NEW A LEVELS: SUBJECT CONTENT CONSULTATION
Response from UK Forum for Computing Education (UKforCE)
This is the response from the UK Forum for Computing Education to the Department for Education
consultation on subject content for new A levels. In addition to our comments below, we fully
support the Computing at School (CAS) response and ask the DfE to pay particular attention to their
detailed submission. We will also be responding to the Ofqual consultation.
General Comments
We welcome the opportunity to respond to this important consultation on the future of the A levels
for Computer Science. Before providing response on the subject content we provide some general
comments:
Title
UKforCE welcomes the change of name from Computing to Computer Science. Computing is now
used within the National Curriculum to represent the wider curriculum including digital literacy, IT
and computer science. The A level specifically draws on computer science knowledge and skills and it
is therefore appropriate to give it this name.
AS qualification
It would be preferable for the AS level qualification to be co-taught alongside the first year of the A
level qualification. This would enable students who are successful with the AS to continue to the A
level and would mitigate the effects of students having to make a decision to take the full A level
from the outset.
As is currently proposed, the subject content for AS must address each of the bullet points laid out in
the knowledge and understanding section. This is different from the proposals for A levels in the
natural sciences, which differentiates AS and A level content (using bold type for A level content).
To enable co-teaching of AS and A level qualifications in Computer Science with the current
proposal, the second year of A level would require a complete repetition of the content of the first
year AS level, albeit at a deeper level. It would be better to differentiate the content for AS and A
level, as has been done with the natural sciences. This would enable co-teaching of a subset of the
content at a deeper level in the first year for both AS and A level cohorts. Those going on to take the
A level would study the remaining content, again at a deep level, in the second year. This would be
preferable to repetition of the content for two years in a row for A level students, which under these
proposals would be the case.
We would expect synoptic assessment across the learning from both the first year and second year.
Assessment
While the consultation does not consider assessment, it is important in the context of the subject
content that assessment is discussed. Computer Science is an inherently practical subject. The
proposal from Ofqual for only 20% non-exam assessment has the potential to undermine the core
practical programming skills essential for the subject. The consequence of only 20% non-exam
assessment is that much of the content will be recall and understanding. This is likely to result in a
passive learning approach rather than repeated opportunities for programming and creative
application of computer science and computational thinking. We will be responding to the Ofqual
consultation with a strong message to significantly increase the proportion of non-exam assessment
for Computer Science. This could be undertaken through major programming project and we believe
would provide sufficient differentiation of student ability as some Extended Investigations in natural
sciences qualifications provide.
Coherence with Mathematics
Computer Science is a mathematical subject and many students who take it will also be taking A
level mathematics. It is therefore important that the subjects are developed and delivered with
coherence to ensure that students will be accessing the content in mathematics at the appropriate
time for application in the Computer Science A level. It is unfortunate therefore that the
development of the mathematics A level is being postponed for a year. UKforCE will take the
opportunity to work with the mathematics community to try and ensure coherence.
Further, the A levels are being developed before the reforms to GCSEs in mathematics. It is therefore
impossible to know the mathematical knowledge of students coming on to A level Computer Science
and the mathematics content that should be in the Computer Science A level.
Content
It appears as though the development of the new proposed content of the revised A level in
Computer Science has been undertaken without any regard to the significant changes that are
occurring in the Computing programme of study in the National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 to 3 or
the future reforms to GCSEs. Students progressing from KS3 and on to GCSEs in computer science in
the future will be significantly more advanced in their understanding of computer science before
commencing A levels. To not take account of this is a significant retrograde step and will not support
the subject in the long term.
We support CAS’ detailed comments on the Aims and Objectives and Subject content and highlight
some key features.
Aims and Objectives
 Some of the aims are vague, are not specific to Computer Science and should be re-written.
 Some of the aims do not build on the new programme of study for computing at KS1-3 and
there is a possibility that students will have progressed beyond the aims stated for the A level.
 We welcome that the subject content introduces a new aim that A level specifications should
encourage students to develop ‘computational thinking skills’. However, the Awarding bodies’
understanding of computational thinking skills is at odds with the computing community and
is narrowly described as the mathematical content. The mathematical content should just be
called the mathematical content.
Subject Content: Knowledge and Understanding
 Much of the content is based on recall and needs extensive re-working.
 Some of the content statements are vague. For example, ‘Possible future developments’ has
no meaning and should be removed.
 There needs to be more explicit articulation of key aspects of Computer Science such as
Algorithms and Data Structures and the rationale for using certain types. This is not presented
sufficiently clearly in the document.
 Large scale databases and data analysis should be included in the knowledge and
understanding section.
Subject Content: Skills
 The skills section is based on an outdated model of software development.
 There is no mention of programming, the key skill in Computer Science.
 Important aspects such as abstraction, modelling and evaluating should be included in the
skills section.
We strongly support CAS comments that the content needs significant re-writing. We would
welcome the opportunity to co-ordinate this effort with CAS, the DfE and Awarding Organisations
and other key stakeholders.
About UKforCE
Established as one of the recommendations from the 2012 Royal Society Shutdown Or Restart
report, the UK Forum for Computing Education is an independent body which brings together key
stakeholders across the breadth of computing communities: computer science, digital media, IT,
engineering and telecommunications.
It aims to provide a coherent voice from key providers and beneficiaries of computing education to
influence policy and practice in teaching and learning of computing across all jurisdictions of the UK.
The forum is hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering.