GCSE Computer Science - Teaching from 2025
For more information on the Professional Learning courses for the new Made-for-Wales GCSEs, please visit the Professional Learning page here.
The GCSE Computer Science qualification will support the Curriculum for Wales by:
- Supporting the statements of what matters, giving learners the opportunity to
- develop and test models
- consider the social, professional, ethical, environmental and legal impact of systems and the use of technology
- become enterprising, real-world problem solvers through developing skills in computational thinking.
- Supporting the principles of progression
- by encouraging iterative problem solving and design
- explore and experience increasingly complex ideas (for example in programming tasks in the pre-release brief that are further refined and expanded upon in the examination).
- Supporting the specific considerations for this area by giving learners the opportunity to:
- learn about the design, development and application of technology, software and systems
- build understanding of how technologies can impact learners’ lives and future careers.
The GCSE Computer Science qualification will also be based on the following computer science concepts based on the topics listed in 6-8 of the published Approval Criteria:
- computer architecture
- structure of systems and function
- how systems communicate
- security
- problem solving
- algorithmic
- functional decomposition
- programming
- language and compilers
- logical operations
- operating systems
- systems development life cycle
The subject content of the GCSE Computer Science qualification will also include a range of legal, social, ethical, environmental and professional dimensions that are relevant to and integrated with the topic areas above.
The GCSE Computer Science qualification will also include content relating to the evolution of technologies that are relevant to the topics outlined above, where appropriate.
Supporting our Made-for-Wales qualifications with FREE tailored resources
To support our centres in the delivery of our new Made-for-Wales qualifications, we are pleased to confirm that our Digital Resources Team will produce a package of FREE bilingual resources for each subject. This will initially feature 130 packages, which consist of blended learning resources and knowledge organisers for the first group of qualifications which will be taught from September 2025.
Publication schedule
Our Digital Resources Team will be working at pace to produce these new support materials. These will be published in phases beginning from late Autumn 2024, and the full suite of bilingual resources will be available by June 2025.
Further information is available here.
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