On Wednesday 19th May the children from both Mendham Primary School and St Edmund’s Primary, Hoxne, joined together for a day of computing.

The focus was the new curriculum and although the children have been taught using the new curriculum since September this was a day to give the children a taste of what more there is to come as well as looking at how computing is used in the real world. The children were organised into their house groups and worked in mixed ability groups. There was a carousel of 4 activities;

• making films using only a laptop (this activity was led by our yr6 digital leaders, from both sites working together, and it was completely their own idea!)
• looking at how websites are used and then having a go at using a template to create their own house website
• using the Lego Wedo to explore how the programming works, then programme their own alligators and complete different tasks based on algorithms
• Barefoot computing (Algorithms) KS1 and How the Internet works (Barefoot)(KS2)

The day was received very positively by staff and Children, one parent commented how their year 3 child was so excited about the day and could relay in detail how the internet works. Staff were happy to see the different aspects of the curriculum and to realise that the computing science part of the curriculum isn’t as hard as they may have thought.

Katy Last used the barefoot computing materials to teach sessions to Key Stage 1, she was able to just look at the lesson plans and print off the materials, before teaching an engaging session about algorithms, she commented how easy it was to teach the sessions as all of the information and terms needed were there for the teacher in the plans and resources.

Kathy Olsson from E2BN lead sessions with KS2 on How the Internet Works!

The day was rounded off with the Family of Schools meeting for some professional development for teachers, based on the barefoot computing curriculum provided by Kathy from E2BN. This was received very positively with one teacher commenting on how lovely it was to have materials that you can adapt and use to help teach an area of the curriculum that some find or perceive as tricky.

All in all it was a fantastic day and an experience well worth organising again!

Susie Collins, Mendham Primary School

If you want help running a curriculum enrichment day at your school contact Kathy/E2BN via the contact us page