What you will study?

This exciting course has been designed for students who wish to go on to higher education courses or employment where knowledge of computer science would be beneficial. The emphasis is on computational and abstract thinking, general problem solving, algorithmic reasoning; Design, program and evaluate computer system that solve problems, make reasoned judgements about these and presenting conclusion; and understanding of the principles and concepts of computer science including analysing problems in computational, scientific and engineering based thinking which lays a good foundation for understanding ever increasing future challenges that face computer scientists.

How you will be assessed?

Exam board - OCR

Component 01: Computer systems (40% of the marks) 

• The characteristics of contemporary processors, input, output and storage devices
• Types of software and the different methodologies used to develop software
• Data exchange between different systems
• Data types, data structures and algorithms Legal, moral, cultural and ethical issues.

Component 02: Algorithms and programming (40% of the marks)

• This builds on component 01 to include computational thinking and problem-solving and covers:
• What is meant by computational thinking (thinking abstractly, thinking ahead, thinking procedurally etc.)
• Problem solving and programming – how computers and programs can be used to solve problems
• Algorithms and how they can be used to describe and solve problems.

Component 3: Programming project (20% of the marks)

• This component gives the students the opportunity to independently choose a problem to solve and go through the full development process to create a solution in a suitable programming language. Students are expected to apply the principles of computational thinking and analyse, design, develop, test, evaluate and document the resulting program.

Why should you study computer science?

In an increasingly digital world a growing majority of organisations and businesses rely more and more on staff with computing skills. It is not surprising therefore that computer science can open doors in a way that that many other subjects do not. Studying computer science can lead towards specialism at University and, increasingly, apprentice placement in a whole range of areas such as science, maths, engineering, education and business.

Additional entry requirements: Standard entry + a grade 6 in GCSE Maths or 6 in GCSE Physics or 66 in double Science.

For more information please see: Mr J Quinn – Faculty Leader of Business, Computing and Media

In most subjects you don’t normally get to practice for real what you learn in class, being able to code at a high level means you do and I found this very exciting and powerful. - Year 12 student