“Allah, none deserves to be worshipped except Him; The Ever-Living, Ever-Sustaining. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. To him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that can intercede with Him, except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what will be after them and they do not encompass anything of His knowledge, except what He wills. His Footstool extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, The Most Gracious.”

Ayat Al-Kursi | Surah Baqarah [2:255]

Taught By: Mr. S. Yousaf, BSc Business IT (Hons), Westminster, London; PGCE ICT, Kings College, London; CELTA, London

Being acquainted in ICT is vital for students in order to participate in a promptly changing world driven by the fast growing information and communication revolution together with the tremendous capabilities of new technologies. Thus our school is determined to provide appropriate, fully integrated, functional and supported ICT resources in order to offer the highest level of education to all students together with the efficient support to teachers and staff members to enhance their performances in this subject.

Aims and Objectives:

• Enable children to become autonomous, users of ICT, gaining confidence and enjoyment from their ICT activities;
• Develop a whole school approach to wisely using ICT by ensuring continuity and progression in all strands of the ICT National Curriculum;
• Use ICT as a tool to support teaching, learning and management across the curriculum
• Provide students with opportunities to develop their ICT capabilities in all areas
• Ensure ICT is used, to improve access to learning for pupils with different learning styles and a diverse range of individual needs.

To achieve these aims we propose:

• Raising teacher awareness and understanding of ICT 11-16, and make sure that their skills and knowledge are kept up to date, so that ICT experiences are focussed to enhance learning,
• Ensure that the National Curriculum level descriptions and attainment targets are given appropriate coverage,
• Sharing strategies for teaching ICT, so that cross curricular links are used wherever appropriate,
• Devise schemes of work to ensure the systematic progression through key stages 3 and 4
• Evaluate our use of hardware and software and make sure that all students have access to a range of ICT resources and equipment that are kept up to date as much as possible,
• Evaluate and monitor students’ experiences

Curriculum Guides:

Once a term a class will work on completing two/three units of work based on the Strategy Teaching Units for KS3. (This will be the objectives not necessarily the activities listed)

A summary sheet is used to record details of the assessment activity along with comments by the teacher if necessary, as well a highlighted end of unit expectation statement. We aim to build on this process by developing and maintaining electronic portfolios of pupils work, holding moderation meetings and using the summative assessments to assign levels to students work at the end of each key stage to be used for tracking and monitoring their progress.

For Key stage 4 we have embarked on the new ICT GCSE from Edexcel. This new GCSE is up-to-date and has engaging content. It has a clear and flexible modular structure and a straightforward assessment. It could be double or single awards. Given that it only started this year, we only have time to cover the single award for Year 11 students. Year 10 students will cover the double award, insha'Allaah.

Units & Assessment:

There are two units:
Unit 1 – Living in a Digital World, which is externally assessed in the form of a normal GCSE exam paper which is worth 40% of the total marks for this GCSE. The exam paper is 1 hour 30 minutes and is marked by Edexcel.

Unit 2 – Using Digital Tools, which is an internally assessed piece of coursework.

List of contents:

Recommended resources:

The following website has all the recommended resources and all necessary information for the course:

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gcse/gcse10/ict/Pages/default.aspx

Internet Safety: Although Brondesbury College offers a safe online environment through filtered internet access we recognise the importance of teaching our students about online safety and their responsibilities when using communication technology, as well as setting out regulations that all users should comply to. This topic is also covered as part of our PSHE provision in key stage 3 during Tutorials.

Curriculum Summaries: The ICT Department continues to undergo huge development. ICT is taught in a dedicated specialist room. The equipment is up to date and students have facilities to work creatively with a range of hardware and software programs including those to produce video, sound, animations, still images, games and to control events. Our philosophy is based on developing confident and independent ICT users who will continue to use the capability gained at Brondesbury College throughout their lives and in many circumstances. We are reviewing the Key Stage 3 curriculum in line with the new National Strategy for ICT and enhancing whole school ICT capability as well as building components of Islaam into it.

Year 7

At Key Stage 3, we use modified National Strategy materials to teach the National Curriculum Programme of Study. The course is taught practically through projects that include:

• Personal multimedia presentation with text, images and sound
• Constructing and using a database to analyse information and draw conclusions
• Building a mathematical spreadsheet to process and model data for making predictions
• Researching the worldwide web, editing and reporting findings
• Using computers to control events
• Manipulating images to make an original CD case cover
• Game authoring

Year 8

This is a continuation of the Key Stage 3 Scheme of Work. Units cover:

• Building a web site
• Printing a school newspaper
• Constructing and using a financial spreadsheet model
• E-debating
• Writing formal and informal documents
• Developing a Global warming campaign

Year 9

All students have discrete ICT lessons. This is a bridging year when students review and are thoroughly tested on their ICT capabilities and skills. Students then begin their KS4 studies early by starting the GCSE in ICT. By the end of this year students will have successfully completed a written examination based upon the theory they have learnt as well as completed a practical piece of coursework.

Homework

Homework at KS3 is regularly built into the project assignments and these are not normally computer based. At KS4, portfolio building is essential to achieving the qualification and computer access, either at home or after school is essential. All students are expected to have a USB memory stick which they are expected to bring to school everyday.