School ICT, taught by people who teach the degree.
The same lecturers who take our BIT students take our school classes. We follow the National Institute of Education syllabus unit by unit, and we teach it on computers rather than off a whiteboard.
Where your child is, and what comes next.
ICT is a subject from Grade 6 onward, an examined O/L subject at Grades 10 and 11, and a full A/L subject at Grades 12 and 13. Each stage assumes the one before it.
Foundation years
Not examined, and that is exactly why it gets skipped. Children who reach Grade 10 without these years spend O/L catching up instead of learning. We cover the junior syllabus properly: what a computer is, files and folders, typing, using the internet safely, and a first look at how a program thinks.
O/L ICT
Fourteen chapters across two years, then an examination in two papers. A large part of the subject is practical work at a computer, so a student who has only read the textbook will not score well. Full chapter list below.
A/L ICT
Fourteen units and roughly 467 periods, ending in a software project the student builds themselves. It is the closest thing school offers to what a degree actually looks like, and the strongest preparation for university IT.
Every chapter of the O/L paper.
Nine chapters in Grade 10 and five in Grade 11, following the NIE syllabus. We work through them in order, with past-paper questions on each one as we finish it.
10 Grade 10, nine chapters
- Information and Communication Technology
- Fundamentals of a computer system
- Number systems
- Logic gates
- Operating systems
- Word processing
- Spreadsheets
- Presentations
- Databases
11 Grade 11, five chapters
- Flowcharts and pseudocode
- System development life cycle
- Internet and email
- Multimedia
- Website design
Paper I is 40 multiple-choice questions. Paper II has one compulsory question worth 20 marks, then any four of the remaining six at 10 marks each.
All fourteen A/L units.
The periods beside each unit are the NIE allocations, and they tell you where the marks live. Programming, systems analysis, web development and networking together make up more than half the subject.
74 Where the weight sits
- Programming, 74 periods. The largest unit in the syllabus, and the one students lose most marks on
- Systems analysis, 68 periods. Mostly written work, and very scoreable once the method is clear
- Web development, 60 periods. Practical, and usually the unit students enjoy most
A student who does A/L ICT here already knows the lecturers, the labs and the way we teach. Plenty carry straight on into the UCSC BIT with nothing changing but the timetable.
On computers, not off a whiteboard.
A machine each
Practical chapters are done in the lab, not described in a book. Much of the O/L paper rewards students who have actually used the software.
Past papers as we go
Questions on each chapter as it finishes, rather than a panic of past papers in the final term.
Degree lecturers
The people teaching your child are the same ones teaching the BIT. They know where school ICT stops and university begins.
Either medium
Classes in English or தமிழ். Technical terms are taught in both, because the A/L paper and every textbook after it are in English.
Ask about the class for your child's grade.
Tell us the grade and the medium, and we will tell you when that class runs.