ICT & Business
ICT, as a taught subject, is now firmly established in the curriculum at Oldfield. All students in Years 7, 8 and 9 receive 1 period per week of discrete ICT lessons and at Key Stage 4 all students receive 2 periods per week of ICT. Key Stage 4 students are prepared for the OCR Nationals First Award in ICT. The use of ICT to enhance the teaching of all subjects in Key Stage 3 and 4 is also expected. A-Level courses in Computing and ICT are available as Sixth Form options.
The profile of ICT within the school has been raised to take account of its increasing importance in everyday life. Developments include:
- A school-wide computer network with secure access for all students
- Filtered broadband access to the Internet
- An internally developed Intranet
- A school website
- Individual email addresses for students
- ICT related examination courses
As a high performing specialist school, we are proud of the enhancements made to the Oldfield curriculum via the specialism Arts, Science and Sport which fund technical and in class support for ICT related activities. ICT is used extensively in all subject areas to enhance and enrich lessons, through the delivery of materials using Interactive Whiteboards, the use of portable computing equipment and via the well equipped ICT rooms available to all subjects.
From May 2009, Oldfield School achieved Trust Status. The ICT Department which also includes Business Studies, is one of the main areas of the school to benefit from this development with the trust partners being based in ICT and Finance; Research Machines and NatWest.
The aims of the ICT Department are:
- To stimulate and foster an interest in and an enjoyment of the use of computers;
- To develop confidence and practical skills in the use of computers;
- To foster an awareness of what characterises information, information processing and computer systems;
- To develop reasoning, judgement and persistence in applying creatively, information technology to problems that are relevant and worthwhile to the student;
- To offer a broad and balanced perspective of the range of computer applications in order to provide an understanding of their capabilities and limitations;
- To develop an awareness of ethical, social, economic and political consequences of the use of computers for individuals, organisations and society through the study of meaningful applications;
- To develop the ability to communicate and interpret information and concepts relevant to information and communications technology.
Accommodation and Resources
The current ICT network consists of about 500 networked computers. These are located around the school and are used for both curriculum and administrative purposes. 
The network runs under RM Community Connect 4, with Windows XP on the workstations. There are at present four full sized computer rooms, two smaller rooms, a significant ICT cluster in the Learning Resource Centre and a number of smaller clusters in various areas around the school. In addition, a number of faculties have banks of laptops in their areas. The school is well equipped with Interactive Whiteboards, with most classrooms now having them, and those which don’t, have a digital projector installed.
All faculty offices, pastoral bases and classrooms have at least one networked computer and access to SIMS.NET.
Teaching and Learning
The programme of work undertaken depends on the level of the course of study. However, all courses include both practical and theory sessions to illustrate how computer based systems work and to illustrate the use of common business applications software, such as Microsoft Excel, Access and Word. The ‘Macromedia’ suite of programs, including DreamWeaver and Flash, is also used regularly. Lessons in the use of the Internet for research purposes and in the use of electronic mail are offered. Independent study is encouraged by the use of project work, involving more than one application, when possible.
Curriculum and Assessment
All students in Years 7, 8 and 9 receive a one hour lesson per week of Core ICT. In Years 7 and 8, the course has been updated to take account of the new National Curriculum for ICT in Years 7 and 8. In addition, Year 9 modules have been amended to reflect this change.
Students in Years 10 and 11 follow the OCR Nationals First Award in ICT. Students have the option of taking additional units to enhance this qualification to give the value of a second GCSE.
A-Level ICT and A-Level Computing are available in Years 12 and 13.
The Department
Miss A Bazley - Subject Leader ICT. Teacher of ICT KS3, KS4 & KS5, Teacher of Computing KS5
Mr D Waters - Teacher of ICT KS4, Teacher of Computing KS5
Mrs C Britton - Teacher of ICT KS3 & KS4
Mrs S Scott - Teacher of Business Studies KS4 & KS5
Mr S Morris - ICT Technician
Mrs S Smith - ICT Technician
