New to teaching Cambridge Nationals in IT (J836)?

Debbie Williams, Computer Science, IT and Creative iMedia Subject Advisor

A huge welcome to those of you teaching our IT course. I know how time consuming introducing a new course can be. You are not alone, this blog will signpost you to the wealth of resources and support available for you and your students.

Teach Cambridge website

You need to make sure you are set up on our secure teacher website, Teach Cambridge. This site, designed by teachers for teachers, includes all the support and resources that you will need, personalised for you and the subjects you teach. As it is secure you will need to be given access to the system, which your exams officer can arrange. It is simple to set up: just make sure you add the courses you are delivering so you get updates, resources and training relevant to you. The Cambridge National in IT is the IT Level 1/Level 2 (2022+) course.

Resources

You will find all these resources on the Teach Cambridge website. You can navigate to them or use the resource finder to locate them. They include:

• A link to the curriculum planner showing an overview of the units, a reminder about the terminal assessment rule (which is really important) and an overview of how you might structure your course over two or three years. 
• Schemes of work for all three units, R050, R060 and R070, plus a blank template for you to use to create your own scheme of work (SoW). Our SOW includes lesson ideas and activities as well as useful links to support your delivery, which I would use as a starting point to create my own SOW. 
• A teacher’s guide to administration to help you with all the administration linked to the qualification. It is useful to use alongside the key dates document.
  
• A student guide to NEA assignments which I would share with students, and maybe even parents/carers, just before starting the NEA. It is also a useful read for teachers to give an overview of the NEA rules.
• Our understanding the assessment document is generic for all our Cambridge National courses. It outlines the assessment methods and includes the question types and command words students will get in the exam. It also covers the command words used in the NEA assessment criteria so you can make an informed decision about whether a student’s work is “limited”, “adequate” or “fully suitable”.
  
• We provide a sample exam paper which is also available on the public website so is best used with students to show the structure and type of questions to expect. It would be great to use to teach exam technique and the use of command words. There is also a guide and a candidate style answers document that sits alongside the sample paper. These could aid you to explore the features of the exam, help ensure your marking is accurate, and show you the approach the examiner is taking with future exams.
• We have also produced a practice paper which is only on the secure Teach Cambridge site so students shouldn’t have access to it. The practice paper could be used for a mock or give you a starting point to create your own. 
• ExamBuilder is our tool for creating your own tests and exam papers. This will become more useful for setting mocks in future years when there are more questions available. There are R012 questions from the J808 specification which have some similar content to the examined R050 unit. Use the mapping document to see what content has changed. 
• The set assignments are only on Teach Cambridge. Please remember they are replaced each June and are only live for the January and June series the following academic year. Check the dates on the front cover to make sure you are using the correct one. 
• Our sample NEA assessment materials for R060 and R070. These can be used for teaching and learning for practice and to prepare students before they start their live NEA. 
• When you are ready to start assessing, the unit recording sheets for R060 and R070 are on Teach Cambridge only. These need to be completed and sent with the sample to your moderator. There is a completed example provided in the online course Essentials for the NEA which is helpful to support you. 
• To help you assess the NEA there is candidate style work for both R060 and R070 with commentary showing how to apply the marking criteria. Don’t forget about the understanding the assessment document I mentioned earlier which is also helpful at this stage. 
• Finally, looking forward to recruiting students, another really useful resource is the teacher tool kits, which have everything you need to promote the course to students and parents/carers. I would use these at option evenings or even order now to use the posters around school as an early promotion.

Professional development

We have lots of professional development sessions coming up to support you. If I were new to teaching this IT course I would focus on the following:

• The two free eLearning courses, Essentials for the NEA and Cambridge Nationals in IT (J836). The essentials course is mandatory, designed to prepare and support you for the delivery of the new Cambridge Nationals suite NEA set assignments. I found it very useful, especially as it covers all Nationals so if you did teach more than one you only need to do this course once. The Cambridge Nationals in IT focuses on internal assessment specifically for the IT course. It gives a good insight into the process for completing and assessing the NEAs.
• Starting to teach: Cambridge Nationals IT J836. This is a free webinar which gives you everything you need to know to get started. It is aimed at teachers new to this course including non-specialist teachers. It’s great if you are teaching this year as it will signpost you to resources as well as give you an overview of the course structure and assessment requirements. You can register either using the training link on Teach Cambridge or the events page on our website.

Network meetings

We hold regular free online teacher network meetings. You can find out when the next one is on the teacher network page. Alternatively, if you fancy hosting your own network meeting for you and schools local to you, with support from us, either in person or virtually, please email us at ocr.vqit@ocr.org.uk or networks@ocr.org.uk.

Questions?

If you have any questions, we are here to support you to get the best for the students. Please don't hesitate to contact us. We can respond to emails, set up a Teams meeting or give you a call to talk through anything to do with delivering the course. Our contact details are below.

Stay connected

If you have any questions, you can email can email us at ocr.vqit@ocr.org.uk, call us on 01223 553998 or tweet us @OCR_ICT. You can also sign up to subject updates and and receive information about resources and support.

About the author

Debbie joined the Computing team in September 2022, bringing her knowledge as a teacher and subject leader for IT, Computing and Creative Media. She has over 20 years’ experience of education working in various settings including state schools, private specialist provision, local authority, and as a marker and moderator for exam boards. She has a degree in Technology Management, a PGCE and a Masters in Teaching and Learning.