Gads Hill School

Department of ICT / Computing

Senior Handbook

2014 – 2015

Paul Meade B.Sc (Hons)

1 The contents of this Handbook have been collated following consultations with members of the ICT Department staff.

The contents are subject to frequent and regular review, and will be amended as necessary, particularly in the light of changes in pertinent legislation, the adoption of new initiatives, or the publication of inspection reports.

The Handbook is word processed and held in a shared area on the school network, accessible to all ICT and computing staff.

Hardcopy of the Handbook is held by the Head of Department and by the Head Teacher.

Copies can be made available to visiting inspectors, governors and parents.

Each member of the Departmental staff has a softcopy in their user areas, and copies on CD can be made available if required for general staff reference.

2 Departmental Vision

The school believes that it is important to develop student confidence in the use of ICT and to ensure that it is used confidently and well in all subject areas as an everyday tool in the classroom.

At GHS our aim is to provide students with skills that they can take forward with them into the future, whatever that future may hold.

Our goal is to develop confidence in the use of ICT but in addition to develop "a generation of young people able to work at the forefront of technological change” as envisioned by Michael Gove in 2012. In this statement the minister announced his intention to scrap the ICT curriculum in favour of computing or computer science.

Our concern here is that ICT is primarily about communication and to define it as purely computing could be perceived as limiting the subject and narrowing the curriculum.

We believe, however, that Computer science should feature highly in any ICT curriculum and as a result we have started to gradually increase the amount of computer science in our ICT curriculum. As a result at this time schemes of work are being developed for Years 7, 8 and 9 with a greater emphasis on the more technical side of computing.

3 We completely accept that children need to know how technology works so that they can use it more effectively and in some cases go on to develop their own applications – genuine creators of technology rather than simply as end users.

Information and Communication Technology / Computing is taught as a discrete subject within the curriculum and is used as a tool within other subjects.

At present Information Technology is offered as a GCSE subject to all our students but we are looking into the possibility of introducing GCSE Computer Science as an alternative or additional subject.

4 Aims

Provide a broad and balanced ICT curriculum, which offers excellence and rigour, and stimulates a sense of curiosity and excitement about their world.

Allow pupils to discover their full potential whilst taking responsibility for their own learning

Encourage students to work both collaboratively (in pairs or as part of larger groups) and independently as required, and to show respect for the ideas, different capabilities and different backgrounds of all of the members of a class or group.

Develop in the students an understanding of the social; historical, economic and ethical issues arising from ICT use and to develop safe and ethical users.

To facilitate an understanding of the development of ICT and to engender an appreciation for the men and women who made this possible.

To understand that computing has evolved and continued to do so and to be better prepared to adopt alongside it.

Encourage students to review/ evaluate their own work and progress

Create in every student, a confidence in their ICT skills and an awareness of how to use it in the most effective way.

5 Give every student the opportunity to develop their ICT capability to an extent where they can use it effectively to enhance their progress at work, college or university.

To introduce students to computational thinking, computer programming (coding) and digital technology in terms of computer architecture.

To ensure that the study of computer science is available at examination level to those who wish to do it.

To develop technically literate young people and to emphasize understanding as well as skills.

Develop strong cross-curricular links with the other departments within the school, encouraging both students and staff to use ICT approaches where appropriate; provide ICT support for non-ICT staff as required.

6 Departmental Context

Teaching Staff

Mr. P. Meade Teacher of Year 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ICT

Timetable (Mr Meade)

MON TUE WED THU FRI 1 L5C L4S L5C L5M L5M

2 U4G FREE L5M FREE L5M

3 U4B SHB L4S L5C SHW Morning Break 4 U5H L5J FREE SHB U5O 5 U5O U5O U5B FREE L4R 6 L5J U5O U4B U5H L4R 7 Lunch 8 U4G U5B L5J L5J U5B 9 U4W U5H FREE FREE U5B 10 L5C U5H SHW U4W FREE

7 Resources

The department benefits from two classrooms in the Hewlett Pavilion and one classroom in the Melville Building. The rooms provide an ideal environment for the use of computers with whole class groups. The classrooms in the pavilion are located adjacent to the ICT office where the network technicians and network manager are based and much of the server system infrastructure is housed. There is an additional server office in the Melville building and the networking infrastructure extends across the whole school site.

The classrooms in P2 and P3 are air conditioned and well equipped each housing 21 networked personal computers. M11 in the Melville Building houses an additional 24 computers with associated peripherals.

The department is well resourced with reliable hardware including a fast broadband connection and up-to-date software. The hardware is carefully maintained and replacement machines are immediately available if needed.

Since the start of the 2013-2014 academic year P2 is used mainly for cross curricular ICT. During the Summer of 2014 all of the computer equipment from P3 was migrated to P2 and P3 was updated to faster machines running Windows 8.1 with Acer 22” widescreen full HD monitors.

8 Mrs Frier is now based in the Melville building and delivers all her lessons from room M11. All of the equipment in M11 was installed in 2013.

P3 is used exclusively by the senior school and almost exclusively by Mr. Meade. A timetable of computer room usage is maintained in the staff room and on SIS which is used by staff to ‘book’ computer room time when available.

Naturally P2, P3 and M11 are equipped with workstations for teacher use with interactive whiteboards and excellent broadband Internet access.

Software

The department uses some very sophisticated software including Macromedia Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Freehand and Flash. Microsoft Windows 8.1 provides the operating platform in P3 and Windows 7 is used in M11 and P2.

Microsoft Office 2013 is used for most generic applications.

We have recently purchased software from Serif including PagePlus, DrawPlus, PhotoPlus, MoviePlus and WebPlus. This software has been rolled out available across the school.

9 In addition the department continues to maintain and use courseware materialssupplied by the Thomas Telford School in Shropshire.

Using these materials, the school delivered the OCR Nationals in ICT for the last time in 2013/14. Students in years 9, 10 and 11 qualified for either the OCR Nationals First Award or the OCR Nationals Award in ICT. The OCR Nationals were a vocational course with no examination component (100% coursework).

The TT materials provide a structured framework for the delivery of a wide range of ICT skills through extended project work. The

For purposes of communication we provide our students with a Gad’s Hill email account which they can use inside and outside of school. The use of personal email accounts by the students is not permitted at this time. Students may use their email accounts to send work home if they so wish.

The school provides a Bring Your Own Device service to students to allow pupils to gain access to the internet using their own devices. This operates through a content filter to endure security.

10 Curriculum - Courses Offered

In years 7, 8 and 9 emphasis is placed on the development of the core ICT and computing skills and competencies necessary for successful later completion of an examination course in either Computer Studies or Information technology and to enable students to use ICT successfully and with confidence across the curriculum.

Students will learn:

 the basics of computer modeling using spreadsheets,  data handling with a relational database,  presentational techniques,  web design,  intelligent use of the internet and search engines,  desktop publishing and text processing techniques,  graphical manipulation  computational thinking  computer languages  elementary coding  computer configuration  input and output methods  storage  computer arithmetic and logic  data and files

11 2014-2015 sees the introduction of a new Computing curriculum for students in Yr 7. This course is still under development but a complete functional scheme of work has been published on the School Information System. The Teach ICT website has been used extensively as a useful source of ICT resources to help with the development of the new scheme. The department is also giving serious consideration to the the Compute IT course from Hodder and is trialing some of their materials at this time.

These lessons have been designed to teach ICT / Computing through interesting contexts and the cross-curricular links are extensive. At KS3 students may work individually, in pairs or in small groups.

We are still able to make good use of the Thomas Telford ICT materials for much of our KS3 teaching.

Mr Meade has extensively reviewed the KS3 curriculum and the schemes of work has been updated and continue to be so. This is a time of huge change in the teaching of ICT/Computing and the department is having to adapt quickly to changing curriculum pressures whilst at the same time maintaining the best interests of the students.

All students have a unique user ID and their own area on the network. All students have unlimited access to a filtered broadband internet service, providing they have parental consent to do this.

12 All students and their parents are required to sign an internet agreement stating that they will use the internet in a responsible manner (a complete copy of the school internet policy can be found in the appendices)

The course is delivered in a variety of ways and the emphasis is on the student taking responsibility for his/her own learning. All lessons are in a computer room and involve solving real problems using ICT.

Students, parents and governors have access to current schemes via the school website. Teachers with laptops can access their network areas and the school intranet using managed WiFi connectivity.

13 KS4

2014 saw the last cohorts of children to complete the OCR Nationals in ICT. We have prepared the students for a range of vocational courses in ICT since 2003. These courses were 100% coursework (no written examinations) and were externally moderated.

In the 2014/2015 the majority of our Year 10 and 11 students have qualified for the OCR Nationals First Award in ICT.

GCSE ICT

From Sept 2014 the students at Gad’s will be prepared for the GCSE in ICT. The 2014 cohort is the first groups at Gads to embark on a non-vocational course in ICT since 2003!

GCSE from 2010 | ICT

The specification at a glance

The Edexcel GCSE specification is structured as follows:

 The Single Award is two units.  The Double Award is four units, two of which are the same as the single award.

14  The Single Award has one exam paper worth 40% of the total marks, and one controlled assessment worth 60%.  The Double Award has the same exam paper and controlled assessment task, and then a second exam paper and a second controlled assessment task.

UNIT 1: Living in a Digital World In this unit, students Written Students have 40% explore how digital paper 90 minutes for Single technology impacts on the written the lives of individuals, paper Award Externally organisations and assessed society. Students learn 20% about current and Double emerging digital Award technologies and the issues raised by their use in a range of contexts (learning and earning, leisure, shopping and money management, health and well-being, on the move). They develop awareness of the risks that are inherent in using ICT and the features of safe, secure and responsible practice. UNIT 2: Using Digital Tools This is a practical unit. Controlled Students have 60% Students broaden and Assessment 40 hours to Single enhance their ICT skills complete the Award and capability. They Brief (CAB) CAB work with a range of provided by 30% digital tools and Edexcel, Double techniques to produce marked by

15 effective ICT solutions in teachers and a range of contexts. moderated Award Students learn to reflect critically on their own by and others’ use of ICT Edexcel and to adopt safe, secure and responsible practice. They put into practice what they learned about digital technology in Unit 1.

The specification has been structured to give maximum flexibility.

In the first two years the department will prepare all students for the Single Award.

Future years may be entered for the Double Award.

Unit 1: Living in a Digital World

Topic 1. Personal digital devices Topic 2. Connectivity Topic 3. Operating online Topic 4. Online goods and services Topic 5. Online communities Topic 6. Issues

Unit 2: Using Digital Tools

Topic 1. Research and information gathering Topic 2. Modelling Topic 3. Digital publishing Topic 4. Evaluating outcomes Topic 5. Working efficiently and safely 16 We are currently developing a revision website which will is already available on the school’s information system. This website is still under construction but does contain a wealth of useful material which the students can access at home.

The year 11 students are currently working on their controlled assessment project. This is a 40 hour unit of work set by the Edexcel examination board. The theme of this year’s project is the music festival.

Students are provided with instructional material in the form of a mini website referred to as the Controled Assessment Brief of CAB.

The CAB is published as an addendum to this handbook,

17 Public Examination Results

This was another highly successful year for the ICT department with our students receiving excellent grades in the OCR Nationals Award in ICT.

All of the candidates qualified for either the OCR Nationals First award or the OCR Nationals Award the latter being equivalent to 2 GCSEs.

All our students are to be congratulated on their hard work and dedication throughout this course.

50 Yr 11 students entered for OCR Nationals Award in ICT

Pass 14 Merit 17 Distinction 19

2 children entered for OCR First Award both who were successful.

In addition we also entered the majority of students in years 9 and 10 for the OCR Nationals First Award equivalent to 1 GCSE at grade C or above. The deadline for entering students was August 2012 and obviously a small number of children entered the school after this time and could be officially entered

18 for the qualification. All the children entered were successful.

19 Value Added

The school uses the MidYIS system to facilitate predictions and value-added measures for the majority of GCSE/Standard Grade subjects. Unfortunately we are not able to use the system for vocational qualifications with the same degree of accuracy as is found with GCSE subjects.

The department is able to consider predictions from MidYis for GCSE ICT but the emphasis on coursework in OCR Nationals may make such an exercise statistically invalid. In addition MidYis will predict the likelihood of a candidate achieving 1 GCSE in ICT but our students are achieving 2 GCSEs. Comparison is therefore extremely difficult and can only produce tentative conclusions.

20 Opportunities for Enrichment

At Gads the basic framework of the National Curriculum serves as a reference point for the ICT education we offer. We aim to enrich that curriculum to meet the needs and encourage the interests and talents of all our students.

The department believes that students today must acquire both the traditional fundamental skills of reading, writing, and numeracy and the Digital Age skills of teamwork, problem solving, research, time management, information synthesizing, and the use of high-tech tools to solve problems they encounter.

The department strongly believes that Project-Based learning is the best way to acquire both sets of skills and that this methodology is highly enriching and extremely motivational. This belief would appear to be backed up by the department’s examination results.

21 What cross curricular links exist?

The use of Thomas Telford materials by the ICT department has the added advantage that Thomas Telford’s entire on-line curriculum is provided to the school free of charge. These materials can be used by departments throughout the school.

However, at the time of writing P3 is timetabled for use by the ICT department for 34 out of the 45 available teaching periods. A similar situation is to be found with regard to room M11 which is used primarily for the delivery of kindergarten, junior and KS3 ICT.

The move into the Melville building has freed up P2 which is now used primarily as a cross curricular facility. The room can be easily booked using the electronic booking form now available on the SIS.

Click on the Staff tab then go to Room bookings from the menu on the left hand side.

In addition the concept of ICT as a tool to be used by all is well established and the students are encouraged to use the equipment whenever it is appropriate to do so.

The new Computing course will necessitate stronger links with both the mathematics and science departments and it appears likely that in years to

22 come Computing may be classified as a science alongside physics, chemistry and biology.

The amount of mathematics involved in Computing especially with regard to problem solving through coding will require closer links with the mathematics department and an alignment of teaching topics to ensure that the students are ready mathematically for what will be expected of them in Computing.

23 Opportunities for PHSE

The ICT curriculum provides opportunities for developing an understanding of spiritual, moral, ethical, social and cultural issues, together with an awareness of environmental issues, health and safety considerations, and European developments consistent with relevant international agreements appropriate as applied to the ICT sector.

In all junior and KS3 years students consider e- safety implications.

In Year 7 students complete a project on the ‘Healthy Breakfast’. Business management issues are considered in Year 8.

The OCR Nationals units include ICT In Business which is based around a number of company scenarios e.g. Start Up and its new clients 24:7 Hair and Juicin’.

This is a highly vocational unit with a focus on the practical use of ICT in a real world context.

The first part of Unit 1 considers the issue of Health and Safety in the workplace with special emphasis on people who work with computers.

This is followed by a module on Internet searching which includes extension materials on the

24 trustworthiness and reliability of websites and the information sourced from them.

Spiritual, Moral, Social & Cultural Development

The ICT syllabus provides many opportunity for looking at elements of CULTURE, CIVIL LIBERTIES, GOVERNMENT & LAW.

In addition, however, ICT provides a unique medium with which it investigate other cultures, life styles and religions, using on-line collaboration and through viewing web sites, emailing, texting, video conferencing etc.

It also offers a research tool, which when used appropriately is second to none. ICT can give youngsters a real insight into the wider world. A major part of ICT studies involves the consideration of bias and moral considerations figure highly in this. Topical issues such as GM foods, fox-hunting, crime & punishment, the role of women etc. can be examined readily and in a way that engages the learner.

25 Independent Learning

The very nature of our project based work encourages independent learning. The teacher must ensure that the students are equipped with the necessary skills before embarking on the summative project material – the projects themselves should not be used as teaching tools.

The projects must be carefully planned and researched and the students work to tight deadlines. The teacher’s role is managerial – overseeing what is being done, making suggestions and offering guidance but not interfering directly in the student’s work. The degree of independence can appear surprising at first – even to the extent of student’s homework being part of the overall project and therefore planned in advance by them. Student’s who plan carefully their work at home will tend to do better than those who do not. Teacher intervention occurs to offer advice and to make suggestions but definitely not to do the work for the student.

Only tasks such as research and planning should be done at home. The actual hands on ICT should be done at school under teacher supervision to avoid the possibility of unacceptable outside help.

The result is a most challenging ICT course both for students and teacher. The projects are stimulating and interesting and so far the results have been most encouraging. The most

26 able students are stretched but the courses allow for achievement across the ability range.

27 SEN Pupils

The 100% coursework methodology has certainly benefited the less able students without in any way disadvantaging the more able. The materials still used by the department are highly accessible and multi-sensory in their presentation. The challenge for future years will be to maintain the accessibility of curriculum ICT/Computing to less able students. Without a doubt the new courses have increased rigor and will prove challenging or highly challenging to a number of students who previously would have flourished under the more skills based approach of the vocational course.

Only time will tell how our students will adapt to the new GCSE in ICT offered for the first time from Sept 2013. The coursework element still remains albeit in the form of controlled assessment but the syllabus also contain a written examination paper which will add to the rigor of the course.

28 Monitoring of Effort and Attainment

All departments at Gads provide twice termly data in terms of effort and attainment grades. This data is then processed along with MidYis data to produce progress scores which inform the decision making process.

It is essential that the teacher maintains a close eye on how students are progressing with their project work and although the assessment of the projects is essentially a summative process it is possible to produce checklists individually tailored to each project.

Such lists are used to record how each student is progressing and the presentation of such lists on the whiteboard appears to have a motivational effect.

A feedback folder is maintained on the student shared area and results made available to all students at the beginning of a lesson.

29 ICT Coverage

ICT clearly exists as a subject within the ‘league- table orientated’ environment of the modern school. As a subject ICT is an important part of this process and yet it is also expected to provide a ‘service’ to other departments as well as being a ‘subject’ in itself.

The role of IT in the curriculum remains ambiguous. There are two schools of thought about the place of ICT in the curriculum. The first subscribes to the view that ICT should be cross curricular and the second holds the opposite view that ICT should be taught separately.

It is quite difficult for a subject to be both strong across the curriculum and secure within the curriculum. Furthermore ICT is not only cross- curricular but it is expected to contribute to achievement in ALL other subjects. It would seem that the approach favored by OFSTED is a mixture of both and must be developed both within and across the curriculum.

This handbook is at present being rewritten Sept 2014.

30 Gads Hill School Departmental Development Plan: 2012 – 2013 ICT Department

Objective Time Resourcing Person Success Review scale responsible criteria Date 1. Improving Learning and Teaching

1.1 Edexcel PM Scheme of June GCSE ICT website work 2013 covering Review And rewrite Teacher’s Unit 1 KS4 scheme of resource (Living in a work for New Year materials Digital 10 Students to World) cover the first unit published on of the GCSE in SiS and ICT and the new ready for linear specification. first teaching in Sept 2013.

1.2 Edexcel PM Scheme of June website work 2013 GCSE ICT covering Teacher’s Unit 2 Review And rewrite resource (Using KS4 scheme of materials Digital work for New Year Tools) 10 Students to published on cover the second SiS and unit of the GCSE ready for in ICT and the new first teaching linear specification. in Sept 2013.

1.3 Edexcel PM Delivery Sept GCSE ICT commences 2015 GCSE ICT Students on time in (Edexcel Book Sept 2013

31 examination board) begins

1.4 Sept Web design PM Students 2013 Prepare Gads ICT software know how to e-materials for access the publication on the materials and SIS use them regularly 1. 5

2. Resources

2.1 Purchase of 2012 PM Full set of June new GCSE text text books in 2013 books place ready for classroom use (14 books purchased with first tranche of money.

2.2 Purchase of PM Outside of Sept GCSE ICT budget 2013 Teacher’s Resource Pack

2.3 Purchase of PM/PT Software June Serif software suite installed and 2013 to replace existing being used by software from students Macromedia/Adobe

2.4 Last purchase £1000 for DM July of Thomas telford two years 2013 materials.

32 Gad’s Hill School Departmental GCSE Results*v5 Summer 2013

Gad’s No of Subject Pupils A* A B C D E F- %A-C pass rate English 58 0 4 12 20 20 2 0 62% English Literature 58 0 3 16 18 15 6 0 64% Mathematics 58 2 6 14 23 7 4 2 78% Statistics 5 2 3 100% Science 58 2 2 9 30 11 3 1 74% Additional 38 3 2 5 17 10 1 0 71% Science French 54 1 3 6 15 16 8 5 46% Design & 26 0 7 5 8 5 1 0 77% Technology ICT OCR National (3 x 58 0 9 20 29 0 0 0 100% GCSE) Geography 31 2 5 5 9 6 4 0 68% History 32 1 3 8 8 7 5 0 65% Music 8 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 100% PE 18 0 2 3 8 5 0 0 78% Drama 16 1 1 6 7 1 0 0 93% Public Services 39 39 0 0 0 0 0 0 100% (CCF) Totals 559 60 51 109 191 106 34 8 1 % grades 11% 9% 20% 34% 19% 6 % %

*Data based on Yr11 cohort of students aged 16yrs between 1 Sept 2012 & 31 Aug 2013  60.3% of students achieved FIVE or more A*-C pass grades including Maths & English (up from 58% in 2012)  83% of students achieved FIVE or more GCSE A*-C grades  39% of students grades achieved A* - B grades

33 Music Festival CAB

Music festivals are a popular way of bringing people together to enjoy a wide range of music genres and other types of entertainment. Festivals UK has asked you to organise a music festival in your local area. In this CAB you will:  develop an idea for a music festival in your local area  decide upon a ticket price by creating a spreadsheet model  create some digital products to promote the festival. This CAB has four main activities. You should work through them in order. Read through the whole CAB to make sure that you understand what you need to do.

34 Your festival will take place somewhere local to you. You are not trying to compete with festivals that attract large, national audiences. You should not try to copy an existing festival. Festival information  The festival will last for one day.  The festival can be held at an indoor or outdoor venue.  You will choose the target audience of the festival.  The festival must not make a loss.  The festival may also feature:  non-musical performers  food and drink providers  activities. Festival promotion These products will be created.  A ‘teaser video’ providing some basic details about the festival.  A downloadable flyer featuring key information such as time/date, line-up and travel suggestions.  A ‘promo’ (promotional audio clip) providing information on the artists performing at the festival.  A prototype of a mobile application (App) for the festival.

35 Folders

Create a folder called Music Festival with these sub- folders:

 Activity1  Activity2  Activity3  Activity4  Development

Sources tables

You must keep careful records of all the sources you use to inform your decisions. Keep a record of the sources you do not use as well as those you do.

Create sources tables using these examples to help you.

Save your sources tables in your Development folder.Remember copyright – check with your teacher.

Test buddy

You must have a test buddy who will give you useful feedback on your work. You must also be a test buddy for someone else and comment on their work.

36 All feedback should be polite and include:

 what is good about the product  what could be improved and how.

Try to be as specific as you can in your feedback. Check that the product meets the CAB requirements. Try to avoid generalisations. Explain how your suggestions would improve the product.

37  This activity consists of these tasks:  Investigation: gather information and record your findings; decide on a name and target audience for your music festival.  Logo and strapline: create a logo for your festival.  Artist database: update a database and use it to produce a list of artists that would be suitable to perform at your festival.  Teaser video: produce a short teaser video to create interest in your festival.  Review: answer questions about this activity. Save this Activity 1 review in your Activity1 folder. You should complete it as you work through Activity 1.

38 Carry out an investigation and record your findings in the investigation section of the Activity 1 review.

You should: decide:

 the name and target audience for your festival  the date, start time and duration of your festival conduct research to identify:

 the kinds of artists that match your target audience  attractions that you could feature at the festival  three possible venues that you could use conduct a short survey of your target audience to find out about their preferences; you could ask about:

 preferred music genres  the maximum price they would be willing to pay  preferred venues.  Check that your sources tables are up to date. Discuss the investigation section of the Activity 1 review with your teacher. Use it to record their feedback and any action you take. Carry out further investigation if necessary and finalise the investigation section of the Activity 1

39 review. Check again that your sources tables are up to date. You MUST get your teacher’s approval before you continue. Answer the questions about the investigation in your Activity 1 review.  