Category Archives: GCSE 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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Launch event for the new CAS London Regional Centre (Computing At School) – Fri 10th July

Queen Mary University of London and King’s College London will be involved in running the new CAS London Regional Centre (this is separate from Teaching London Computing project but many of the same people are involved). There will be a launch event [free] from 4.30pm on Friday 10 July and the invitation and details are below. [Eventbrite link for the meeting]

Find out more about CAS London @cas_london_crc.

Here is a map of the CAS regional hubs and Computing at School‘s website, and they’re @CompAtSch on Twitter.

We would like to invite you to the first CAS London Meeting. This is a regional collaboration bringing together primary and secondary teachers, Computing At School master teachers, hub leaders, lead schools, universities, boroughs and other training groups and interested parties to promote and support computing education in London. The meeting aims to start a discussion of how we can best mutually support each other, further developing our London education computing community.

The twilight event is on Friday 10th July 2015, at King’s College London.

Here is the link to eventbrite invitation.

Outline:

  • 4:30 Networking tasks & refreshments
  • 5:30 Keynote speaker Simon Humphreys
  • 5:45 Contributed presentations: What’s happening in London?
  • 6:30 Working together: Tasks
  • 7:00 Finish – more refreshments and networking

We aim to explore three questions about computing CPD and teaching computing in London schools: What is working well? What help do you need? What can you offer others?

If possible, can you create 1 or 2 slides with your answers to the above questions and send them to us. We will share your slides on a rolling display during the networking sessions and ask a number of contributors to talk through their slides in the contributed presentations session (maximum of 4 minutes per presentation).

Join us to celebrate the work done by our fantastic community of computing educators (that’s you) and to find out how we can further grow and develop the network of support and computing CPD provision across London.

For more information and to share your slides please contact Jane (jane.waite@computingatschool.org.uk) or Trevor (trevor.bragg@computingatschool.org.uk)

Many thanks
Paul Curzon, William Marsh, Jane Waite, Trevor Bragg, Sue Sentance

The CAS London meeting is supported by ‘Computing at School’ and ‘Teaching London Computing’, which is funded by the Mayor of London and Department for Education. The meeting is being organised by London’s CAS Regional Centre (CRC) a collaboration between Queen Mary University of London and King’s College London.’

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OCR A453 Arithmetic Assessment using Python – Islington, 24 June

Please note: This is not a Teaching London Computing event but we occasionally share examples of others’ courses that we think our readers might find interesting.

Note that Teaching London Computing has a miniCPD session on Controlled Assessment with Python on Saturday 27 June 2015 from 10am to 4pm (£30 for London teachers, £60 for those outside London)

Dear Computer and ICT teachers,

We will be hosting CPD course for teachers delivering the OCR Computer Science Specification. The course based on delivering the OCR A453 Arithmetic Assessment using Python .

Venue: Islington Arts and Media School
Date: 24 June 2015
Time: 9:00 – 16:00
Cost : £100
Limited places available. The course will be delivered by David Batty from Code College.

Booking
Telephone 01772 454328 (10am to 10pm – 7 days a week)
Email courses@codecollege.co.uk
More information

Details of the course are below:
OCR A453 Arithmetic Assessment using Python

OCRThis in-school cpd course (for teachers only!) builds on your existing Python programming skills by teaching you how to break down a large task and, with stepwise refinement, build a fully working solution to a larger task.

This course will teach you, step by step, how to plan and write a solution for the OCR A453 Material 2 Arithmetic controlled assessment using the Python programming language.

This is not just giving you a possible solution to the task, on this one day course you will learn how to approach the task like a programmer, and be guided through each section as you plan, design and code a completed solution using nothing higher than GCSE level Python.

Participants will gain the skills needed to think like a programmer and to see how to write a complex task easily. At the end of the day you will understand the software development techniques teachers need to teach in the classroom prior to pupils starting the controlled assessment.

Although you are guided through every part of the project, course attendees will need existing Python skills. This course is ideal for teachers who have attended our two day Python course or who are quite confident in their Python programming skills, but are struggling to understand how to design and write the controlled assessment.

At the end of this one day course, you will have a working solution to the controlled assessment, you will understand how it was put together and how it all works. What is more important is that you will understand the skills your students need to complete the assessment and you will know how to teach students to approach designing and writing larger projects like the controlled assessment.

Obviously you cannot share this solution with pupils or teach them how to write it, but having written it yourself from scratch (with the tutors guidance) you will feel more confident when choosing how to guide students towards the skills needed to gain good grades with this assessment.

The course is delivered by David Batty of Code College who has 24 years of classroom experience deliver computing courses and 33 years experience as a professional programmer.