GCSE Computer Science gives students an understanding of the fundamental concepts of computer science, including; abstraction, decomposition, logic, algorithms, and data representation.
Students will learn to analyse problems in computational terms through practical experience of solving such problems, including designing, writing and debugging programs to do so. Students will be required to think creatively, innovatively, analytically, logically and critically.
Students will also learn about the components that make up digital systems, and how they communicate with one another and with other systems, and learn to apply mathematical skills relevant to computer science.
Assessment
This course is broken down into 3 units:
The WJEC exam board set the Non-exam assessment tasks. Students have 20 hours to complete the controlled assessment activities under supervision. Each control task will be broken down into smaller sections of between 2 and 6 hours most of which will be completed during lessons.
Skills and Theory
The main strands involved in the course are:
The practical strands will be delivered using software packages such as Microsoft Office (license available through school website, Python (freely available from www.python.org), Greenfoot (freely available from www.greenfoot.org).