students to consider the security needs for handling data in this increasingly technological world.
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Course Information
Key Stage 3 (Years 7 - 8)
Students have differing levels of knowledge in ICT when they arrive at Waddesdon. They also find themselves in a new environment and are therefore eased into their programme of ICT.
The ICT curriculum is based around the National Strategy for ICT – but all units undertaken by students have been adapted to make them as innovative and fit for purpose as possible. The curriculum is balanced between giving students the opportunity to learn exciting new skills - such as how to create interactive multimedia products that make use of sound and video - and preparing them with the knowledge and skills that they will need later in life. The main aim of the curriculum at Key Stage 3 is to equip students to understand the fundamental concepts of ICT as well as to help them further improve their practical skills base from Key Stage 2.
Overview and schemes of work are available at: www.standards.dfes.gov.uk
Key Stage 3 (Year 9)
The aim for students in Year 9 is to work towards the Key Stage 3 attainment levels. In the first term of Year 9, students complete a 'mini-project' based around: Word, Excel, Access and FrontPage. Elements of this project aim to refresh and reinforce existing knowledge. Students start one of two mini-coursework projects for the GCSE course in ICT.
Some Year 9 students follow the DIDA course. In Year 9 they study the Module D101 or D201. Subsequent modules are taken in Year 10/Year 11. This course is non-examination-based; each module is the equivalent worth of one GCSE. More information about DIDA can be found by clicking on the following link: Image of Edexcel DIDA link.
Key Stage 4 (Years 10 – 11)
All students work towards GCSE in IT. They follow the Oxford and Cambridge syllabus (OCR) ICT A 1994.
Key Stage 5 (Years 12 – 13)
Students opt to undertake a GCE in Applied ICT. The syllabus followed is offered by Edexcel.
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Homework Policy
In ICT, homework is set regularly but flexible approaches are adopted. The Department complies with the school Homework Policy and sets homework according to the following guidelines:
- A homework task is set every lesson
- Homework tasks are set to enable more efficient use of computer time during lessons
- Each task is linked to the work in the lesson and will be either preparatory or descriptive in order to demonstrate understanding of the concepts involved
- Students should have the necessary resources and background knowledge
- Each task or project should be accessible by all students in the group
- Students are encouraged to maintain high standards of presentation throughout their work
- Students are encouraged to use a computer in school or at home to complete their homework
- Homework Diaries are important for recording the work
- Students are encouraged to use their Learning Diary to document class demonstrations and to encourage literacy
- Students who fail to do homework are reported to their Head of Year and school policy is followed
Students can access school computers in the morning before school, at lunch or break times or after school. Staff are available to offer support during these sessions.
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Marking and Assessment
The following strategies are used by the Department to assess students’ work:
- Progress through the National Curriculum levels of attainment is determined by evidence of written or printed work produced in class or at home
- End-of-module coursework and project work is used to determine levels and these are matched against continuous assessment.
- Students’ work in the ICT Department is marked against National Curriculum levels for Key Stage 3 and against the relevant Examination Board criteria for Key Stage 4 if different.
- Students’ work is rigorously tracked during the course of every lesson, during which feedback and guidance are given.
Students will:
- Attempt all pieces of homework to the best of their ability
- Seek advice before the next lesson, if necessary, to help them to complete the task
- Catch up on class-work and homework if absent from the lesson
- Ensure any documents produced are neatly presented, spell-checked and proof-read and are named.
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Examinations
Students complete examinations and coursework in the following areas of the ICT curriculum:
DIDA
At DIDA (Diploma in Digital Applications), students undertake the first unit of the award called AIDA (Award in Digital Applications) either at Level One or Two. Part of the qualification is to undertake a project set from Edexcel following the Summative Project Brief (SPB).
D101 – Level One
D201 – Level Two
GCSE
At GCSE students follow either the Short- or Full-Course GCSE ICT.
2357 – Written Paper - 1 hour
2358 – Project 1a and Project 1b
2359 – Written Paper - 1¼ hours
2359 – Project 2
GCE Applied ICT
During the first year of the qualification, students study the following unit for the AS award:
6951 – The Information Age - Internally Assessed
6952 – The Digital Economy - Internally Assessed
6953 – The Knowledge Worker - Externally Assessed
During the second year of the A Level, students undertake the following units of work:
6957 – Using Database Software – Externally Assessed Students complete a 10-hour exam
6958 – Managing a Project – Internally Assessed
6961 – Using Spreadsheet Software – Internally Assessed
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Department Resources
The ICT Department is a well-resourced department offering a whole range of hardware and software to enhance student learning.
Hardware and Software
The school network - RM CC3 network/Windows XP, Office 2000. We will be updating to Office 2007 in April 2008. There are four fully-equipped computer suites with thirty-one stations in each suite, a laser printer, a scanner, an interactive whiteboard and a digital projector.
All computers have access to:
- The internet
- The intranet
- Subject-specific software
- Interactive multimedia software
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Department Policies
User Access Policy
The school network is a valued resource, available to all pupils and staff. It is a highly efficient system capable of being personalised to each user; this allows specific user policies to be employed for each user-type. Therefore access can be controlled for each specific user and the network exposure can be kept to a minimum.
The school network is fully accessible from any station throughout the building that has network access. This means that users can access their work from any location at any time. Users have their own unique user-name and password to gain access to personalised network services; this also includes their specific security policy. This username and password remain the same for the rest of their school career. However, should a student return for Sixth Form, they will both be changed. Users are encouraged to keep their password secure by not making it available to anyone else.
Internet Security
The internet is readily available to anyone with access to the network. It is a highly valued resource used by all departments. However, much information made available by the internet is unsuitable; in school, precautions are taken to ensure that inappropriate sites do not become available within school. It should be noted, however, that preventing students from seeing information that may not be suitable is very difficult and not all information can be blocked. Therefore students are supervised to the highest extent possible during timetabled lessons.
The following guidelines are adhered to:
The internet may only be accessed on week-days between 8am - 5pm and during term-time only
Access to many, if not most, sites considered to contain "unsuitable" material is prevented by a filtering system used by our Internet Service Provider. As new sites of this nature come online and come to the attention of teachers county-wide, they are filtered out as soon as the service provider is notified, Websites are also filtered and recorded by our own proxy server. Access is prevented to all web-based email servers (i.e Hotmail), "hacking" sites, executable files and many advertisements
Chat rooms are not considered to be a suitable use of a busy school network system nor of students’ school time. The school Internet Service Provider does not allow access to these
Precautions are taken to reduce the chances of infection by computer viruses via the internet or email, which may then be inadvertently taken home on a removable storage device. The antivirus software, installed on all school network stations, is updated every day.
New students joining the school are issued with an Internet Access Agreement Contract. This gives them the opportunity to read through carefully what is expected of them as users of the internet whilst in school. Download a copy of the Internet Access Agreement
