Computer Science

“Computer Science prepares our students to be the digital leaders of the future”

Boldon School’s computer science curriculum follows the OCR exam board, whilst also building in elements and skills that students would require once they have opted to peruse this sector.

We aim to ensure that students are able to think logically about problems that they are faced with so they are able to develop a viable digital solution. Computational thinking helps our students to develop a range of solutions and programs through abstraction, decomposition and coding. Students undertake a large project that allows them to explore skills that best suit them whilst completing the Games Design unit. This allows our students to see a range of careers that can stem from one small idea. During the project the students have a chance to research, pitch a product, design, develop, code, market, test and review their product. It is truly special to watch a students idea come to life in a fully working program.

We encourage even more digital development in our extra curricular clubs where students have the chance to program Lego robotics in which they participate in competitions with students from around the country or participating in E-sports game leagues encouraging team work and communication with other students. Students are also regularly involved with larger projects such as creative enterprise, where students develop apps or products for real world situations most recently our students develop a Augmented Reality experience for the beautiful Belsay Castle in Northumberland. Students get to visit the castle and create a story using AR technology exploring the history of the technology and combining this with modern technology. Students have also helped the development of revision applications in creative enterprise working with employers and university students to see their vision become a reality.

We aim to make sure that students are prepared for the working world as much as possible by encouraging them to use computers ethically and lawfully which is covered during Issues within Computer Science. This ensures that our students can be moral digital citizens. Boldon School aims to ensure that students have a good idea of how computers are manufactured and developed by looking at computer architecture.

We think that it is important that students know how computers communicate and how data is interpreted. This gives our students the skills they need to set up their own computer network so they’re familiar with how data is transferred between devices and the errors to look for when they inevitably connect to new networks in the future. Computer Science prepares our students for the jobs of the future and helps them develop into digital leaders.