Westholme School

ICT

Overview

ICT continues to develop rapidly and plays an increasingly important role in everyday life and business. The development of our curriculum at all levels aims to ensure that our students attain a broad range of skills and understanding in many different topic areas from software bases to hardware based and business strategy.

The power of technology and our increasing reliance on ICT even surprised some of its founding fathers:

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers

IBM Chairman, Thomas Watson - 1943

640K ought to be enough for anybody

Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates - 1981

Get your feet off my desk, get out of here, you stink,
and we're not going to buy your product.

Joe Keenan, President of Atari in 1976 responding to Steve Jobs' offer to sell him rights to the new personal computer he and Steve Wozniak developed.

However, we do also encourage students to understand that ICT is not always the be all and end all; certainly not for everybody anyway!

Those parts of the system that you can hit with a hammer are called hardware; those program instructions that you can only curse are called software.

If you tried to read every document on the web, then for each day's effort you would be a year further behind in your goal!

Curriculum

ICT is used in all subjects but it is also taught as a discrete subject. In Years 7, 8 and 9, pupils have one hour each week studying topics including Internet safety, e-mailing, spreadsheets, networking and databases.

Functional Skills Level 2

Year 9 students study towards an external qualification known as Functional Skills ICT Level 2; this is a recognised GCSE level qualification that we offer to our Year 9 students to give everyone a good opportunity to leave school with a suitable ICT qualification whether or not they go on to study ICT at GCSE level or not. The course is a comprehensive test of a student's general ICT competence and is examined externally through a series of timed computerised activities.

GCSE ICT

In Years 10 & 11, ICT is offered as an optional GCSE subject choice. Students choosing to study ICT to this level receive two hours of lessons per week; the course has proved to be popular with approximately half of students choosing to continue to study ICT further. At this level, database and spreadsheet skills are thoroughly tested as are creativity and imagination - particularly in Year 11 where students are required to design their own solution to a given problem.

Advanced Level ICT

ICT can be studied at A Level by students with future goals closely linked to the ICT field or by students who desire a qualification at this level that demonstrates their overall competence in a very desirable field. The A Level course delves deeper into the use of ICT applications in a business context and the professional standards and consequences related to this.

Ever wanted to know what it is really like to design a new piece of software: Well, here's your chance! Design a real system for a real client in a professional manner for your A2 project in Year 13. You will work as a systems analyst and create for a client of your choice who will work with you to help you to create a new software-based system to help them achieve their goals - very satisfying.

Resources

We have three large ICT rooms with interactive whiteboards, colour printers and enough computers for everyone. There are also computers in the school library. All computers are connected to the school network and pupils get their own username and password. the pupils can use computers outside lessons and rooms are frequently available at break, lunchtime and after school. All computers are on thye network so pupils can go on the Internet. (We keep it as safe as possible by having filtering which prevents pupils from visiting unnecessary sites.)

Text books and revision materials are provided for all students at all levels to help them succeed and understand the key concepts involved without the need to find and purchase their own literature.