1. Year 10 Parents’ Information Evening I.C.T. Department Mr C. H. Davies

2. Good News! G.C.S.E. Examination Results for I.C.T. have been on the ‘up and up’ in recent years (from 55% in 2005 to over 86%) and this summer’s results beat all records with 92.5% of pupils achieving a GCSE grade A*-C. Over 35% of the pupils were awarded an A* or A grade and half of the pupils beat their target grades in ICT. In particular this year, a number of pupils with Special Education Needs performed particularly well in ICT, some beating their targets by 3 or 4 grades!

3. Controlled Assessment in ICT... … consists of five assignments. … makes up 60% of the final assessment mark – probably the largest proportion of any subject at GCSE level. … is all completed and supervised in school, in normal lesson time. … mainly involves the use of software applications, with which the pupils are already familiar.

4. 5 Controlled Assessment Tasks Task No. TopicSoftware Application Used No. of marks available When? 1DatabaseFileMaker Pro / Microsoft Access 35 by October half term 2SpreadsheetMicrosoft Excel 35by Christmas 3PresentationMicrosoft Powerpoint 30February half term 4 Web DesignDreamweaver / Serif Web Plus 40End of Year 10 5 Game DevelopmentScratch, GameMaker or similar 40 Start of Year 11

5. Marking Schemes … … are very straightforward … are not a secret! … are shared with the pupils … are annotated to help the pupils achieve FULL marks if they follow the guidelines!

6. Homework… … is set regularly in line with school policy and may consist of: working on a ‘sample’ assignment in preparation for a controlled assignment. working on a ‘sample’ assignment in preparation for a controlled assignment. revision for class tests revision for class tests research of ICT developments / applications research of ICT developments / applications practice examination questions practice examination questions learning ICT terms, abbreviations and acronyms etc. learning ICT terms, abbreviations and acronyms etc. student workbook tasks student workbook tasks

7. Final Examination In Year 11 – May / June 2013 With the new specification, there is just one tier of entry (no Higher / Foundation as before). There is just one 2 hour written examination paper (not two as before)

8. Learning Resources Pupils are advised to use a range of resources when revising for internal and final examinations. Good use can be made of various text books and revision guide books, e.g. the CGP ICT Revision Guide and the new Letts ICT Workbook. Pupils have access to these in school and can purchase their own copies from school (at a significant discount! - £3) if they wish. While these guides are not tailored specifically to our course, they provide very useful revision materials for all the main theory topics.

9. Learning Support We produce in-house revision materials which pupils find particularly useful when preparing for mock and final examinations. We also make full use of past examination paper questions to help pupils prepare for the written exams. Increasingly, class teachers will use such questions as homework exercises throughout the course. Half-term or Easter Holiday sessions have been held in recent years to support pupils who have fallen behind with Controlled Assessment tasks or those who will benefit from more intense preparation for the final written examination.

10. On-line Resources Pupils are also encouraged to use online resources for personal study and revision. Some good examples include: www.ccea.org.uk/ict www.teach-ict.com www.bbc.co.uk/gcsebitesize/ict www.ReviseICT.co.uk www.teach-ict.com www.bbc.co.uk/gcsebitesize/ict www.ReviseICT.co.uk www.teach-ict.com www.bbc.co.uk/gcsebitesize/ict www.ReviseICT.co.uk

11. www.ccea.org.uk/ict

12. www.bbc.co.uk/gcsebitesize/ict

13. www.reviseICT.co.uk

14. www.teach-ict.com