Computer Science

Curriculum

We all make use of digital technology, websites, social media, apps. But how do any of these work? How was your favourite app imagined? How did they design the user interface to allow the user to effortlessly understand how to use it? How were the key algorithms conceptualised? How were they developed so that bugs were removed? As a computer scientist you will begin a journey to start to see behind the curtain. Making use of the skills of computational thinking: breaking an idea down, decomposition, identify the key concepts that you need to model, removing the unnecessary detail, abstraction, looking for patterns and using these to write efficient algorithms. You will learn to use an industry standard programming language, Java, and in our year two programming project you will have the opportunity to create your own software. You will analyse and understand the needs of your software, design the user interface and key algorithms, develop and test your software and evaluate your success. It’s a hugely empowering moment when you take your concept and over several months your ideas become manifest with software you have written. You will also learn about core concepts in computing networks, databases including use of SQL, how data is processed at a hardware level and more. Students have taken these core concepts into computer science degrees, but this has been a platform for students to enter apprenticeships in computing. Computer Science develops your ability to think through complex ideas, but is also a route into the digital economy which has tremendous demand.

Progression