ICT Department

Yavneh College believes in the power of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to enhance and enrich the learning process. We embrace the idea of e-learning and recognise the potential of e-learning to motivate pupils to become more independent in their learning.

Yavneh College embraces ICT throughout the curriculum and through a structured programme of discreet lessons which are intended to fulfil, extend and exemplify the objectives of the national curriculum and ICT strategy.

Proficiency in ICT is an essential skill to empower learners to become accomplished competitors in the fields of further education and employment. Our specialist status emphasises our commitment to the appropriate use of ICT within real-life contexts.

The ICT department is led by an experienced full-time subject specialist.

Curriculum

Key Stage 3

All pupils follow an extended version of the KS3 National Strategy for ICT.

Topics studied include:

  • Information Literacy
  • Word Processing
  • Problem-Solving Techniques
  • Presenting Information
  • Publications
  • Spreadsheets
  • Web Design
  • Databases
  • Flowcharts
  • Non-Linear Movie Editing
  • Image Manipulation and Animation

Pupils have two 1-hour ICT lessons per fortnight. They are assessed regularly through teacher assessment and are awarded a National Curriculum level at the end of Year 9.

GCSE

The ICT department offers two GCSE's:

GCSE ICT

Pupils may elect to study an option GCSE in ICT – OCR Specification

There is a heavy emphasis on problem solving and systems analysis, met through the 60% practical weighting.

In Year 10, pupils must study theory and practical skills

  • Project 1a is a communication task – Pupils will create a simple website
  • Project 1b is a data handling tasks – Pupils will create a simple flat-file database

In Year 11, pupils must study theory and practical skills

  • Project 2 is a system development task – Pupils will create a relational database following the systems life cycle

Pupils will take 2 theory exams in Year 11 which accounts for 40% of the mark allocation

Pupils receive 6 x 1 hour lessons per fortnight

GCSE Business and Communication Systems

A selection of pupils study GCSE Business and Communication Systems – OCR Specification. This is studied as a core-course by almost half of Year 10 and is a hybrid of ICT and Business Studies

This course comprises:

1 x Written Exam

  • Unit A265: Businesses and their communication systems

1 x ‘Controlled Assessment’

  • Unit A266: Developing business communication systems

1 x Practical Exam

  • Unit A267: ICT skills for business communication systems

Pupils receive 4 x 40 minute lessons per fortnight

Sixth Form

Students joining the new Yavneh College Sixth Form in September 2008 will be able to study OCR A-Level ICT.

This course is designed to extend students’ computational knowledge, applications skills and problem-solving abilities through a wide range of taught skills and practical tasks. For more details, please go to:

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/asa_levelgceforfirstteachingin2008/ict/index.html

Facilities

Yavneh College offers state-of-the-art ICT facilities. These include:

  • New purpose built industry-standard network
  • Blanket Wi-Fi coverage throughout the campus
  • Powerful desktop PCs
  • Microsoft Xp + Office 2003 as standard
  • Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Web Standard
  • Digital cameras
  • Scanners
  • Digital camcorders
  • Colour laser printers
  • Over 100 Wi-Fi laptops in banks for use in classrooms
  • 40 Wi-Fi laptops in banks in the Learning Resource Centre
  • State- of-the-art PC and Visualiser setup in each teaching room
  • Two dedicated ICT suites with 28 networked desktop PCs.  Three further suites will open in 2009
  • Remote access to pupils’ work and pupil email

Enrichment

The department provides two activities as part of the school’s Enrichment Programme:  Animation Club and Creative Computing.

Animation Club (Year 7)

Pupils begin to learn the secrets of Wallace and Gromit, The Simpsons, and Mickey Mouse in Animation Club.

Pupils begin by creating a digital ‘flip-book’ type animation in a web animation package and then move into using PowerPoint to put their drawing and animation skills to test. After each pupil has saved their animation as a GIF, they then work in groups and move on to modelling clay to create a simple ‘stop-frame’ animation. Good examples may be lucky enough to be showcased on the website.

Creative Computing (Year 8)

Pupils learn about the creative side of computing in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5. They are taught skills in photo editing, graphics creation, layering, filters, etc.  After manipulating several images, pupils create a montage-type image using layering techniques. Good examples may be lucky enough to be showcased on the website.