The study of Computing and Digital Studies gives students the opportunity to study a broad range of skills that are relevant in a digitally evolving world. Through this subject, students are able to analyse and evaluate real world problems and find solutions relevant for the computing world.  It also provides an opportunity for students to develop ICT skills that are fundamental to success in modern society. 

Curriculum Aims

The key aims of the Computing and Digital Studies curriculum are to promote students' understanding, opinions, and respect for an evolving technological world.   We aim to support students to have a well-rounded understanding of the ever-changing digital world they live in.

We want to enable students to develop, understand and justify decisions on the ethical, legal and cultural impacts that technology is having and will continue to have. Students will develop problem-solving skills and a logical approach to thinking in order to solve computational problems in a real life and ‘online life’ context. 

Students will develop skills and understanding in computational thinking: algorithms, programming techniques, producing robust programs, computational logic and translators and engage in the opportunity to undertake a programming task which allows them to develop their skills to design, write, and test and refine programs using a high-level programming language.

Students will learn to think independently and logical whilst developing organisation and communication skills.

Students will engage in computational investigations to improve as critical and reflective thinkers, with inquisitive minds.

Curriculum Design

The Computing curriculum design is informed by the 2017 Royal Society publication ‘After the reboot: computing education in UK schools’ and the subsequent research published by Computing at School and the National Centre for Computing Education. This identified and promoted the three strands of Computing: Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy, which students revisit across their learning journey.

The course has been designed to cover key elements of the environment and world we live in – introducing and developing skills that the students can use beyond education. It allows students to develop skills in a sequenced order to ensure they understand and can justify necessary elements of the course using previously learnt knowledge, evolving a range of opinions, perspectives and deep understanding of the key elements of the course.

Through a range of topics and key concepts students will learn about hardware and processing, development of computer software, the underlying concepts of programming structure and communication and networks. These are developed further and in more depth through a spiral approach as students go through the curriculum.

Students will understand and apply fundamental computing principles and analyse problems through practical experiences such as solving problems, designing, writing and debugging programs.

A further aspect of the curriculum that runs throughout is the development of students’ awareness of wider ethical, moral and legal issues that can arise, in order that they can make informed decisions to be safe ICT users.

The wider purpose of the curriculum is that students will develop an understanding of how to use and programme computers, whilst developing valuable transferable skills such as computational skills, problem-solving and logical thinking.

Please click the link to view our Computing and Digital Studies Curriculum Year Overview

Future Pathways and Next Steps 

Through the study of Computing and Digital Studies we aim to unlock each students' potential and inspire them to achieve excellence by being the best they can be. The course encourages and introduces new career opportunities for jobs that are currently developing involving robots and AI.  Demand for employment in these areas is likely to continue to rise and expand, due to AI and technology becoming an everyday replacement for humans in many jobs.  Students are encouraged to consider future opportunities such as:  

University Degrees: Information Systems, Software Engineering

Apprenticeships: IT Customer Service, Software Tester

Careers: Computer Programmer, Forensic Computer Analyst, IT Security Specialist, Software (e.g. Database) Analyst, Technical Sales Representative, Web Developer

Students can find out more about the subject and careers above by logging into their Unifrog account at https://www.unifrog.org/sign-in and using the Subject Library and Careers Library tools.