Mission Statement

• Critically engage in public discussion on computer science topics
• Develop as learners, users, and creators of computer science knowledge and artefacts
• Better understand the role of computing in the world around them
• Use technology to learn, perform, and express themselves in other subjects and interests.

Curriculum Map: This link below allows you to see when topics may be covered; this is a guide for information only and has the potential to change as the year progresses.

AS Level Computer Science

Exam board: OCR

Computer Science is a practical subject where students can apply the academic principles learned in the classroom to real-world systems. It’s an intensely creative subject that combines invention and excitement, and can look at the natural world through a digital prism.

Aims:

The aim of this qualification is to enable learners to develop:

• An understanding and ability to apply the fundamental principles and concepts of Computer Science, including: abstraction, decomposition, logic, algorithms and data representation
• The ability to analyse problems in computational terms through practical experience of solving such problems, including writing programs to do so
• The capacity to think creatively, innovatively, analytically, logically and critically
• The capacity to see the relationships between different aspects of computer science
• Mathematical skills.

Content Overview

Computing Principles (01) - 1 hour 15 Minutes Written paper

• The characteristics of contemporary processor, input, output and storage devices, output and storage devices.
• Software and software development.
• Programming.
• Exchanging data.
• Data types, data structures and algorithms.
• Legal, moral, ethical and cultural issues.

Algorithms and Problem-Solving (02) - 1 Hour 15 minutes written Paper

• Elements of computational thinking.
• Problem-solving and programming.
• Algorithms.

What makes Computing at St Mary's exciting is a wide range of challenges that test your problem-solving skills and push you to achieve your maximum potential.

- Nathan Year 12

 

The fact that I have had excellent computer science teaching for six years at St Mary’s, this has allowed my passion for the subject to grow even greater leading to me wanting to study it at degree level.

- Jakub, Year 13