Computer Science

“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.”  

Albert Einstein

“Everybody should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think”

Steve Jobs

CURRICULUM INTENT

Technology is becoming ever more important in our student’s day to day lives and this trend is likely to increase and even accelerate in the future. We are preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist and to use technology that has not yet been invented. We will do this by ensuring that every student has the opportunity to study and use a wide range of technology building the resilience to both learn to use new technology and solve new problems in a logical algorithmic way. The OCL Computing curriculum will ensure that every student is able to navigate the digital world confidently in a safe and socially responsible manner.

We value critical thinking, competence and creativity in our curriculum:

• Critical Thinking: Enabling students to develop and build solutions to both digital and real-world problems by applying computational thinking. Students will be able to take complex problems and break them down into manageable chunks and build solutions using skills such as pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithmic thinking.  
• Competence: Developing pupils’ digital literacy allowing them to adapt and be active users of the ever-changing technology used in their future careers and personal lives.
• Creativity: Inspiring students to become active creators of and innovators instead of passive users of technology. Online safety and a solid understanding of the moral, legal and ethical considerations of technology are embedded at every level of our curriculum to ensure that students know how to use technology responsibly.

PROGRAMME OF STUDY

We are dedicated to providing a thorough and valuable computer science curriculum and moved to year-round lessons in the academic year 2025/26 with this goal in mind. However this means that we are still compensating for the fewer provided lessons before this point and students who joined the school in 2024/25 or 2023/24 will be following an adapted plan to account for this. Students who join in future will be following this programme, so we can ensure that every subject is given full opportunity to appreciate computer science.

Should you have any queries or would like further information regarding this subject please contact Miss Flora Kernan (Subject Lead) via email: Flora.Kernan@oasisbrislington.org