Computing & ICT Dept

Computing & ICT at St Columb's College...

Vision Statement

. Aims:

• To give our pupils the skills, knowledge and understanding to make them as autonomous and discerning as possible in the use of ICT to enhance their learning;
• To equip our pupils with skills that are transferable to home, work and higher education and supports lifelong learning in the community.
• To develop in our pupils the logical, yet creative thinking skills which allow them to problem solve in both this learning environment and the wider world to which they aspire..

We have 3 ICT suites within the department in order to accommodate the range of experiences required within each syllabus offered, along with a forward looking staff that endeavour to provide stimulating and relevant opportunities to each pupil under our care.
The department staff provide a high degree of support both in class and after school (Monday – Thursday from 3.30pm until 4.30pm)

Teaching Staff:

• Mrs. H Foster (Subject Leader)
• Mr. E McAteer
• Ms. MJ O’Carolan
• Mr. A McCourt
• Miss L Bradley

 

KS4:

CCEA GCSE ICT attracts a large number of pupils year on year. This is primarily due to the structure of the course (60% practical assignments and 40% examination on the use and effects of ICT in the modern world). The practical assignments allow pupils to learn about using tools and applications such as e-mail, VLE, the Internet, multimedia presentations as well as developing skills in information handling and spread sheet packages.

http://www.ccea.org.uk/ict/

16+:

The department currently offers three areas of study at AS and A2 level.
CCEA GCE Applied ICT has continued to be a very popular choice at GCE, with modules offering opportunities to study and practically apply the skills gained in areas such as multimedia, database technology, website design and the fundamental skills of presentation, spread sheet and word processing. Business applications and presentation skills also feature in this course. Applied ICT is a course which is 66% working on the computer and is assessed by portfolio work in these areas and an examination on developing ICT systems.

http://www.ccea.org.uk/applied_ict/

CCEA GCE ICT at both AS and A Level prepares pupils for an ever increasing number of courses in Higher Education including Business IT, Information Systems, Business or Multimedia. ICT is now an integral part of most workplace situations and people with good ICT skills are always in demand. The course is evenly split giving a solid grounding on the use and effects of ICT in the modern world as well as practical experience in graphics, animation, audio, website and information handling technologies.

http://www.ccea.org.uk/ict/

AQA GCE Computing is designed to appeal to pupils who are simply curious about the inner workings and applications of computers, as well as to those who wish to pursue a career in Computing.  The emphasis of the course is on the application of computers to solving realistic problems.  Computing at both AS and A-Level will prepares pupils for courses in Higher Education including Computing, Software Engineering, Business and Computing or Computing Graphics. 

http://web.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/ict/computing_overview.php

Departmental news:

11 pupils from KS3 and KS4 were involved in the 2010 Lego League Competition, and were unfortunate not to have returned with the Presentation prize, missing out by 0.08 of a mark to the eventual winners. Some of these pupils had also availed and put to good use their experiences gained from the University of Ulster at Magee Summer School, which Specialist School funding had enabled via the provision of five bursaries for the school fees.

KS3 & KS4 pupils will be participating in the Seagate Summer School in conjunction with the School of Computing & Intelligent Systems from 4th – 8th July. 25 pupils in Year 8 will have received training in Google Sketch Up to act as mentors for the Year 6 Primary School pupils on the Secret Agent day on 15th June.

116 Year 12 GCSE ICT pupils attended careers talks in the lecture theatre organised under the auspices of ‘BringItOn’ in conjunction with MomentumNI. These talks were aimed at raising career awareness in IT-related professions and their entry paths.

All Year 14 Applied ICT pupils attended lectures on ‘System Development’ by IT professionals from industry in order to provide a sense of real-world procedures and requirements for their up-coming examination. All Year 13 and 14 Computing and ICT pupils attended careers talks given by speakers in the lecture theatre organised under the auspices of ‘BringItOn’ in conjunction with MomentumNI. Year 13 Computing pupils attended a ‘BringItOn’ showcase event in the Millennium Forum, guest speaker – Johnny Ball – who gave an inspirational and entertaining overview of ICT/Computing visions. A variety of IT focus groups/industrialists and educationalists were made available to the pupils for individual discussions and Q&A sessions.