Computer Science
Computer Science became a recognised subject on the National Curriculum in September 2014, but the subject itself has origins back as far as the 1830s when Ada Lovelace adapted Charles Babbage’s conceptual Analytical Engine to create the first recognised computer algorithm.
However, it was Alan Turing that through his 1936 paper "On Computable Numbers" effectively founded Computer Science because it introduced the concept of a theoretical machine, now known as a Turing machine, that could perform any computation that could be described in a mathematical formula.
Computer Science has become the study of computers and computational systems.
At Judd, we work with the National Centre of Computing Education, the Raspberry Pi Foundation and OCR to engage our students from Key Stage 3 through to Key Stage 5 to help them understand the importance of computational thinking to solve the problems in front of them. Through computational thinking, our students learn to analyse a problem and then design, develop, validate and evaluate their solutions to real-world computational problems.
As a prominent Product Manager once said:
“Everyone in this country should learn how to
program because it teaches you how to think.”
Curriculum enrichment
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Trips / events |
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Year 9 - Bletchley Park & The National Museum of Computing |
Students taking Computer Science at GCSE get the opportunity to visit Bletchley Park with a guided tour around the site and involvement in a Past, Present & Future Cryptography Workshop before spending the afternoon taking in everything hardware, software & gaming at the National Museum of Computing. |
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Students spend the day at the Museum in a variety of workshops designed to give them an overview of the evolution of programming languages with both theory & practical sessions delivered by onsite experts. |
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Year 12/13 - Silicon Valley, San Francisco |
Students spend the week in San Francisco experiencing everything Silicon Valley from GooglePlex, the Apple Infinite Loop, the world-renowned Computer Science Museum and Stanford University to the Golden Gate Bridge & Alcatraz. |
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Challenges |
Description |
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Students are tested on their computational thinking with the top 10% nationally being invited back to take part in the Oxford University Computing Challenge. |
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Students will have their collaborative programming prowess tested against teams from across the United Kingdom. |
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Students are tested on their programming abilities with successful participants being invited along to Cambridge University & beyond to the International Informatics Olympiad. |
Information on how Computer Science is taught across the key stage areas can be found below: