Oundle School
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.
There are two teaching members of staff in the department::
Mr R.I. Cunniffe BSc
Mr L.P. Rooms MBE CertEd
IT Services provision is the responsibility of Mr I.A. Peacock, The Director of Computing Services. He succeeds Mr R.B. Newman who retires at the end of this Academic Year, and 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
An exciting two year course has been developed by Mr. Rooms which teaches the use of Microsoft Office using a novel approach which emphasises the all round capability of this suite of programs. In particular, the use of Word as a drawing package is studied, together with the development of sophisticated Excel spreadsheets employing the use of advanced features such as the use of macros. Our experience is that pupils following this course are well ahead of the average level of ICT competence for new pupils at age 13.
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.
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. Current 5th form can opt currently to follow a course which enables them to pass the European Computer Driving Licences (ECDL)
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. Currently Upper Sixth students can study ICT