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Two CAS London Teach A-Level Computer Science courses in Autumn 2017

We have two ‘Teach A Level Computer Science’ courses coming up later this year. Please bookmark this page as it will shortly be updated with details of the earlier course (to be held at Queen Mary University of London in October / Nov). The details of the later course (to be held at King’s College London Waterloo in Nov / Dec) are below. Both cost £100 and free places are available for CAS Master Teachers.

  1. Teach A-Level Computer Science: Object Oriented Programming
  2. Teach A-Level Computer Science: A2 Projects with Databases and Python

Please note that these courses are for in-service teachers who are already confident in teaching computing at GCSE level, Python will be the programming language used.

The course dates are arranged so that it will be possible for teachers to attend both courses.

 

1. Teach A-Level Computer Science: Object Oriented Programming

Find out more and book a place

Course dates

  • Wed 4 October
  • Wed 11 October
    [Break – Wed 18 Oct]
  • Wed 25 October
    [Break – 1 Nov]
  • Wed 8 Nov
  • Wed 15 Nov

Location: Queen Mary University of London
Tutor: Dr William Marsh, CAS London

2. Teach A-Level Computer Science: A2 Projects with Databases and Python

Find out more | Apply for a place

Course dates

  • Week 1 (1 Nov 2017) – Single table databases and sqlite3
    [Break – 8 Nov]
    [Break – 15 Nov]
  • Week 2 (22 Nov 2017) – Foreign keys and relationships
  • Week 3 (29 Nov 2017) – Many-many relationships
  • Week 4 (6 Dec 2017) – Developing a project for A-Level Part 1
  • Week 5 (13 Dec 2017) – Developing a project for A-Level Part 2

Location: King’s College London, Waterloo
Tutor: Dr Sue Sentance, CAS London

For more information please contact Jo (j.brodie@qmul.ac.uk)

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Surveying computing teachers – primary programming and micro:bit use in secondary classes

If you’re a Computer Science or Computing teacher at secondary or primary level we’d be very grateful for your input in any of the surveys below please 🙂

PRIMARY TEACHERS

1. Using Design in Primary Programming – Research Project
This survey is run by Jane Waite as part of her research at Queen Mary University of London (one of the two universities which forms the CAS London Regional Centre).

Jane says…

“Last year, I started research looking for a magic bullet for teaching abstraction in primary schools. However, I discovered that research requires you to look at one tiny aspect of a big subject in order to gradually build a solid body of evidence. So now I am focusing on one aspect of abstraction, how we use design when teaching programming, and how we might reuse our expertise in teaching writing when we teach programming.

My work builds on research from across the world, but all of it with older pupils. From Israel to the US via Scotland, Netherlands and Germany I am knitting threads of theory and practise together but for teaching younger learners.

If you teach programming to primary children, in school, out of school, formally or informally and have 15 minutes to spare, I would be indebted if you could complete our survey, the link is https://goo.gl/forms/EQFaZvBBPjOeZNin2 or https://tinyurl.com/design-JW”

2. Please tell us what you thought of
abitofcs4fn front cover screenshotSome of you will have subscribed to receive printed copies of our newest version of CS4FN magazine – the mini ‘A bit of CS4FN’ edition for primary schools. We’ve posted them out and would love to know what you think of them. This survey is also from Queen Mary University of London.
Please tell us how you found the magazine and website:
https://bit.ly/abitofcs4fnsurvey

SECONDARY TEACHERS

BBC_MicrobitThe research survey below is from the CAS London team at King’s College London, looking at how teachers are using the BBC micro:bit in their classroom.

TEACHING WITH THE BBC MICRO:BIT
You are invited to participate in a web-based online survey on using the BBC micro:bit in your programming classes. This is a research project being conducted by Filiz Kalelioğlu and Sue Sentance at King’s College London. It should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

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Aspiring head teachers in London – support available from @MayorOfLondon

The Mayor of London’s “London Schools Excellence Fund” (LSEF) network (which funds some of the work that Teaching London Computing does as part of the CAS London network) has an opportunity for aspiring head teachers in London.

This is open to all hopeful head teachers in London, not just those involved in teaching computing so feel free to pass it on to other colleagues.

Jo

Getting Ahead London
Take the next step on your leadership journey

If you’d like to step up to headship, but aren’t sure how to get there, then consider applying to the Getting Ahead London Programme.

The Mayor is running a second year of his scheme for senior leaders in London:  Getting Ahead London. Delivered by Challenge Partners, a place on this scheme can give you prestigious, bespoke training and support to help you on your journey to becoming a headteacher in the capital.

We know that many London schools are struggling to recruit great leaders. Through a structured, year-long programme of coaching, network building and career advice, Getting Ahead London will give senior leaders the skills and confidence to help them move towards a headship position.

We are particularly keen to ensure that women and BAME senior leaders are well represented among senior leader applicants, to strengthen further the diversity of the successful participant cohort in 2016/17.

The support offered includes:

  • Coaching from highly experienced London heads to help participants fulfil their leadership potential
  • Help to navigate existing leadership opportunities
  • Face to face leadership development and networking events with world-class businesses
  • Online tools and resources to support your development
  • Support with applying for jobs and preparing for interviews
  • Getting Ahead London will run from September 2017 until July 2018.

Getting Ahead London complements existing leadership development programmes and qualifications.

The deadline for applications is 14 June 2017
Interested?  Find out more and apply at: https://www.london.gov.uk/gettingaheadlondon

 

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Using London’s transport network to teach computing – free resource & workshop (12 June)

Summary

  1. Free London computing resource that uses London’s transport system to teach unplugged computing as well as Python programming – as part of the new London Curriculum
  2. Free teachers’ event on 12 June to demonstrate this resource
  3. It’s also #LondonHistoryDay soon – CAS London / Teaching London Computing has some other resources for your classroom

1. A new resource for computing teachers in London
Someone has come up with the rather lovely and brilliant idea of exploiting (in the best way) London itself as a resource to be used in teaching in schools. Obviously London has lots of history, architecture, transport, science and literary links and these aspects can feed into the curriculum for London schools. I wish I’d thought of it.
Teachers, working with the Mayor of London, have developed subject-relevant London-centric curricular packs for the London Curriculum which are free to access after registering.

Clifford French and Trevor Bragg have created a resource pack – The Connected City – for computer science teachers in London, using the theme of transportation on the city’s roads. Students can use Python to interact with freely available Transport for London data on buses, traffic lights, hire-bikes etc (similar to the way smartphone apps work) but also using by learning about computational thinking ideas that don’t involve programming, such as the unit on pedestrian crossings –

“The role of computational thinking
This unit focuses on road traffic signals in London and how they are used to manage travel by road. This includes buses and cars but also pedestrians and cyclists. After a  general introduction to transport in London students are introduced to an ‘unplugged’ model of a pedestrian crossing signal.”
Source: The Connected City (available from the link above)

2. Free teachers’ event to demonstrate this new computing resource
To accompany this Trevor and Clifford are running a free event for computing teachers, on Monday 12 June, to demonstrate how they can use this resource in their classrooms.

Connected City – New Mayor of London, KS3 Computing Curriculum Workshop
Monday, June 12, 2017 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM (BST) London
Room 2.87 Franklin Wilkings Building
Eventbrite tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/connected-city-new-mayor-of-london-ks3-computing-curriculum-workshop-tickets-34465710869

A Hands on workshop, giving you the chance to try out the Scratch and or Python lessons with support, along with fellow teachers to gain confidence, before you use at your school with your students.

For Scratch there will be modelling of Traffic lights and a Pedestrain Crossing.
For Python you will learn about objects, lists and dictionaries.

Transport for London data can be accessed without any code and from a Python program we will look at both.

This course and the resources it uses are available free.

“London is extraordinary. It has a wealth of cultural, heritage and scientific venues. It is exciting and inspiring. It is also a hotbed of invention and creativity. As such, there is no better classroom than London.

The Mayor’s London Curriculum uses the capital as inspiration to bring the new national curriculum to life at key stages 2 and 3. The programme offers free teaching resources, evening events for teachers and exciting educational activities for students.”
Source: The London Curriculum – learning inspired by London

3. #LondonHistoryDay
London’s first London History Day will take place next Wednesday 31 May 2017 but schools are being invited to encourage their students to take part this Friday (26 May) and dress up as a famous historical Londoner.

We thought schools might be interested in London’s history from a computing perspective and have put together this page which talks about computational thinking and computing ideas as they relate to the Romans, Tudors / Stuarts, Victorians, World War 2 and more modern history.

Find out more at London, History and Computing

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Short courses at a glance

Short courses from CAS London
2017 course dates and prices are in brackets, similar prices and dates are envisaged for 2018.

  • KS3 Teach KS3 Computing – January to March
    (8 sessions, £160, 23 Jan to 20 Mar)
  • MA module in Computing Education – January to March
    (10 sessions, £1,150, 17 Jan to 28 Mar)
  • KS4 Teach GCSE Computer Science – April to July
    (10 sessions, £200, 24 Apr to 3 Jul)
  • KS5 Teach A level Computer Science: Algorithms and Data Structures – March
    (5 sessions, £100, 1 Mar to 29 Mar)
  • KS5 Teach A level Computer Science: Object Oriented Programming in Python – June to July
    (5 sessions, £100, 7 Jun to 5 Jul)
  • Diving Deep into Primary Programming – Summer / Winter
    (All-day session, £60, 9 Jun)
  • KS5 Teach A level Computer Science: A2 Projects with Databases and Python – September to November
    (5 sessions, £100, 1 Nov to 29 Nov – register of interest full, please contact Jo Brodie (j.brodie@qmul.ac.uk) for waiting list information)
  • Diving Deep into Primary Programming – Winter / Spring
    (All-day session, £60, tbc)
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Teaching London Computing / CS4FN subscribers’ bulletin – November 2016

We have a number of mailing lists. One is for teachers anywhere in the UK who have signed up to receive copies of CS4FN magazines for their school, another is for teachers in London who have signed up to hear information about new courses and resources from Teaching London Computing. Some things are relevant only to London-based folk and some for anyone in the UK – the text below is the ‘full’ list which I sent out by email in November. To avoid annoying all our lovely teacher colleagues I made the email fairly basic plain text but with no restrictions on our website there are pictures, in living colour 🙂

Jo Brodie, CAS London administrator

royalsoc
Royal Society’s Computing Education survey
The Royal Society has launched a ‘major survey of computing education in schools’ which offers teachers an opportunity to share how computing is taught and resourced in their schools. Please take the opportunity to contribute. The survey is part of the Royal Society’s Computing Education project and remains open until Friday 23rd December 2016.
[link with survey information] [link for Royal Society’s news release about the survey]

New CS4FN magazine
cs4fn22Currently at the printers is the latest CS4FN magazine, issue 22 on Creative Computing, copies of which will be sent to subscribing schools. You can download a free copy of the PDF of the magazine now though.
[link to PDF]
[link for UK schools who are not yet subscribed to CS4FN]

 

New videos on Teaching London Computing‘s YouTube channel

Prof Paul Curzon has run a number of free workshops for teachers about how to use unplugged techniques to bring computational thinking to the classroom and people have often asked us if we could record these and then share videos and clips. Yes we can! We’re adding these to our YouTube channel and also subtitling them as we go – we’re also linking back to information on our website where you can download the relevant classroom activity and other materials. Please take a look and share these with colleagues.
[link to our YouTube channel]

The more London-centric bits are below

swiftplayground
Swift playgrounds coding session
Apple are offering a morning (9-12pm) or afternoon (1-4pm) session to “Explore how the Swift Playgrounds app for iPad can make learning to code fun and interactive for your students” in London on Friday 13 January 2017.
[download the invitation, which includes a registration link]


CAS London Conference 2017 – SAVE THE DATE: Sat 25 Feb 2017
casconf2017
Following our successful conference earlier this year we’re delighted that Gladesmore Community College (South Tottenham, N15 6EB) will once again host the CAS London Conference on Saturday 25th February next year. This is for anyone who teachers computing from primary to secondary (including A level) and costs £25 for a whole-day event with plenaries and workshops. Tickets aren’t available yet but please put the date in your diary, bookmark this page (and download a flyer for your classroom – free registration required).
[link for more information, and a flyer][link for tickets]

soundofmusiccomputing
Free schools event – The Sound of {Music} Computing
Dr Andrew McPherson from the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London will be giving a free twilight talk for schools at the People’s Palace at QMUL. The one hour talk is from 5.30 to 6.30pm with post-talk mince pies and takes place on Wednesday 14 December 2016. It’s aimed at secondary schools but is family-friendly and all are welcome. Andrew will be talking about how computers help us make music, and demonstrating his Magnetic Resonator Piano.
[link for free Eventbrite tickets] [event flyer] [link for more information]

Short courses for KS3, GCSE and A level Computing
We have a number of short courses taking place at King’s College London for teachers starting in 2017. Our KS3 course runs from January to March over 8 sessions, we have a 10-week Teach GCSE Computer Science course from April to July and three 5-week courses for those teaching A level computing, including modules on algorithms and data structures, object oriented programming in Python and projects with databases and Python. Full details including costs and links to Eventbrite tickets for each course below.
[link to more information about CAS London short courses]