Quick Links

Quick Links

Westwood College

Westwood College is part of

The Talentum Learning Trust

ICT

Subject philosophy/ purpose

We live in a world where our lives are surrounded by ever changing technology. Our aim is to inspire the young minds of today to embrace this technology by peeling back the layers and enabling our learners to fully comprehend what makes our digital world tick. The ultimate goal for our curriculum is to provide the knowledge/skills required for students to engage confidently with state-of-the-art developments in Computing and ICT. 

The increasing use of technology in all aspects of society makes confident, creative and productive use of IT an essential skill for a successful transition into adulthood because computing can be fundamental to successful engagement in modern society. 

Here Westwood College, the computing/ICT compartment is committed to imparting to all students the practical competence, analytical ability and communication skills necessary to work with computing technology later in life. 

Here at Westwood College, our department truly believes that confidence with all facets of computing and ICT has the ability to not only create opportunities for current students, but for future generations as well.

Curriculum Vision/intent

The ultimate aim of Computing is to provide students with the tools and skills to be authors and creators, not just consumers of ICT. In an ever-changing technological world, we aim to ensure that all students can embrace new and existing technology to maximise their learning potential.

Throughout their time at Westwood, students are provided with opportunities to nurture and develop their ICT/Computing skills with great emphasis on online safety and future proofed skills such as programming.

We aim to develop skills that enable students to be:

  • Future-proofed learners, covering both the historical contexts of the growth of computing and preparing them for the possibilities for future advancement
  • Able to decompose problems, breaking complex problems down into manageable chunks which can then be solved independently to boost resilience in the face of the adversity.
  • Able to think abstractly and thus focusing on the important elements of a problem and without being discarding by points which confuse the issue.
  • Creators and not merely consumers, with a particular focus on making the computer devices work for them
  • Enquiring thinkers, aiming to understand how the world around them work and not merely accepting it

Links to overview of schemes of work:

  • YEAR 9
  • BTEC LEVEL 2 (YEAR 10 AND 11)
  • COMPUTER SCIENCE (YEAR 10 AND 11)
  • BTEC LEVEL 3 (YEAR 12 AND YEAR 13)

HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT STUDENTS IN ICT/COMPUTING

Parents can help prepare students for the world of Computing by encouraging your child to explore the following software applications.

All applications are completely free and help with the development of sequencing, writing instructions as well as the development and understanding of programming syntax.

Scratch is a free visual programming language. Scratch is used by students, scholars, teachers, and parents to easily create animations, games, etc. and provide a stepping stone to the more advanced world of computer programming. https://scratch.mit.edu/scratch_1.4/

Code Combat is an interactive platform game where students portray a character in a medieval realm, completing different challenges along the way. As the game progresses through different levels so does the challenge. http://www.codecombat.com

Code Academy is an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 11 different programming languages including Python. https://www.codecademy.com/

↑