Computing
Curriculum Key Stage 3:
Burnley High School’s computing curriculum aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge required to succeed in a rapidly changing technological world, skills such as problem solving, computational thinking and digital literacy. These skills have many applications beyond the field of computing and will serve our students well in almost every field of work.
Our curriculum incorporates the National Curriculum key concepts in detail, revisiting and developing them further as students’ progress but also expands further by including units such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Students will gain a solid grounding in the fundamentals of computer programming and how computers can be used to solve real-world problems. In an increasingly digital world, future careers are likely to be in areas such as security, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and automation – our curriculum has been designed to give students experience in these areas and prepare them for their digital future.
Curriculum Key Stage 4:
As students’ progress and depending on their future aspirations they can choose Computer Science as an option.
Computer Science is an increasingly important subject in today’s connected digital world and is designed to introduce students to some of the founding concepts in Computer Science and develop their understanding of how computers can be used to solve problems. Students will gain experience using a modern text-based programming language (Python) that is widely used in professional contexts.
Computer Science GCSE – OCR
The course consists of two main components:
| Component: | Marks | Duration | Weighting |
| Computer Systems (01) | 80 | 1 hours 30 mins | 50% |
| Computational thinking, algorithms and programming (02) | 80 | 1 hours 30 mins | 50% |
Component 1 and 2 are assessed by written exams, each worth 50% of the GCSE. In addition, all students are given the opportunity to undertake a programming task(s), either to a specification or to solve a problem (or problems), during their course of study. Students may draw on some of the content in both components when engaged in Practical Programming.
Curriculum Roadmaps
