The Lady Amélie Jakobovits Campus

Computer Science Year 9

Computer Science GCSE Year 9 (AQA)

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Theory:

Unit 4 Computer Systems

-       Boolean expressions

-       Logic gates

-       System architecture

-       Busses

-       Fetch execute cycle

-       RAM/ROM

-       Secondary storage

-       Operating system

-       Utility software

-       High/low level languages

Practical:

-       Input/output

-       Random numbers

-       Variables

-       Data types

-       errors

-       Arithmetic and logic operators

-       Flow charts

-       Sequence

-       selection

-       iteration

Theory:

Unit 3 Data representation

-       Binary conversions

-       Hexadecimal

-       ASCII/Unicode

-       Images

-       Sound

-       Compression

 

Practical

-       Iteration continued

-       Trace tables

-       Exception handling

-       String handling

-       “running total”

-       lists

 

Theory:

Practical

-       Lists continued

-       Slicing lists

-       Substrings

-       Structured approach

-       Subroutines

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment

Summative assessment:

Ongoing questions during lesson. As starters/ plenary MCQ on board to check understanding of students.

For coding lots of analysing code and tracing code throughout the lesson.

Lots of coding exercises in class.

Formative assessment:       

End of unit test on programming and on computer systems

Summative assessment:

Ongoing questions during lesson. As starters/ plenary MCQ on board to check understanding of students.

For coding lots of analysing code and tracing code throughout the lesson.

Lots of coding exercises in class.

Formative assessment:

End of unit test on data representation and programming

 

Summative assessment:

Ongoing questions during lesson. As starters/ plenary MCQ on board to check understanding of students.

For coding lots of analysing code and tracing code throughout the lesson.

Lots of coding exercises in class.

Formative assessment:

 End of year exams.

 

How We Assess Students’ Understanding in the Classroom:

  • Using different questioning techniques to gauge student understanding
  • Utilising retrieval practices to reinforce and consolidate knowledge
  • Assigning regular written homework tasks to assess understanding

How We Support Learning:

  • Providing both written and verbal feedback on assessments to guide improvement
  • Setting clear and actionable improvement targets
  • Offering tailored written guidance (scaffolding) to support students who need additional help
  • Highlighting related topics and resources to enrich understanding of subject material
  • Providing in-class teacher support when necessary
  • Delivering personalized assistance outside of lessons for those who require it
  • Stretching higher ability students with advanced materials, in-depth teacher-led discussions, and access to specialist resources when relevant

How Parents Can Support Learning:

  • Encourage discussions about topics being studied to spark interest and engagement
  • Encourage and support the timely completion of homework
  • Urge students to review work before submission
  • Provide access to personal computer at home with appropriate software from MS Office 2016, Scratch, Paint
  • Encourage computer use at home