The department focuses it's aims on both ICT Computer Technology and understanding the risks associated with it, ensuring the students are educated on how to use the cyber world safely. In Years 7 and 8 (Key Stage 3) ICT is used to develop student’s skills and awareness of essential techniques and good practices required for their GCSE qualification through completion of a number of projects. Therefore, by Years 9, 10 and 11 (Key Stage 4), students' have a sound, underpinning of the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding required for their GCSE work.
Our intent for the Key Stage 3 curriculum is to provide an ICT skills based curriculum, providing all students with the opportunity to explore the world of computers. From digital literacy, pre-production documentation, design and graphic skills within graphic design software as well as project management; our curriculum covers different elements of ICT industry that support the course we offer for Key Stage 4 study. Our students complete a yearlong project for a business scenario, where they put their theory into practice to achieve the desired result for a client. We believe that computers are vital for the modern working work, especially if students are interested in the media, film and computer industry. This curriculum supports the practical work in industry, providing an insight into different occupations that these courses can take you.
The importance of eSafety (keeping yourself safe online) is also an important aspect introduced during Year 7, exploring subjects such as Social Media, online reputation, online dangers and positive online relationships. The Year 7 Scheme of Work provides a wide range of activities that will both engage students and introduce them to new software and therefore new skills.
Our curriculum embeds our school motto; Respect, Resilience and Responsibility, ensuring that all students have high aspirations and expectations for their own abilities. ICT is something that every child has access to during their school life with us, we believe they should be equipped with the opportunities and tools to excel and flourish within this subject area.
We implement key topics such as digital literacy, digital graphics, web programming and the art of animation, providing a wide variety of activities and opportunity for growth. Students join us by having one lesson a week in ICT before they choose their GCSE options ready for Key Stage 4 study.
Progress of our ICT curriculum is demonstrated through the outcomes of our students in both an academic and creative manner. Students demonstrate progress through skills development activities and knowledge recall activities within their lessons.
Finding the right balance with technology is key to an effective education and a healthy life-style, hence why we start each year for the new Year 7s with our e-safety curriculum. We feel the way we implement this, helps children recognise a healthy balance and how to effectively engage in the cyber world. This is a life skill that students can continue to build on in their next stage of education and beyond.
Having students choose the continue their study into Key Stage 4 shows the positive impact that our curriculum and team have on students education. We believe that the course we offer also provides students with the opportunities and life skills that are essential for post-16 study and industry work.
CREATIVE IMEDIA IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY
In this unit you will learn about the sectors, products and job roles that form the media industry.
You will learn the legal and ethical issues considered and the processes used to plan and create digital media products.
You will learn how media codes are used within the creation of media products to convey meaning, create impact and engage audiences.
VISUAL IDENTITY AND DIGITAL GRAPHICS
In this unit you will learn how to develop brands and visual identities for clients.
You will also learn to apply the concepts of graphic design to create original digital graphics which incorporate your visual identity to engage a target audience.
You will also learn a range pf design skills using the Serif DrawPlus and Adobe Dreamweaver.
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL MEDIA
In this unit you will learn to design and create interactive digital media products for chosen platforms.
Interactive digital media products are found across the media industry, in games, websites and apps, and learning.
You will learn to select, edit and repurpose multimedia content of different kinds and create the interactive elements necessary for an effective user experience.
We offer OCR Cambridge Nationals Level 2 Certificate in Creative iMedia. Digital Media is a key part of many areas of our everyday lives and vital to the UK economy. Production of digital media products is a requirement of almost every business so there is huge demand for a skilled and digitally literate workforce. This course will provide you with the skills for further study in subjects such as media, journalism, design or business.
There are two mandatory units:
Creative iMedia in the media industry (Exam - 40%)
Visual identity and digital graphics (Coursework - 25%)
Along with one optional unit:
Interactive digital media (Coursework - 35%)
The students will begin to look into R093 and R094 in Year 10. Unit R093 is a paper based exam which is externally assessed. Unit R094 is an internally assessed unit. The aim of this unit is for learners to understand the basics of digital graphics editing for the creative and digital media sector. They will learn where and why digital graphics are used and what techniques are involved in their creation. They will be able to plan the creation of digital graphics, create new digital graphics using a range of editing techniques and review a completed graphic against a specific brief.
It is vital that students meet deadlines as this can affect their overall grade.
In Year 11, students will complete the optional unit R097. These are internally assessed unit (coursework). The aim of these units is for learners to continue to develop their skills in the planning, creation and evaluation processes involved in client-led digital projects. It is vital that students meet deadlines as this can affect their overall grade.
They will then complete the R093 examination a second/third time (if required) – this is dependent on the result achieved in Y10.
All coursework tasks are then sampled and moderated externally by OCR.
What is E-Safety?
E-Safety concerns safeguarding children and young people in the digital world; emphasising learning to understand and use new technologies in a positive way.
E-Safety is less about restriction and more about education of the risks as well as the benefits, so we can feel confident online, supporting children and young people to develop safer online behaviours both in and out of school.
E-Safety is also about informing young people where to seek help and advice on e-Safety issues and reporting.
What do we do at JSTC to support this?
Educating our students through PSHE and ICT lessons.
Hosting assemblies to support and guide them on how to interact online.
Support from external agencies when educating our students.