The Computing department aims to promote the creative use of digital applications and ability to use programming languages to create solutions to IT problems. We equip learners with the skills they need to live, learn, and earn in the 21st century by developing their ability to organise themselves and their work and by encouraging them to reflect critically on their own and others’ use of Computing 

Key Stage 3 provides a comprehensive understanding of the two elements of Computing: IT and Computer Science.   

In IT students learn Internet safety, where we ensure that students protect themselves against risks involved with online activity and mobile phone use.  Students also learn one of the most used software in business, Spreadsheets, where they learn how to create accounting spreadsheets and use these to model scenarios.  We complete the year with a project where students create a range of business publications for a scenario, using a range of suitable software.  Students identify the purpose and uses of the range of software to create publications that are suitable for the purpose set. In year 8 and 9 students cover design topics such as Animation and Augmented reality and deepen their understanding and skills in Spreadsheets. 

In Computer Science students will learn how computers work and how they communicate globally. They will understand why computational thinking helps us solve problems and how to create algorithms and programs to achieve our goals. For programming skills, they will start in Year 7 with Scratch, a block-based language, progressing to Python, a text-based language in Years 8 and 9. They will start by understanding the basic programming concepts, building on this knowledge each year.