Year 7

Year 7 Computer Science Curriculum

Cycle 1 & 2 –Skills Building / Computer Safety: (SMSC)

Students will initially be shown how to use schools systems such as MSTeams and undertake basic skills such as saving work, file access to shared area etc. They will then move on to look at their first unit of work which is split between cycles 1 & 2 which is Computer Safety.

Computer Safety is a theoretical unit covering the necessary basic knowledge to use computers safely, effectively and responsibly. Pupils begin by looking at file management and security. The unit then moves on to e-safety (cyber-bullying, phishing etc.), and online profiles to give pupils a better understanding and awareness of using social media. The functionality and operation of email and search engines and how to use them effectively are covered.

Cycle 2 & 3 - Understanding Computers: (Careers Link)

It is a theoretical unit covering the basic principles of computer architecture and use of binary. Pupils will revise some of the theory on input and output covered in previous learning and continue to look at the Input-Process-Output sequence and the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle through practical activities. Pupils will then look at some simple binary to decimal conversion and vice versa, and learn how text characters are represented using the ASCII code. This will be followed by some simple binary addition. Pupils will learn more in depth how storage devices represent data using binary patterns and physically save these patterns. Finally, they will look at a brief history of communication devices, how new technologies and applications are emerging and the pace of change.

Review Week - Making Learning Memorable

As part of marking learning memorable, student will spend review week undertaking a project based on Cycle 1, 2 and 3.

Cycle 4 - Spreadsheet Modelling: (Careers Link)

The unit is centred on creating a financial model for a TV show. Pupils start by looking at different types of model and then use basic spreadsheet techniques to create and format a simple financial model to calculate the expected income from viewers’ voting. The model include sales from merchandising, with the introduction of “what if” scenarios. The pupils create a seating plan, book seats and calculate income from seat sales. Spreadsheet features covered include SUM, MAX, IF and COUNTIF functions, cell naming for absolute referencing, conditional formatting, validation, charting and simple macros.

Cycle 5 - Introduction to Python: (Careers Link)

The unit is an introduction to Python, a powerful but easy-to-use high-level programming language. Although Python is an object-oriented language, at this level the object-oriented features of the language are barely in evidence and do not need to be discussed. The focus is on getting pupils to understand the process of developing programs, the importance of writing correct syntax, being able to formulate algorithms for simple programs and debugging their programs.

Cycle 6 - Computational Thinking & Logic

This unit introduces students to the world of computational thinking and logic. Students get to understand the power of problem solving and the different methods that Computer Scientists use to tackle problems
This unit includes many novel activities to introduce key topics. For example, logical deductions and logical puzzles are used to show logical thinking, water pipes are used to introduce logic gates, network topology is used to show how mazes can be solved and phone messaging is used to demonstrate decomposition