Stratford College has been selected to be one of the pilot schools to be part of the phased introduction of Computer Science as a subject in the Leaving Certificate. Being a pilot school means that Leaving Certificate Computer Science will be introduced to Stratford College 5th Year students starting September 2018. They will sit the Leaving Certificate Computer Science online exam in June 2020. Computer Science will be the first online Leaving Certificate exam.
Leaving Certificate Computer Science is being introduced in Irish post-primary schools on a phased basis, starting in September 2018. Students in these pilot schools will sit the Leaving Certificate exam in June 2020. It will be the first online Leaving Certificate exam. Students will also have to submit a project as part of the Leaving Certificate exam. Throughout 5th and 6th Year they have to undertake four Applied Learning Tasks.
Stratford College has been selected to be one of the pilot schools as part of the phased introduction of Computer Science as a subject in the Leaving Certificate. Being a pilot school means that Leaving Certificate Computer Science will be introduced to Stratford College 5th Year students starting September 2018. In the application to be a pilot school, we said that teaching Computer Science at Leaving Certificate level was the "natural next step" for us to take.
Students from 1st Year through to 6th Year have one Computer Studies class a week in their timetable. TY students have two hours of Computer Studies a week. Digital skills, taught through the ECDL ICT Curriculum form the foundation of Computer Studies classes. Computational thinking and coding are also taught from 1st Year. Just recently 2nd and 3rd Years completed the Bebras Challenge. Throughout Transition Year, students are taught the ECDL Computing Curriculum which includes coding in Scratch, Python and using Raspberry Pi microcontrollers. TYs participate in SciFest, exhibiting their coding projects.
Read the Leaving Certificate Computer Science Specification on the NCCA website for more details.
The 1st years completed a zombie lab today where they used their scientific methods and thinking to identify patient zero from the zombie suspects. Using measuring skills, pH, observation skills and much more they successfully identified the source of the outbreak!
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The TY Horticulture class were out in the Autumn sunshine planting Spring bulbs using the chaos planting method. This is when a multitude of different spring bulbs (Hyacinths, Daffodils, Tulips, Crocuses, Narcissi) are mixed together and randomly planted so that we have a mixture of flowers and patterns emerging in the spring. It mimics nature and so is more enticing to pollinators and native insects that need the food in Spring.
Stratford is celebrating Maths Week 2026 (12th - 18th October) with daily activities around the school, at breaktimes and in Maths classes! The tutor-time daily quiz is proving to be extremely competitive as each form group tries to solve it and then run to find Ms Matthews in order to win the box of chocolates!
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