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Hi,
I would be very interested to get some feedback about GCSE syllabus' available and you are using. I work at a selective girls grammar school, a new post, and one of my first jobs is to recommend a suitable ICT GCSE course to start next year. I've been working abroad for 7 years and - to be honest, I'm a bit at a loss whats about.
Any help and advice is gratefully accepted.
Colin
Are you talking specifically about GCSE or any level 1/2 qualification ?
If GCSE you are basically limited to what the three big boards offer, and they are much the same and largely comes down to individual school/teacher preference, but if you are casting the net wider you might want to look at OCR Nationals, Edexcel DIDA and stuff like that - depends on whether your going the more trad academic route, or more vocational skills based route.
I was a pupil for Edexcel DIDA that works pretty well students can work at there own pase and its 100% coursework.
Id recommend DIDA! i think its a brilliant course for pupils to take part in, its actually relevant.
Here we are trialling the OCR National Level 2 qualification in ICT (http://www.ttsonline.net/OnlineCurri...4/Default.aspx)
Although it has only been running since September our IT department are very impressed, firstly due to the large variety of units available and secondly because of the mix and match approach taken allowing more able students to take additional units and reach a higher level of qualification.
We're planning to do the British Computer Society's Digital Cre8tor course. This is a level 2 qualification, which we plan to teach to year 9 and 10 (similar to yourself, we're a private girls school). This course is being launched in January - BETT is probably a good time to find out about it. The idea is that the pupils get to do /fun/ stuff rather than office skills. Writing inter-office memos about sales figures is rather out of your average 14 year old's frame of reference, whereas creating web pages, videos, etc, is something they can actually understand.
Teaching staff need two days training on how to deliver the course content (I get the impression the courseware comes along with the course), and at least one person needs to be a trained assessor (another days training). This training costs £100-odd to attend a training session somewhere, or the training people can visit your school to train up to 10 members of staff.
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David Hicks
We are a selective Grammar school also - pm me and I'll forward contact details for our head of ICT. (We are in Sutton Coldfield)
You may want to view some of the OCR Nationals materials set up here It should give you an idea of what's needed.
thanks very much for all the help, much appreciated
Yeah as other people have said the DIDA course might be a good option, i didnt do the course but i know other people who have done it and in someways it is easier rather than GCSE I.T in Schools.
LiAM