Foundation Digital Technology
Foundation Digital Technology is a two year Entry Level and Level 1 qualification for learners aged 14 to 16, leading on to GCSE Digital Technology. Literacy sits mainly in the Unit 1 topic tests, where learners read multiple choice, objective and short answer questions and use technical terms such as CPU, RAM, MFA and phishing, and in the NEA units, where they write goals, success criteria and annotations, write text and narration for their product and reflect on their work. Numeracy sits in Unit 2: learners collect audience data, enter it in a spreadsheet, total and filter it and present it in pictograms, bar, pie and line charts. Coordinates, scores, timings and time plans add smaller numeracy demands in the games, quizzes and videos.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level and Level 1
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- Medium
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1: The Digital World: Three digital topic tests of 20 minutes each (1 hour in total), 30%, 60 marks, set and marked by WJEC, taken in digital or paper format within a four week window under invigilated conditions
- Unit 2: Designing Digital Solutions: Non-examination assessment, suggested timing of approximately 16 hours, 35%, 70 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC, assignment brief available via the WJEC Portal
- Unit 3: Creating and Communicating with Digital Media: Non-examination assessment, suggested timing of approximately 14 hours, 35%, 70 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC, assignment brief available via the WJEC Portal
Skills that use Position
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Using coordinates, variables and timing in a game or quiz
Appendix A includes number work inside the product: scoring systems that add one to a variable, lives or health variables, random spawning at an X and Y position and timed events. Learners use these to control game, quiz or story behaviour.
Numeracy: Position, Conceptual understanding, Strategic competence
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils move a Scratch sprite to given x and y coordinates and plot where it ends up on a grid of the stage.
- Year 8
- Pupils add a score variable that goes up by one for each coin and a timer that waits two seconds before showing a message.
- Year 9
- Pupils make an enemy appear at a random x position between set limits and a lives variable that ends the game at zero, then explain the numbers they chose.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 2, Section 2.3.1, pages 22 and 23; Appendix A, pages 36 and 37
“Scoring system (Variable: Score = Score + 1)”
Progression step 3
I can use coordinates to find position.
I can represent a concept in different ways, flowing between different representations including verbal, concrete, visual, digital and abstract.
Progression step 4
I can represent a concept in different ways, flowing between different representations including verbal, concrete, visual, digital and abstract.
I can recognise, model and apply the underlying mathematical structures and ideas within problems, in order to formulate and solve them.
Good to know
- Unit 1 questions are mostly short: the tests use "multiple choice questions (MCQ), objective test questions (OTQ) and short answer questions" (Section 3.2, page 28), each lasting 20 minutes.
- No marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar are mentioned. All marks sit under AO1 to AO4 (Section 3.1, page 27), and "The Assessment Pack will include all detailed information relating to assessment." (page 27).
- Spreadsheet number work is assessed by level of skill: learners use "suitable spreadsheet skills (data analysis) from each level of complexity" (Unit 2, Section 2.1.3, page 20), and Appendix A lists "Using formulas (COUNT, SUM)" as More advanced (page 37).
- Presentations and other spoken work need teacher records: "performance evidence (e.g. presentations) must be documented using observation records" (Section 3.3, page 30).
- Appendix C (pages 41 and 42) maps Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing to every section of all three units, and maps Developing Mathematical Proficiency, number, geometry and measurement, and statistics to Units 2 and 3 only, with nothing for Unit 1.
Links with other qualifications
The qualification leads on to GCSE Digital Technology, where the same survey, spreadsheet and chart work grows into cleaning and analysing a larger WJEC data set with formulas and pivot tables, and the written planning and evaluation become longer. Survey design, frequency totals and bar, pie and line charts support the statistics work in Mathematics and Numeracy, and reading and writing about online safety links with English and Personal and Social Education.
Source: WJEC Entry Level/Level 1 Foundation Digital Technology specification, approved by Qualifications Wales, teaching from September 2027, for award from 2029 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd 2026).