ICT

ICT Department Custom Search Engine

Personnel

Mr Jonathan Jeczalik (JJ) is the ICT Development Manager and Head of ICT. He graduated from the University of Durham with a BA Hons, in Geography. His particular interests were in spatial awareness studies, and cartography. Before studying for his PGCE in 2003, at Oxford Brookes, he was in the music business, working as a record producer and artist, programming audio samplers and sequencers. Before moving to the High School, he was Director of Strategic ICT at John Mason School, Abingdon.

News and Events

ICT GCSE results 2009 – 100% A grade and above

Congratulations to the ICT group who passed their GCSE this summer - another brilliant set of results! Several girls excelled in their theory papers, gaining full marks. Overall, fourteen of the seventeen candidates, were awarded A*s, with the others doing very well with grade A marks. The success of the group reflects their attitude enthusiasm for the subject, and their determination to succeed. Well done!

June 2009 - First prize in website competition for OHS girls

The team with Adam Ball. (L-R) Natalie Bird, Emmerlyn Tsang, Jessica Rayner, Sophie Redfern and Jess Creak.

Beginning back in December 2008, five girls embarked on designing and building a website for the biannual British Computer Society (BCS) Web competition. Emerlyn Tsang, Sophie Redfern, Natalie Bird and Jessica Rayner, all from Year 9, lead by Jessica Creak (Year 12) created the "Student Pod" which was finished and submitted to the judges in April 2009. It consists of a Student friendly alternative to the school website with an online calendar with match details, house pages, school council forms, quizzes, school trip tips and links to revision websites.

On the 24th June the team were invited to the Shrivenham Military Academy for the prize giving.

There were teams from many schools across Oxfordshire present, and they had created some very good websites.

To great excitement the team were awarded First Prize in the Senior School section and each received a Canon digital camera and computer software as well getting £750 for the school to spend on RM goods. The prizes were presented by Adam Ball from Heart FM.

After the ceremony there was a buffet and a tour of the Gun Shed, which proved to be very popular with adults and students alike.

JJ Jeczalik (Head of ICT) said "I am really pleased for the team. They planned their project very well, and worked together as a group. They thoroughly deserved their prize."

The Department

The world is increasingly dominated by the use of Information and Communications Technology. Many aspects of our daily lives rely on ICT on a practical level. Our aim in the ICT department is to give pupils the skills and confidence to use ICT as widely as possible in their daily lives and especially to support their work in other subjects at school. Pupils also develop their problem solving abilities by learning how to apply their knowledge and understanding when developing ICT solutions to problems. Courses also enable students to develop an awareness of the wider uses of ICT at work and in the home and to consider the implications of this for society.

Facilities and Resources

The computer network infrastructure extends to every corner of the school and manages over 150 computers running the Microsoft Office 2003 professional suite of programs including Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Excel, and Access as well as many subject related software packages. Safe filtered Internet access is available across the OHS network and pupils are encouraged to use this facility whenever they need it for school related work. Girls in years 10 to 13 have their own individual e-mail accounts in school. Other resources include, colour laser printers, image scanners, digital cameras, bar code readers, plotters

There are two main ICT rooms. The smaller one houses 20 PCs and is mainly used for ICT lessons. The larger one houses 28 PCs and is in constant use by other departments for class lessons requiring ICT facilities and for private study work during break, lunchtimes, before and after school. The other ICT room but may also be booked. This provision ensures that all girls work on their own machine and have regular access to the ICT equipment. Additionally there are networked computers in most classrooms and two further suites of computers in the Library and Science areas. The ICT resources are constantly in use at all times of the day.

New developments include the roll out of MyPlace, which allows girls to access the school network from home. This is currently being used for year 11 coursework.

Curriculum

Year 7

The year 7 course aims to give girls a good grounding in ICT skills using the major applications software packages (word-processing, presentation graphics and spreadsheets) as well as learning to carry out advanced Internet searches efficiently and safely. The course concentrates on helping girls to master the main features of each program to support their work in other subjects as well as encouraging good working habits and an awareness of health and safety when using ICT resources. Project work enables each girl independently and individually to challenge herself and extend her own knowledge and expertise according to her previous experience at Junior school. IT Extra club runs to help pupils with limited previous experience to catch up.

Years 8 & 9

In years 8 and 9, girls are studying for the OCR Nationals in ICT, Level 2. This is a relatively new specification, which focuses on practical skills, which have lifelong use. Topics include:

Folder/File structures

Shortcuts

Email

Spreadsheets

Databases

Presentations

Back-ups

For more in-depth information, please go to the OCR Site.

Year 10

We have now switched to the OCR Nationals in ICT for year 10 upwards. This is a GCSE equivalent course, that ensures that girls acquire essential MS Office skills, and prepares them for their post school life.
Resources are provided by www.atain.co.uk

Year 11

This GCSE course (OCR syllabus A) aims to provide students with the analytical, communication and technical skills they require to be active participants in an exciting and dynamic world. The course covers computer systems and networks, communications and computer technology, ICT applications and information management. Coursework comprises 60% of the course and students are assessed in their practical skills and understanding relating to the use of 1CT applications as well as their problem solving abilities using ICT.

This current cohort is the last going through the old OCR A Syllabus.

ICT Cool Wall October 2008 - Year 7 Online safety posters


ICT 1 now has a display of outstanding work (AKA The Cool Wall) The current display is of recent year 7 work about online safety.