Computer Science Y10

Overall Curriculum Goals

Component 01: Computer systems 
Introduces students to the central processing unit (CPU), computer memory and storage, data representation, wired and wireless networks, network topologies, system security and system software. It also looks at ethical, legal, cultural and environmental concerns associated with computer science 
Practical programming 
Students are to be given the opportunity to undertake a programming task(s) during their course of study which allows them to develop their skills to design, write, test and refine programs using a high-level programming language. Students will be assessed on these skills during the written examinations, in particular component 02 (section B). 

Half Term 1


Half Term 2

Half Term 3

Half Term 4

Half Term 5

Half term 6

Topic Title: 

Unit 1.1 Systems Architecture 
1.1.1 Architecture of the CPU 
1.1.2 CPU Performance 
1.1.3 Embedded Systems 

Topic Title: 

Unit 1.2 Memory and Storage 
1.2.1 Primary Storage (memory) 
1.2.2 Secondary Storage 

Topic Title: 

Unit 1.2 Memory and Storage 
1.2.3 Units 
1.2.4 Data storage 
1.2.5 Compression 

Unit 1.3 Computers networks, connections and protocols 
1.3.1 Networks and Topologies 
1.3.2 Wired and wireless networks, protocols and layers 

Topic Title: 

Unit 1.4 Network security 
1.4.1 Threats to computer systems and networks 
1.4.2 Identifying and preventing vulnerabilities 

Topic Title: 

Unit 1.5 Systems software 
1.5.1 Operating systems 
1.5.2 Utility software 
Unit 1.6 Ethical, legal, cultural and environmental impacts of digital technology 

Topic Intent:

In this unit, learners will gain an understanding and knowledge of how computer systems work. They will be given the opportunity to develop the key components of a computer and how they affect the performance and what exactly their role is in allowing the system to work and execute instructions.

Topic Intent:

This unit focuses further on the components that make up a computer system and their roles in computation. It introduces the learners to the need for secondary storage and allows them to investigate the differences in types of memory and how factors can affect decision making for users.

Topic Intent: 

In this unit, learners will discover how numbers, letters, images, and sound are represented with 1s and 0s. They will also learn about the factors that impact on the quality of those representations, such as bit depth. Finally, learners will be introduced to the concept of compression.

Topic Intent: 

This unit allows learners to explore how a computer network works from the hardware required to the protocols used for communication. It also allows them to explore simulations of networks

Topic Intent:

This unit enables students to gain knowledge and understanding of the range of network security threats. Learners will explore security measures that can be put in place to protect networks and your data against different forms of automated and non-automated forms of attack.

Topic Intent:

Unit 1.5 helps students understand the need for and the different types of software available for a computer device. They gain knowledge of a variety of needs and go on to recommend based on   and system requirements.


In Unit 1.6, through a range of real-world examples, students will learn how to identify the specific type of impact, i.e., legal, cultural, privacy, environmental, and ethical. They will then progress to identifying stakeholders who are impacted by technology, and learn how these impacts are experienced, negated, or adapted to.

Key Content / Skills:  

  • The purpose of the CPU
  • The fetch-execute cycle
  • Common CPU components and their function:
    •       o ALU
          o CU
          o Cache
          o Registers
  • Von Neumann Architecture:
    •       o MAR
          o MDR
          o Program Counter
          o Accumulator
  • How common characteristics of the CPU affect their performance:
    •       o Clock speed
          o Cache size
          o Number of cores
  • The purpose and characteristics of embedded systems
  • Examples of embedded systems

Key Content / Skills:  

  • The need for primary storage
  • The difference between RAM and ROM
  • The purpose of ROM in a computer system
  • The purpose of RAM in a computer system
  • Virtual memory
  • The need for secondary storage
  • Common types of storage:
    •      o Optical
         o Magnetic
         o Solid state
  • Suitable storage devices and storage media for a given application
  • The advantages and disadvantages of different storage devices and storage media relating to these characteristics:
    •      o Capacity
         o Speed
         o Portability
         o Durability
         o Reliability
         o Cost

Key Content / Skills:  

  • The units of data storage: bits, nibble, byte, kilobye, MB, GB, TB, PB
  • How data needs to be converted into binary format to be processed by a computer
  • Data capacity and the calculation of data capacity requirements
  • Binary and denary conversions
  • Binary addition
  • Hexadecimal conversions
  • Binary Shifts
  • The use of binary codes to represent characters
  • The term ‘character-set’
  • The relationship between the number of bits per character in a character set, and the number of characters which can be represented, e.g.
    •      o ASCI     o Unicode
  • Images
  • How an image is represented as a series of pixels, represented in binary
  • Metadata
  • The effect of colour depth and resolution on:
    •      o The quality of the image     o The size of an image file
  • Sound
  • How sound can be sampled and stored in digital form
  • The effect of sample rate, duration and bit depth on:
    •      o The playback quality     o The size of a sound file
  • The need for compression
  • Types of compression:
    •      o Lossy     o Lossless

Key Content / Skills:  

  • Types of networks:
    •      o LAN (Local Area Network)
         o WAN (Wide Area Network)
  • Factors that affect the performance of networks
  • The different roles of computers in a client-server and a peer-to-peer network.
  • The hardware needed to connect stand-alone computers into a Local Area Network.
  • The Internet as a worldwide collection of computer networks.
  • Star and Mesh network topologies.
  • Modes of connection:
  • Encryption.
  • IP addressing and MAC addressing.
  • Standards.
  • Common protocols.
  • The concept of layers.

Key Content / Skills:  

  • Forms of attack:
    •      o Malware
         o Social engineering, e.g., phishing, people as the ‘weak point’
         o Brute-force attacks
         o Denial of service attacks
         o Data interception and theft
         o The concept of SQL injection
  • Common prevention methods:
    •      o Penetration Testing
         o Anti-malware software
         o Firewalls
         o User access levels
         o Passwords
         o Encryption
         o Physical Security

Key Content / Skills:  

  • The purpose and functionality of operating systems:
    •      o User interface
         o Memory management and multitasking
         o Peripheral management and drivers
         o User management
         o File management
  • The purpose and functionality of utility software
  • Utility system software:
    •          o Encryption software
             o Defragmentation
             o Data Compression
  • Impacts of digital technology on wider society including:
    •          o Ethical issues
             o Legal issues
             o Cultural issues
             o Environmental issues
             o Privacy issues
  • Legislation relevant to Computer Science:
    •          o The Data Protection Act 2018
             o Computer Misuse Act 1990
             o Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
             o Software licences (i.e. open source and proprietary)

Practical Programming Skills

Although practical programming skills are not assessed formally as part of the OCR GCSE it is a requirement of the course to deliver a practical programming element and we believe that students should develop a good understanding of programming to fully appreciate Computer Science. The concepts in practical programming also link strongly into elements of Unit 2 work that students will face in Year 11 and every fortnight students will have at least one practical programming lesson in order to prepare them for this.

Assessment:

Interim assessments are ongoing but students will be given a full end of unit assessment on this topic at the end of this half term. 40 marks (approximately – this will depend on topic content and criteria of questions from the assessment materials available).

Assessment:

Interim assessments are ongoing but students will be given a full end of unit assessment on this topic at the end of this half term – this end of unit topic will also include questions from previous topics.
40 marks (approximately – this will depend on topic content and criteria of questions from the assessment materials available).

Assessment:

Interim assessments are ongoing but students will be given a full end of unit assessment on this topic at the end of this half term – this end of unit topic will also include questions from previous topics.
40 marks (approximately – this will depend on topic content and criteria of questions from the assessment materials available).

Assessment:

Interim assessments are ongoing but students will be given a full end of unit assessment on this topic at the end of this half term – this end of unit topic will also include questions from previous topics.
40 marks (approximately – this will depend on topic content and criteria of questions from the assessment materials available).

Assessment:

Interim assessments are ongoing but students will be given a full end of unit assessment on this topic at the end of this half term – this end of unit topic will also include questions from previous topics.
40 marks (approximately – this will depend on topic content and criteria of questions from the assessment materials available).

Assessment: 

Interim assessments are ongoing.  Students will be given a full end of unit assessment for the whole of this year’s learning.

40 marks (approximately – this will depend on topic content and criteria of questions from the assessment materials available).

Home Learning:

Topic assignments set through Seneca Learning for each element of the course.

Students will be given notice of assessments and expected to revise in preparation.

Students are advised to create revision notes / flash cards after every lesson as an ongoing source of revision for their personal use.

Home Learning:

Topic assignments set through Seneca Learning for each element of the course.

Students will be given notice of assessments and expected to revise in preparation.

Students are advised to create revision notes / flash cards after every lesson as an ongoing source of revision for their personal use.

Home Learning:

Topic assignments set through Seneca Learning for each element of the course.

Students will be given notice of assessments and expected to revise in preparation.

Students are advised to create revision notes / flash cards after every lesson as an ongoing source of revision for their personal use.

Home Learning:

Topic assignments set through Seneca Learning for each element of the course.

Students will be given notice of assessments and expected to revise in preparation.

Students are advised to create revision notes / flash cards after every lesson as an ongoing source of revision for their personal use.

Home Learning:

Topic assignments set through Seneca Learning for each element of the course.

Students will be given notice of assessments and expected to revise in preparation.

Students are advised to create revision notes / flash cards after every lesson as an ongoing source of revision for their personal use.

Home Learning:

Topic assignments set through Seneca Learning for each element of the course.

Students will be given notice of assessments and expected to revise in preparation.

Students are advised to create revision notes / flash cards after every lesson as an ongoing source of revision for their personal use.

Employability, Professionalism and Enterprise  (EPE) Links

  • Software Developer.
  • Computer Hardware Engineer.
  • Computer and Information Research Scientists.

Employability, Professionalism and Enterprise  (EPE) Links

  • Software Developer.
  • Computer Hardware Engineer.
  • Computer and Information Research Scientists.

Employability, Professionalism and Enterprise  (EPE) Links

  • Software Developer.
  • Computer Hardware Engineer.
  • Computer and Information Research Scientists.

Employability, Professionalism and Enterprise  (EPE) Links

  • Computer Hardware Engineer.
  • Computer Systems Analyst.
  • Computer Network Architect.
  • Web Developer.

Employability, Professionalism and Enterprise  (EPE) Links

  • Computer Hardware Engineer.
  • Computer Systems Analyst.
  • Computer Network Architect.
  • Web Developer.

Employability, Professionalism and Enterprise  (EPE) Links

  • Pursuing Law, Compliance, And Policy In The Public Interest.
  • Empowering And Educating Youth.

Useful Links

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