Hartismere School

Est. 1451. An outstanding coeducational secondary school & sixth form college and England's first academy

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A Level Computer Science

What is it all about?

A level Computer Science builds upon the knowledge and skills developed at GCSE by going into greater depth, particularly with the workings of the CPU, operating systems, web technologies and programming. We have had many successful students who have studied this without taking GCSE computer science, but it would be a steep learning curve.

What do we study?

The course is split into two units at AS (year 12) and three in year 13 for the full A level: 

1. Computer systems: What we learn about includes the workings of the CPU, how software is created and the different types of software, how data is stored and represented in computers, how data is transferred between computers and the impacts of technology.

2. Algorithms and programming: This is all about understanding computational thinking and programming. We do quite a bit of programming using C# to develop experience coding.

3. Programming project: In year 13, students have the opportunity to develop a piece of software of their choice for an end user. They will use an Agile methodology to design, implement and test the program. This is a substantial bit of work but allows students to massively develop their programming ability.

Why would it be useful?

Students have expressed how the problem solving they have developed in computer science has complimented work in other subjects. Even if not actively pursuing a career in the industry, knowledge of how computers operate can only help in the modern world. Every year we have students go on to study computer related subjects at university, degree apprenticeships or straight into employment. The range of careers in the computing industry is massive. There are industries within industries! You have software development, hardware development, database management, web development, cyber security, network management, and many more.

 

We follow the OCR specification

Taking A Level Computer Science

A Level CS: Algorithm Assembly Instructions

Toyota Virtual Plant Tour

How robots are taking over warehouse work

Coding Challenges for GCSE and A Level Computer Science

In this section...

Essential programming skills to learn

Sorting Visualiser

CPU Fetch-Decode-Execute Animation

C# Cook Books

C# Yellow Book

Programming software

I Belong: encouraging girls into computer science programme

Online Little Man Computer - CPU simulator

GCSE Computer Science

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Week beginning 5 Feb 2024: 'Life Lessons'

Social Sciences

Technology and Food Studies

Year 10

Science & Innovation

Y6 Primary Transition - Transport of the Future

Year 9

Business and Media

CEIAG (Careers Education, Information, Advice & Guidance)

Learnit BIOLOGY

Explore...

The Parent Perspective - Careers Podcast

Examination Result Queries

National Citizenship Service (NCS)

Application for Remission from Charges/School Uniform Support

Duke of Edinburgh Portal

Bronze Qualifying Expedition September 2025

DynaMaze - Creating enemies and item pickups

Examination Rules, Guidance and Support

Examination retakes

unifrog

New...

Book a tour...

STARLIGHT EXPRESS, London. Thursday 2nd October.

School Policies

Cover Supervisor with art specialism

Year 7 tutors/parents evening

Fake Celebrity Chatbots - Harmful Content

Four months on: is Roblox any safer?

Cover Supervisor with PE specialism

Discover...

ICT Computer Science A Level CS Student Information A Levels A Level GCE College Staff Information Transport Celebrity Year 12 Ofsted Year 7 Computing Nutrition History LMC Policy News and Articles Hartismere Internet Sixth Form

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