ICT BTEC at Borden

Applications Open: - Friday 14 November 2025

Applications Close: - 13 February 2026. Applications may be considered after this date but it is strongly advised to apply before this deadline.

Entry Requirements: - Admission to courses - This is based on your needs and staff advice, but you should be aware of these points: 1. You will need to obtain a minimum of six GCSE passes at Level 5 or above including Mathematics and English (a minimum of a grade 5 in the reformed GCSE qualifications in English and Mathematics) and grades 9-6 in their preferred A-Level subjects or nearest equivalents. 2. Subjects have clear entry requirements. You will find these under the course details or from Subject Heads.

How to Apply: - Please apply via KentChoices (Internal and External Students)

External Applicants - please click here (This form is for external candidates and parents/carers to book a slot to ask any questions about the admissions process and Sixth Form at Highsted Grammar School). Please be aware that it is first come, first served. We will try our best to accommodate your preferences but this might not always be possible).

Internal candidates - should contact their Head of Year directly.

BTEC Extended Certificate in ICT

The BTEC course in ICT is designed to give students skills that are of high value in the workplace but also provide UCAS points and are recognised by universities as an equal alternative to traditional A level courses.

The major advantage that this BTEC offers over the traditional A-Level route is that students will be given the opportunity to submit coursework, take the exam or sit the controlled assessment within two windows offered each year in January or June. This has the advantage that they do not have to wait until the very end of their two years in Sixth Form to take exams covering everything they have learnt over those two years. Indeed if a unit does not go well then they also have the chance to re-take or re-submit a unit on a second occasion.

The course itself is divided into four units

Unit 1: Information Technology systems, students are required to sit a two hour exam, which is worth 90 marks. The exam will assess students understanding of computer systems and the implications of their use in personal and professional situations. This is an externally assessed exam.

Unit 2: Creating Systems to Manage Information, looks to assess students by setting them a supervised task, where they are required to design, create, test and evaluate a relational database system. This is an externally assessed controlled assessment.

Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business. Students will explore the impact of social media on the ways in which businesses promote their products and services. They then will develop a plan to use social media in a business to meet requirements. Whilst finally they will implement the use of social media in a business. This is an internally assessed piece of coursework.

Unit 4: The final unit is another internally assessed piece of coursework and students will either be asked to build a website or create a spreadsheet model. It has not been decided at this stage which unit the students will undertake in Year 13.