ICT Courses

Students at Hinchingbrooke will be following an interesting and comprehensive ICT course regardless of Key Stage.

Student in years 7,8 and 9 will follow the ‘new’ KS3 government strategy for ICT. This programme of study is truly challenging and provides differentiated learning appropriate to all students. Those students showing developed skills during year 8 will be offered the option of extending their skills by working towards an externally certificated qualification.

Years 10 and 11 will see all students taking Units for the OCR National Award in ICT. This is equivalent in standing to two GCSEs. Considered by many to be the future of ICT courses, assessment is based on students work displayed in a portfolio. There are up to sixty units which can be offered and our intention is to widen the choice in subsequent years, providing our students with a range of stimulating ICT study opportunities. The present plan is to offer the compulsory Unit 1, ICT skills for Business and two Units from Group B, Web page Creation and Spreadsheets Design and Use.

The Applied GCSE is a course which students opt into at Key Stage Four allowing them to gain two GCSE passes.  This course will be replaced from September 2007 with the OCR National First Certificate in ICT for most students who Opt for ICT outside the compulsory course. This is worth three GCSEs.  For those students who make significantly faster progress on this course there may be the opportunity to take the OCR National Certificate in ICT, this is worth four GCSEs.

The years 12 and 13 course presents our students with the opportunity to not only develop advanced ICT skills but also to receive certification for them. The Edexcel Applied GCE in ICT course AS Level, requires students to study 3 units focusing on The Information Age, The Knowledge Worker and The Digital Economy. Students opting to study more ICT and gain the full A2 award then study three further Units on Using Multi-Media Software, Using Database Software and Managing ICT Projects.