Taught by: Mrs Kalthoum Khalladi TTC (Quran), Madina; BSc (Hons), London; PGCE and Mrs Parry Kandy BSc (Hons), 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 & 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. year 10 will cover the double award.

Units:

There are two units:  Unit one – Living in a Digital World, which is externally assessed in the form of a normal GCSE exam paper and Unit 2 – Using Digital Tools, which is internally assessed.

Assessment:

Unit one will be covered in the classroom and a digital copy of the student book will be given to students at a symbolic price.  This copy will have all the sheets that are provided in the class and all the revision material for the external exam which is worth 40% of the total marks for this GCSE.  The exam paper a 1 hour 30 minute set and marked by Edexcel.

List of contents:

Details of the examination

The examination paper is a question and answer booklet consisting of five compulsory questions. Each question has several parts which covers a variety of question styles such as, multiple-choice, short answer and extended-writing.

Unit two is a practical, internally assessed under controlled conditions, unit. Students broaden and enhance their ICT skills and capability. They work with a range of digital tools and techniques to produce effective ICT solutions in a range of contexts. Students must complete the task within 40 hours.  Marking of the task is carried out by teachers and moderated by Edexcel against set assessment criteria.

The topic of Unit 2 Controlled Assessment Brief this year:

Every year there is a new topic as project. The project for this year is called: “Upcycle now!”

Controlled environment

Work on the products themselves must be carried out within the controlled environment and the teacher must be able to authenticate each student’s evidence with confidence.
However, there are tasks that may be done away from the controlled environment including:
•    carrying out research
•    gathering assets such as images, video clips or sounds as raw material for use in the products
•    keeping records of where each asset was found and how it could be used
•    working on initial design documents and gathering feedback on those designs

Review

Each activity includes a review which will provide evidence to support assessment and should
include any information that cannot be inferred. The questions in the activity reviews have been
designed to provide evidence for assessment. Students should make sure that they answer them
fully and should be encouraged to complete each review document as they work through the
activity.

Important Dates

Work will be collected progressively during check points so that the students can benefit from feedback. The final deadline for submitting the whole project is 18th April by 4:00 pm latest. 
Students will be required to submit their final work two weeks earlier (4th April 2010 by 4:00pm) for provisional marking and feedback. This has proved very beneficial for students.

Note: Please note that in order to be fair to all students, anyone who misses a lesson or some of the lesson for a genuine reason MUST make up for it during lunch times or after school hours.  This will be managed and arranged by the teacher.

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 Islamia school 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.