In year 8 a variety of schemes of work have been designed around the ICT KS3 New Curriculum Framework that consolidates the ICT knowledge, understanding and skill acquired in year 7. Also, these schemes of work are designed to prepare students for the KS4 ICT programme of study and learning in other subjects. Schemes are updated yearly to stay abreast of new technological change in line with developments in the KS4 curriculum. Students are explicitly encouraged in each scheme of work to choose the most appropriate ICT software or hardware tool available for a task and to devise a criteria to evaluate a final solution is ‘fit for purpose’ and satisfies the needs of an intended audience.

 

Students cover the units of work below focusing on the collection and presentation of global electronic data, web based publishing, evaluation of information sources, the use of models to make conclusions, the design, testing and reporting of data within a database and the automation of processes to produce game elements.

In this unit students collate data from a variety of sources to develop a daily information service about weather. Students will use a range of sources, e.g. a Sutton weather station, measurements, satellite (remote sensing), the internet, other files. A key aim of the unit is to develop a system that will meet the potential audience’s needs. Students will investigate these needs and then model the system using presentation software, web query and multimedia presentations.

 

In this unit students will create a website for a successful band that they will put together, so that their fans can keep up with what they are doing.  The website will give the band’s fans lots of interesting facts about the band, including photos, gig dates and other band related information.

Students will learn the following knowledge and skills: what makes a good website, how to plan the structure of a website, design a page layout for web pages in a website, setup a website in Dreamweaver and create a homepage with other linked web pages including text and images.

 

In this unit students will find and use a number of sources to select relevant information appropriate for a task as well as learning advanced search methods to be more efficient. Students will learn to devise and apply criteria to evaluate various information sources they use for reliability, validity and bias as they carry out research into a topic that has many viewpoints [such as testing on animals]. Students will then produce a learning aid for younger students that help them to understand the issues the students have researched justifying the use the information sources used.

 

In this unit students will work as a band manager for a new teenage band; The Shakes. The band is having growing success; however they are not as successful with their money. The students role is to ensure that the business side of the band is successful and that they can retire with lots of money.

Students will be creating a business model using a spreadsheet to track how much money the band is spending and how much they are making.

During the creation of the business model students will learn new and useful skills, to enable them to analyse data, and answer “what if” questions.

 

The SmallstepsForLife campaign tries to encourage students to try and eat healthy new things. To take part, they need to find out what students are currently eating and then create a meal card to promote a healthy eating challenge.  Students will have to build a database to store details of food portions. Students will add new portions to the database and search it to find healthy new foods to make the meal card.

 

During this unit students will learn the purpose of a database, who data is organised and stored in a database, how to search a database for specific information and how to present information from the database.

 

In this unit students will learn about the process of designing a computer game for a specific audience – children aged between 5 and 9 years of age. The theme of the game will be to teach children about the importance of eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

 

The main focus of the unit will be about students learning to work as part of a team, using digital-based research techniques, designing game elements using Scratch software, writing a game design proposal, creating and using questionnaires in Microsoft Excel.