Year 7 Learning
From the outset of their academic journey, Year 7 students are introduced to the school's classroom practices and digital learning platforms such as Microsoft Office 365. The curriculum transitions to address E-Safety education, equipping students with the knowledge to navigate online resources responsibly while understanding the potential risks associated with internet usage. Throughout the remainder of the term, students engage in acquiring essential life skills through the use of industry-standard software applications, including Word, PowerPoint, Email, and Teams. The autumn term concludes with the students learning the basic online searching tools, empowering students to effectively search and utilize the resources available on the World Wide Web.
During the Spring term, emphasis is placed on enhancing students' digital literacy skills. The term begins with an introduction to Microsoft Excel, where students delve into the realms of spreadsheets, formulas, and formatting techniques. Learners then undertake a research project aimed at cultivating further life skills, where they select a topic of interest, conduct research, and craft a persuasive poster advocating support for their chosen cause. Following this, Students are then introduced to different types of computer, before exploring the key computer hardware components and finishing the term up by investigating different types of computer software.
The Summer term focuses on Computational Thinking, the final strand of The Herewoode Academy curriculum. Students will be introduced to the Computational Thinking methods of Abstraction, Decomposition, Pattern Recognition and Algorithmic Thinking. These are four problem solving techniques which apply a logical thinking approach to tackling solutions. Students then conclude their first year at The Herewoode Academy by designing, refining and debugging programs in their games development topic.
| Term | Topic | Key Content |
|---|---|---|
| Autumn | ICT |
|
| Spring | Digital Literacy |
|
| Summer | Computational Thinking |
|
Autumn Knowledge
Lesson 1
LO: Understand the rules of a Computer Science classroom in addition to logging on to the school network and MS 365
- What are the computer classroom expectations?
- What is my username and password?
- How do I logon to my computer?
- How do I logon to Microsoft 365?
- How do I set up my file system on Microsoft 365 using One Drive?
- How do I send an email?
- How do I send an email with an attachment?
- How do I use ‘Teams’ to view work and assessments?
Lesson 2
LO: Understand the dangers associated with the internet and be able to explain how best to avoid them.
- Why is it important to stay safe online?
- What is cyberbullying?
- What is a good online citizen?
- What are the dangers of being online?
Lesson 3
LO: Understand what a web browser is and how it differs from a search engine in addition to being able to identify different ways a computer can connect to the internet.
- What is the World Wide Web?
- What is the internet?
- What is a web browser?
- What is a search engine?
- How do I download a file?
- What do we mean by “Quality of Information”?
Lesson 4
LO: Understand how the internet works in addition to using a search engine via a browser to find specific information about a subject.
- What is a search Engine?
- How does the internet work?
- What are effective search techniques?
- What are the advanced search techniques used in a Web Browser?
- How to evaluate sources of information on the internet for reliability?
Lesson 5
LO: Understand how to use a word processing application confidently to produce several documents.
- What is word processing?
- What is formatting?
- How to adjust a document set up?
- Understand different types of fonts?
- What is subscript?
- How do I insert an image into a document?
- What is a ‘Mail Merge’?
- How do I create a ‘Mail Merge’?
Lesson 6
LO: Understand how Office 365 can be used in school to create and save documents in the cloud.
- What is Office 365?
- How to access Office 365?
- What is One Drive?
- How do I save a document on OneDrive?
- How do I retrieve a document on OneDrive?
- How do I send an email via Outlook?
- How do I share a document from OneDrive with my teacher?
Lesson 7
LO: Complete an assessment reviewing answers to correct and fill the gap.
Lesson 1
- What are input and output devices used on a computer?
- What is computer memory?
- What is Central Processing Unit?
- What is Artificial Intelligence?
- How does Machine Learning work?
- What is a supercomputer?
- What is an embedded system?
Lesson 2
- What is the definition of a computer?
- What hardware makes up a computer system?
- What is the Fetch Decode Execute cycle?
- What is processing?
- What is an ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit)?
- What is Random access memory?
- What is Read Only Memory?
- What is meant by “Processing Information”
Lesson 3
- What is a Motherboard?
- What is a Magnetic Hard drive?
- What is a Video Card?
- What is a Sound Card?
- What is a Network Card?
- What are the differences between a laptop and a Tablet?
- What is an E Reader?
- What is a smartphone?
Lesson 4
- What is a computer's internal Memory?
- What is external memory?
- What is Magnetic storage?
- What is Optical storage?
- What is Solid State?
- What is cloud storage?
- What is a bit?
- What is a byte?
- What is a nibble?
- What is a kilobyte?
- What is a megabyte?
- What is a gigabyte?
- What is a terabyte?
- What is a petabyte?
Lesson 5
- What is software?
- How does software differ from hardware?
- What are the various categories of computer software?
- What is System software?
- What is Application software?
- What is General purpose software?
- What is be-spoke software?
- What is open-source software?
Lesson 6
- What is a computer network?
- Why does a need a high level of security?
- What does IP stand for in computing terms?
- What does HTTP stand for?
- What does TCP stand for?
- What does DNS stand for?
- What do we know as the ‘Cloud’?
- What different forms of attack to a network?
- What is Phishing?
- What is a brute force attack?
- What is a denial-of-service attack?
Spring Knowledge
Lesson 1
- What is Data?
- How can we read data from Excel?
- What is a row and column in Excel
- What is a Cell?
- What is a Cell Reference?
- What are the different types of data in excel?
- How do you format a cell in excel?
Lesson 2
- What is a formula?
- What is a Cell range?
- How to add, divide, multiply and subtract in Excel?
- What is a function?
- How do I use the Max, Min, Avg, and Sum functions in Excel?
Lesson 3
- What is the difference between data and information?
- What is Primary data?
- What is Secondary data?
- How do you create a Chart in excel?
- How do you create a Graph in excel?
Lesson 4
- How do you format a chart or graph?
- What is the Count function?
- How do you use selection in an Excel spreadsheet?
Lesson 1
- What is copyright?
- What makes a good graphic?
- What are the different parts of a magazine cover?
- What are the Designs and Patents Act?
- What is a creative commons licence?
Lesson 2
- How do you create a wire frame?
- How do you design a magazine cover?
- What is a wireframe?
- How do you use MS Paint to create a wire diagram?
- How do you manipulate graphics using a drawing package?
- How best do you choose an asset for a magazine cover dependent on a criteria?
Lesson 3
- What is a photo editor?
- How to display a photo for a specific purpose?
- What tools and techniques are best for enhancing a photo?
- How best can we enhance a photo?
- What is Photoshop?
Lesson 4
- How do you enhance an image to fit with the theme of a product?
- How best do you use Adobe tools to implement a design?
- How best can you improve a graphic using adobe tools based on feedback?
Lesson 5
- How do I know when a product is complete?
- How do I define improvement to change design choices?
- How do I explain my decisions?
Summer Knowledge
Games Programming in Scratch
Lesson 1
- How is a Variable used in programming?
- What is a Method (function) used in programming?
- What is a sequence?
- What is a flowchart?
- What are the symbols of a flowchart?
- Describe a Sprite used in programming?
- How is movement coded using Scratch?
- What are the steps to creating a game in Scratch?
Lesson 2
- What is a variable?
- How do we use a variable?
- How do we set a variable initial value?
- What different methods change a score?
- What is looping?
- What is selection?
- How do you navigate a sprite around the screen using X and Y co-ords?
Lesson 3
- What is code efficiency?
- In scratch what is a procedure?
- In scratch what do we mean by Broadcasting?
- What does it mean to run code concurrently?
Lesson 4
- What do the operators +, -, *, /, mod and round in the Scratch Green block menu do?
- How do you use the Pick Random block to position objects randomly?
- What does a computer use the operators <, =, >, and, or not?
Lesson 5
- How do you add shooting at a target into a game?
- How do you adjust x and y coordinate to control the position of a sprite?
- What techniques do you use to make a sprite jump?
Lesson 6 Adding Sound
- How is sound stored in a computer program?
- How is sound added to scratch?
Lesson 6
- What is the purpose of testing?
- Describe what makes a specific and measurable test?
- How to carry out testing on the Scratch project?
- Make corrections where necessary and test again why?
Lesson 7, 8 and 9
- How do you develop a game using block-based programming?
- Use the programming language Scratch to create a game?
- Demonstrate a variety of techniques to create a game?
- How will you know when your game is complete?
Lesson 10
- How do you evaluate your game against user requirements?
Lesson 11
- What criteria do you use to assess a peers ?