Intent

Technological development in the 21st century has made the world around us an exciting place where distances and circumstances maintain few barriers to the journeys of enquiring minds. At Oastlers we want our learners to develop enquiring minds for them to strive with confidence within the area of ICT. Coupled with this they will develop a skill set to meet life challenges within a digital world whilst embracing the benefits gained and using them to their full potential. We envision a learning environment where the use of digital technology is regarded as an integral part of our everyday practices. By the time our learners leave they will be ICT literate and have the knowledge and skill set of online netiquette.

Implementation

All learners have one lesson of computing a week. At entry point learners’ ICT skills are assessed through basic tasks in the Microsoft Office package. From this we are able to tailor our teaching to the learners needs and differentiate the lessons. Our KS3 Curriculum lays the foundation for the learners in the regards to the basic skills in spreadsheets, database and PowerPoint. These packages are used in industry and the knowledge and skills set gained by the learners will help them to build their own portfolio to employment or higher education. E-safety and online netiquette will be taught to all learners across both key stages to make our 21st century learners to be able to function correctly online.

In our KS4 Curriculum all learners will attempt to gain the Duke of York Award. This will help our learners to develop digital, enterprise and employability skills. Also the award is industry recognised which will help all KS4 learner’s employment portfolio and to indicate they are ICT literate. OCR Level1/2 Cambridge National Certificate in Creative iMedia) has an exam and coursework element. Learners will not only develop their ICT knowledge but with these courses they will be able to develop the softer skills needed in employment/ higher education as well as in adult life.

Experiential learning is important as at Oastlers and where possible will be implemented. Links have already been made to companies willing to work with our learners on projects. It is essential for our learners have as much interaction with the outside world to develop their ICT knowledge and the softer skills.

The focus on written language with computing will help close the vocabulary gap. It is important that the learners develop these skills at KS3 for them to be more successful at KS4. Lessons at KS3 have a planning, implementing and evaluation phase to develop the learners’ skills. Also cross curricular links will be made to scaffold learners’ progression and help lessons be more interactive.

Impact

The impact of computing at Oastlers will be a 100% success rate at Level 1/2 in the GCSE IT courses. We hope that this will help give the learners the skill set and confidence to prepare them to move onto a Post 16 destination with IT or even employment. For them to be lifelong learners with IT.