Information and Communication Technology

Teachers:
Three staff are responsible for the delivery of GCSE and A-Level ICT: 
Mr K McGuinness (HoD); Mr R Clingan (VP) and Mr G Watterson

The department is fortunate to be able to draw on the expertise of a number of staff members from other departments at Key Stage 3.  Namely: Mr N Canning, Miss D Topley and Mrs W Chambers.

Facilities 
There are 3 fully equipped ICT labs in RSD and there are also a number of computer “clusters” in Design & Technology, Food Technology and Art & Design.  The labs are available to subject departments to book for use with classes who can make use of a range of resources such as LCD projectors, scanners and digital cameras.

Two laptop trolleys are used in RSD to provide mobile access to the school network.  These are based in the Food Technology, and ICT departments but are used by a number of subject areas in different locations around the school.  The trolleys each contain 14 laptops which connect remotely to a Wireless Access Point enabling staff and pupils to access their files from any location within RSD.

Key Stage 3
During Key Stage 3, pupils have either 1 or 2 periods of ICT per week, depending on the other subject choices they have made.  At this level pupils will study the use of a range of applications packages such as: Presentations, Word processors, Desktop Publishers, Web Authoring software, Animation software, Electronic Mail clients, Databases, Painting packages, Drawing packages and Internet browsers.

Pupils should have the opportunity to use a wide range of software packages and make use of a variety of hardware devices such as digital cameras and scanners.  The course offered at this level is intended to provide pupils with a range of skills that can be transferred to other disciplines as well as building a good foundation for the study of ICT as a discrete subject.

GCSE
Pupils have the option of studying GCSE ICT in forms IV and V and those who select ICT follow the CCEA syllabus.  The structure of this course places a large emphasis on skills, offering 60% of the overall mark to six practical assignments.  These assignments involve the use of a number of software packages and details of what is involved can be found in the links section.

A Level
Pupils have the option to select ICT at AS and A2 level.  As with GCSE they follow the CCEA syllabus.  This involves the creation of two major projects (one in each year of study) and each has a 40% weighting towards the mark for that year.  The syllabus can be downloaded from the links below.

The content of the GCSE and A-Level courses is under review and details of the revised specifications can be found on the CCEA website.  A link to this site appears on the main Links section of this site.

Links

whodunnit - Form III