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The department is staffed with an experienced team of committed ICT teachers. There are three full-time members of the department and numerous part-time teachers. In addition the department is supported by a network manager, 3 ICT technicians and part-time ancillary staff.

At Key Stage 3, all students In Years 7 and 8 have one lesson a week of discrete ICT. The ICT National Curriculum is followed and our course content caters for students across the ability range. Units of work include sound editing, programming using Scratch, creating a presentation using MovieMaker, e-safety, image manipulation using GIMP and many others. We are always looking to develop the quality, both breadth and depth, of our Key Stage 3 curriculum.

All students take a short course GCSE in ICT; in addition we offer OCR specification ‘A’ Full Course GCSE ICT (Year 11), WJEC Full Course ICT (Year 10) and GCSE Computing as option subjects at Key Stage 4.

The AS/A2 AQA Computing and AS/A2 OCR ICT qualifications are offered to students and are popular courses for Key Stage 5 students at Trinity.

The GCSE full course pass rate was 85% at A*-C with 20% getting an A-A*. On the short course, the A*-C rate was 77% with 24% getting an A-A*. This was significantly above the National Average for ICT.

At A Level, the A-E rate was 100% for ICT and 85% for Computing. For Computing the A*-B rate at A Level was 31%, for ICT it was 41% - both considerably above the national average for the subject. AS results in ICT and Computing are also very good, particularly the A-C rate at AS Computing.

The assessment of pupils forms an important aspect of the department’s work. Each pupil’s progress is closely monitored by assessment tests. Investigation and problem solving activities also form part of their continuous assessment. All pupils are assessed by written examination at least twice a year. Pupil progress is closely monitored against individual targets and formal records are kept in accordance with school policy.

Coursework currently forms a substantial part of the GCSE ICT courses. Pupil progress is monitored very closely and effective early intervention strategies used where student achievement is below expectations.

The department is well stocked with texts, worksheets and other teacher materials, including computer and multimedia resources. The school has seven dedicated computer rooms. Other resources available include data projectors, electronic whiteboards, scanners, digital cameras, microphones and headphones. There is a wide range of software installed on the school network, including packages for Key Stage 3, GCSE and A Level students.

All students have e-mail accounts and access to the Internet. The use of our VLE is growing rapidly and students find this to be an effective study aid.

The department offers many clubs and workshops both during lunchtime and after school to support and extend pupils. These include coursework drop-in sessions, controlled assessment revision and exam technique courses for both GCSE and A Level students.