Our weekly blog has been written by Mr Hamilton, Head of Computer Science, who gives an update from his department including pupil’s achieving the new Microsoft Office Specialist certification.

It has been a busy year in the Computer Science department already and as expected, it is a department that is never standing still, always evolving.

I was enormously proud at the end of the summer term to hand out certificates to pupils in Year 9 who were the first cohort to undertake the Microsoft Office Specialist certificates. This global certificate develops skills in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. This was the first cohort to undertake the examinations and I look forward to giving more certificates this year.

If any parents or other stakeholders to Bethany are interested in upskilling themselves in one of the above applications, please email shamilton@bethanyschool.org.uk for more details! 

Having finished their trial examinations before Christmas, the Year 11 pupils have been in reflection mode to plot their course of revision for the summer examinations. Alongside their revision, the pupils have been developing their programming skills further by undertaking the 80:20 project. The project is based upon the scheme run by Google to allow employees the chance to develop projects outside of their job role. In its second year of running, the pupils have chosen their projects which include developing games in the Python language and Unity (game development engine) and analysing sentences using machine learning. They are working hard to have their projects ready for presentation around the end of next half term.  

As part of the Cambridge Technicals in IT course that Sixth Form pupils undertake, they have to ‘get out there’ into the industry and complete work placements, master classes, talks, and projects. If you work in any sector of the IT industry and would be able to create an opportunity for the pupils, I would be grateful if you could reach out using the email address above.  

The year 7s have been learning about networking and the Internet this term. It is remarkable to think that the world wide web, or the Internet as we know it today, is only 32 years old, Wi-Fi is 26 years old, and Google announced a new way to share media to devices with its Chromecast device 10 years ago! It is amazing to think how technology has grown up with us over the years and during our lessons pupils will be exploring the potential innovative technologies we could be looking at in the near and far future. Who knows, they may even be pivotal in the next iteration of the next technology revolution.  

I was saddened that the Tokyo trip was cancelled in October, it was going to be a life changing experience for all those involved. It seems the aftermath of the pandemic on the airline industry had one more card to play! I am hopeful that we can plan to run another academic international trip within the next few years, so watch this space!

Mr Hamilton
Head of Computer Science