Pupils are taught mainly in their form groups for two 1 hour lessons per fortnight throughout the school year. The groups are mixed ability and number from 20 - 28 students. Functional Skills are integrated into the curriculum and students have the opportunity to take a Functional Skills Exam at the end of Year 9. Students are taught in networked ICT rooms with interactive whiteboards and air conditioning, each student has their own computer.
Students continue to develop ICT skills taught at KS3 level by studying Edexcel BTEC First Diploma, Extended Certificate and Certificate.
For the ICT students who have opted to take the Edexcel BTEC route, their lesson time is allocated to 9 lessons per fortnight. This curriculum time is needed to achieve 4 GCSEs.
There are no formal examinations for all the above courses are they are portfolio based. These portfolios are internally standardised and externally moderated by the exam board.
All ICT groups (Years 7, 8 & 9) are of mixed ability. Therefore within the schemes of work tasks have been written to incorporate differentiation to cater for the mixed ability of students at Bishop Barrington. As the majority of the work in Key Stage 3 is practical orientated it is therefore important that all lessons are pitched at the appropriate level.
In Key stage 4 there are a number of students following the GCSE course who require in-class support. Unfortunately the demands of GCSE especially in this subject can be too high. Therefore, vocational students are allocated more curriculum time in order to succeed at GCSE.