Hartismere School

Est. 1451. An outstanding coeducational secondary school & sixth form college and England's first academy

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A Level Computer Science

What is it all about?

A level Computer Science builds upon the knowledge and skills developed at GCSE by going into greater depth, particularly with the workings of the CPU, operating systems, web technologies and programming. We have had many successful students who have studied this without taking GCSE computer science, but it would be a steep learning curve.

What do we study?

The course is split into two units at AS (year 12) and three in year 13 for the full A level: 

1. Computer systems: What we learn about includes the workings of the CPU, how software is created and the different types of software, how data is stored and represented in computers, how data is transferred between computers and the impacts of technology.

2. Algorithms and programming: This is all about understanding computational thinking and programming. We do quite a bit of programming using C# to develop experience coding.

3. Programming project: In year 13, students have the opportunity to develop a piece of software of their choice for an end user. They will use an Agile methodology to design, implement and test the program. This is a substantial bit of work but allows students to massively develop their programming ability.

Why would it be useful?

Students have expressed how the problem solving they have developed in computer science has complimented work in other subjects. Even if not actively pursuing a career in the industry, knowledge of how computers operate can only help in the modern world. Every year we have students go on to study computer related subjects at university, degree apprenticeships or straight into employment. The range of careers in the computing industry is massive. There are industries within industries! You have software development, hardware development, database management, web development, cyber security, network management, and many more.

 

We follow the OCR specification

Taking A Level Computer Science

A Level CS: Algorithm Assembly Instructions

Toyota Virtual Plant Tour

How robots are taking over warehouse work

Coding Challenges for GCSE and A Level Computer Science

In this section...

C# Cook Books

Sorting Visualiser

GCSE Computer Science

C# Yellow Book

Essential programming skills to learn

CPU Fetch-Decode-Execute Animation

Online Little Man Computer - CPU simulator

Programming software

See also...

Useful Websites

Binary addition 2

Charities

Public Services

Key Stage three photographs

Languages

Creative iMedia

Week beginning 5 Feb 2024: 'Life Lessons'

Careers Fair - 14 March 2024

'Green' Careers that benefit the environment

Explore...

Information for Employers

Examinations

Year 9 One Lesson Task :: Congratulations [Spreadsheet]

Hartismere Website :: A History :: 2001 (1st Ed)

DynaMaze - Creating enemies and item pickups

Artificial intelligence and assessments

Skillsometer

Avatar Maker

MegaProcessor - the largest CPU in the world

Careers Information for Pupils

New...

Local Governing Body Information

Teacher of History (possibility to combine with a head of year role)

Teacher of Mathematics (possibility to combine with a head of year post)

What happens to your examination script?

Teacher of Science (possibility to combine with a head of year post)

Teacher of Science

Teacher of Mathematics (with specific year group responsibilities for key stage 5)

Pan's Labyrinth

Discover...

ICT Computer Science A Level CS Student Information A Levels A Level Safeguarding French Economics Archive Apprenticeships Policy C# Cook Book Year 9 Options Learnit Nhs LMI Keystage 5 Year 9 Year 9 Tasks Spanish Science

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