Information and Communication Technology
Head of ICT: Mr R.I. Cunniffe
The ICT department is housed in the Gascoigne Building, where there are two fully equipped computer rooms, each accommodating 24 pupils. In addition a technician centre is housed in the same building, together with the central network communications room.
The department has two roles. ICT is taught as an academic subject, but the department is also responsible for supporting the use of ICT technology throughout the school, and to that end there are other suites of computers installed in various parts of the school, which are interconnected on a site wide network which links all major buildings in the school, including the boarding houses, enabling staff and pupils to access their work files from anywhere in the school.
Resources include the provision of a large number of LCD projectors linked to computers in teaching areas, so that staff can make use of the internet and other electronic resources in their teaching. All members of the school community have a personal email address, and this medium is used widely within the school as a means of communication.
From September 2009 every study desk in boarding houses will have a thin client computer on it. This will allow pupils to have unrivalled access to the School’ ICT resources during the course of their studies. Day students will also have the ability to connect to the school resources through a broadband internet link.
There is one full-time member of the department:
Mr R.I. Cunniffe BSc
IT Services provision is the responsibility of Mr I.A. Peacock, The Director of Computing Services. He is supported by a team of seven technicians.
Mr. R.C. Clayton (Network technician)
Mr. D.J. Holmes BSc (Network technician)
Mr. J.D. Holmes (Resources manager)
Mr P. Jeffs (AV Technician)
Mr. A.S. Jolley MCSE (Assistant Network manager)
Mr. R.J. Newman BSc (Network manager)
Mr J.D.A. Willington (Website Development)
Course content
1st and 2nd Form
First Form classes are taught the basic skills of ICT use, word processing, desktop publishing, multimedia presentation, video, sound and image editing, and spreadsheets. This is taught through the use of projects which incorporate the use of several of these skills in order to achieve the desired outcomes.
3rd Form
Third Form classes are designed to ensure that all students are given a thorough grounding in the use of the Oundle school ICT facilities and also brings entrants from a myriad of feeder school to a standard level of competency in the use of Standard office applications. This year the course will be taught by teachers from other subject specialisms to help foster the cross curricular use of ICT.
3rd Form Computing Option
Third Form pupils can opt for an additional course in computing where they will explore Visual Basic programming, flow chart modelling and robotics.
GCSE
From September 2008 we will be offering the CIE IGCSE in Computer Studies as part of the GCSE Options scheme. This exciting course introduces students to the fundamentals of computer programming teaching logic and fostering problem solving skills. Whilst there is a sizeable practical content, there is a requirement to learn applications of ICT in industry, business and commerce.
A Level
Starting in September 2008 we will be offering the WJEC A Level Computing, this will be a natural progression from the IGCSE. The course focuses on system production to solve problems, using a programming language, but also looks at the architecture of computers, algorithms and health and safety.