A level Computer Science has been designed for students who wish to go on to higher education courses or employment, where knowledge of computing would be beneficial.

Key Stage 5 (Years 12 & 13)

This course, with its emphasis on abstract thinking, general problem solving, algorithmic and mathematical reasoning, scientific and engineering-based thinking, is a good foundation for further study.

Examination board: OCR

Paper 1: Computer Systems. 40% of total A-Level.

This paper covers The characteristics of contemporary processors, input, output and storage devices, software development, exchanging data, data types, data structures and algorithms, legal, moral, cultural and ethical issues.

Paper 2: Algorithms and Programming. 40% of total A-Level

This paper covers elements of computational thinking, problem solving and programming, algorithms to solve problems and standard algorithms.

Programming Project: 20% of total A-Level.

Pupils choose a computing problem to work through according to the guidance in the specification.

Career progression

A level Computing leads on to studying Computer Science at university, which opens up career opportunities such as Computer Programmer, Software Developer, Network Engineer, Web Developer, Database Administrator and Systems Analyst and Business Intelligence Analyst.

"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." Bill Gates