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’m a great believer in the need to constantly evolve and to make learning dynamic. So when the new computing
curriculum was announced, I was determined not to see it as an impossible challenge, but rather a great opportunity to beter prepare our students for the real world. That’s not to say it hasn’t been daunting, and with none of the staff at Ickford (myself included) having previous experience in programming, we needed to think carefully about how we were going to tackle it. The situation we found ourselves
in was certainly not unique. Research carried out earlier this year found that with only weeks to go until the computing curriculum was put into practice, more than 130,000 primary school teachers were not feeling confident enough to teach their pupils how to code. However, one term into the adoption
of the new curriculum, and I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved. Not only are our students learning ‘real’ programming, they’re enjoying it, which will certainly impact the new computing curriculum’s success. That said, I find that while students usually achieve beter in subjects they are interested in, it is often the subjects that they feel most confident with in the first place that they have the most passion for. Consequently, schools need to seek solutions which not only instil a sense of confidence in teachers, but also make computing both accessible and exciting for students.
Make the most of the resources available For teachers who are concerned about having a lack of prior computing experience, comfort can be found in the abundance of resources available which do not require this. Even beter, there are tools that cater for all levels, so it’s also easy to teach computational thinking to the younger years. At Ickford, we use Floor Turtles and Bee-Bots, for example, to introduce the younger children to coding. We also invested in a scheme from Rising Stars which incorporated
Who’s afraid of the dark?
Despite not coming from a tech background himself, John Ronane, headteacher at Ickford Combined School in Buckinghamshire, has helped his students to learn ‘real’ programming and believes that a lack of prior computing experience is no reason for teachers to stay in the dark and fear the new curriculum
some aspects of programming. Probably the most interesting for me though has been the FUZE, a programmable computer and electronics workstation powered by the Raspberry Pi (RPi), as it comes with a series of project cards which make it incredibly easy to navigate and for students to progress to high levels of understanding very quickly. Using hands-on resources can really spark the interest of students, as rather than coding for coding’s sake, they are actually able to see the practical
application of what they’re learning. We’re even planning to let students set up a burglar alarm around the computer room using the FUZE!
ABOVE: Ickford invested in a scheme which incorporated programming
Give students ownership Another benefit of many of the resources available to teach computing is that they enable teachers to take a step back and to let students take control over their own learning, in turn providing them with the motivation and resilience to really excel at computing. Playing a supportive rather than instructional role, means that while teachers are on hand to help if needs be, students are able to try things for themselves and to find their own solutions to any problems they come up against. Encouraging students to be more proactive in their learning, either working individually or in teams, is a great way to help them feel more confident in their abilities, which often has a direct impact on how much they enjoy a subject.
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