25 May 2017 by Jo Brodie - 0 comments

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.

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

24 May 2017 by Jo Brodie - 0 comments

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

Summary

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
Free teachers’ event on 12 June to demonstrate this resource
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

4 January 2017 by Jo Brodie - 0 comments

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)

29 November 2016 by Jo Brodie - 0 comments

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

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
Currently 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

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

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]

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]

16 November 2016 by Jo Brodie - 0 comments

New 2017 short courses from CAS London at King’s (Waterloo)

We have a series of twilight courses which will take place at King’s College London (Waterloo) campus, under the CAS London (King’s College London / Queen Mary University of London) banner on Monday and Wednesday evenings in 2017. Each lasts between five and eight weeks with courses costs from £100 to £200.

PDF flyer for these events with clickable links.

KS3 Computing

January – March 2017

Teach KS3 Computing
Monday Evenings 5pm to 7pm
23rd January to 20th March (8 sessions)
£160

MA Module in Computing Education

January – March 2017

Computer Science Education: Theory and Practice (30-credit Masters’ module).
Tuesday evenings 5.30pm to 7.30pm
17th January to 28th March.
Focus on research in computer science education and start working towards a Masters’ degree. Includes 6,000 word assignment.
£1,150

GCSE Computing

April – July 2017

Teach GCSE Computing
Monday Evenings 5pm to 7:30pm
24th April to 3rd July (10 sessions)
£200

A level computing

March 2017

Teach A level computing: Algorithms and Data Structures
Five twilights on Wednesdays at King’s College London
Cost: £100
Starts Wednesday 1st March ends Wednesday 29nd March 2017 (5.00-7.30pm)

(note that this course was originally advertised in November with a start date in the last week of February and this has been moved back to the first week of March – 4 Jan 2016)

June – July 2017

Teach A level computing: Object Oriented Programming in Python
Five wednesday twilights at King’s College London.
Cost £100
Starts Wednesday 7th June 2017 ends Wednesday 5th July 2017 (5.00-7.30pm).

November 2017

Teach A level computing: A2 Projects with Databases and Python
Five Wednesday twilights at King’s College London.
Cost £100
Starts Wednesday 1st November 2017 ends Wednesday 29th November 2017 (5.00-7.30pm)

9 August 2016 by Jo Brodie - 0 comments

Please make sure you’re following @CS4FN / @cas_london_crc for updates about our resources

CAS London

Teaching London Computing (TLC) is a resource hub from the CAS Regional Centre London (‘CAS London’) and we are regularly adding free activities and other resources here. TLC’s initial role was in providing CPD support to London computing teachers, which we continue to do through CAS London by supporting Master Teachers.

Although this website will remain we won’t be updating the @TeachingLDNComp Twitter feed (the feed will still be public though as people may come across our resources while searching for related things on Twitter).

The CAS London Regional Centre is one of several university-led regional centres in the UK. Ours is run by King’s College London and Queen Mary University of London (exactly the same people in fact behind Teaching London Computing!) and CS4FN is the flagship schools computing magazine and website from Prof Paul Curzon and colleagues at QMUL.

Please make sure you’re following –
@CS4FN to hear about newly uploaded activities and resources on this site
@cas_london_crc to hear about other support and events for London computing teachers

Thank you!

26 May 2016 by Jo Brodie - 0 comments

Tenderfoot computing twilight sessions in London for teachers (14&27 June) FREE

We’ve split the one-day Tenderfoot session for teachers on Computational Thinking (Unit 2) into two evening sessions running on Tuesday 14th and Monday 27th June, details below. You can attend either session, there is no dependency, or you can attend both.

Session One introduces graphs and binary trees
Session Two looks at arrays, classic and shortest path algorithms.

Session One: Tenderfoot training – Clever Stuff for Common Problems – Developing computational thinking and an understanding of data structures – Focus on Graphs and Binary Trees
Tuesday 14 June 2016, King’s College London
5-7.30pm, Waterloo Bridge Wing Room G14
Tutors: Jane Waite and Trevor Bragg
Tickets: http://community.computingatschool.org.uk/events/4134

02 Activity: Data structures matter (Spit not so, Knights Tour, Tour Guide)
03 Activity: Many problems, one solution (Map colouring)
06 Activity: Beauty of trees (Binary trees)

“Unplugged puzzles are used to explore abstraction, algorithms, decomposition and data structures. Activities can be used in the classroom the next day. KS3 Attainment targets : use and evaluate computational abstractions, understand several key algorithm.”
for Session One

Session Two
Monday 27 June 2016, Lambeth
[precise location and time tbc]
Tutor: Miles Berry

00 Activity: Peg swap puzzle
01 Activity: Perfect shuffle
04 Activity: Toy problems, real world
05 Activity: The oracle of bacon

[Ticket link not yet available]

“Unplugged puzzles are used to explore abstraction, algorithms, decomposition and data structures. Activities can be used in the classroom the next day. KS3 attainment targets: use and evaluate computational abstracts, understand several key algorithms.”