Computing

Staff

Mr S Forbes - Principal Teacher - Curriculum (Acting)
Mr M Latona
Mr K Maskell
Mrs E Mason
Mrs J Paterson

About Us

We are a tightly-knit and committed team of Computing specialists. We pride ourselves on the high quality teaching materials we are constantly developing and refining in-house to support the teaching and learning within the department. We also have a very strong homework policy across all our courses - particularly those in the senior phase. We see it as an invaluable means of supporting the learning and understanding of our pupils.

The department has an excellent range of facilities to support digital media including;

Hardware: class sets of digital cameras, digital video cameras, several graphics tablets, class sets of microphones.
Software: Python, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Acid Studio.

The technology outcomes in Curriculum for Excellence offer great opportunities to embrace new technologies in computer science and digital media, and take them forward in the wide range of courses we provide.

As well as the practical skills needed to be able to use modern Information and Communications Technology, we encourage the development of Problem Solving and Computational Thinking, to enable pupils to have a creative role in a modern technological society.

Why is Computing and ICT relevant today?

Being skilled in using ICT is essential if children and young people are to be effective contributors able to communicate and interact on a global scale.

In today’s digital world, computers are used in every kind of business and organization. New technology is advancing at a rapid rate and developing computer technologies, the Internet, digital video, digital cameras and personal music players have converged to become an integral part of our lives – a good example of this being the current crop of mobile phones and tablet devices available today.

While traditional office style applications such as word processing, spreadsheets and databases are still prevalent for managing administration and information handling tasks, more emphasis is being placed on the web based technologies which allow us to manage media rich content online. Professions which were previously considered niche creative areas such as graphic design and illustration, publishing, web design, digital photography, TV and video production, animation and music creation have become more prominent in a digital age where so much is consumed online. Likewise, there is a massive demand for skilled programmers not just to create the sophisticated applications we use on computers, the web and mobile devices but all the software that drives almost every electrical appliance in our lives.

Currently and for the foreseeable future, only 30% of Computer Science based jobs are being filled by graduates.

The need for Computing Science in Schools