By: Rachael Coultart, Computing Subject Lead, St Nicholas Church of England Primary School and Nursery, Stevenage, Hertfordshire
As teachers, we often have to adapt and learn as we go. This is particularly the case in primary schools, where teachers are asked to take on multiple responsibilities regardless of their areas of expertise — everything from PE to RE, music to maths, and beyond.
While teachers are resilient in taking on these subjects, there is nothing that quite prepares you for the daunting prospect of suddenly having to deliver a computing lesson despite having little to no understanding of the subject — let alone experience teaching it to a group of young children. Yet this is the reality for many.
From personal experience
After the computing curriculum landed on our doorstep in 2014, I found myself in this same situation. Knowing that my partner was good with computers, our head teacher asked whether I would take on the role of computing lead.
I was a maths teacher. I was also a technophobe — and half the words in the curriculum made no sense. So I started scrambling around for free CPDs in a bid to understand — WHAT IS COMPUTING? HOW DO I CODE?
Through these CPD sessions, I met some amazing educators and was also introduced to the Code Club resources from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Code Club is a global community of free coding clubs where young people develop the skills and confidence to create with digital technologies. There are around 2,000 Code Clubs across the UK and Ireland in schools and community centres, such as libraries.
On the Code Club website, I came across Scratch — a block-based visual programming education tool for school children. I managed to program a cat walking across the screen and making a meow. I got such a buzz from this, and thought it would be a fun thing for children to learn, but couldn’t immediately see how it could be integrated into the classroom. That’s why I set up a Code Club – so that I could explore it further in an informal setting. The result: we have now been running our Code Club for ten years, and it’s hugely oversubscribed.
It has never been more important for children to have key digital skills. Code makes the modern world work — digital technologies are behind the apps on your phone, power every website, and makes sure your supermarket is fully stocked. Ensuring young people learn to code gives them skills they will need to thrive in the future. Most importantly, children recognise this and are excited to create and work with code.
The value of Code Club
For those of you who have found yourself navigating the unknown territory of teaching computing, my advice is to sign up for the Code Club training programme and start a Code Club. The Raspberry Pi Foundation runs free online training and hosts community events to support teachers no matter their experience of computing and coding. This was a crucial part of my journey.
The reward for equipping yourself with the skills to run a club are endless, given the opportunities that these spaces provide students.
We run ours once a week, after school for an hour. We use the 15 computers available to us in the library, and each term a new set of children can come along with ideas and create something new by using digital tools. Sometimes, parents with coding experience also help out on a volunteer basis, so it has become a real community and a safe space in which children can be excited about something novel — and grow in confidence as they realise how capable they are at making and creating using code.
Over the years, I’ve observed the way in which my Code Club has fostered collaboration, problem solving, and creativity — all of which are key, lifelong skills. This is in part due to the club’s informality, which removes the need to deliver an outstanding lesson where you are the knower of all knowledge.
Instead, we learn together through trial and error. Invariably, I make mistakes while doing so, but I think that this is crucial learning for children: to see that mistakes are human. The opportunity for us to take the risk to learn alongside one another is incredibly empowering and valuable.
So often, teaching revolves around covering the curriculum in a finite period of time, urgently working to meet expectations. Code Club is a welcome break from that, and the results are boundless creativity, true excitement, and profound engagement.
Putting the building blocks in place
In the age of AI, learning to code remains critically important for every young person, so that they have the knowledge to flourish in the digital economy. Learning new things can be uncomfortable — and not just for our students. The key is to start small.
Just recently, one of my Code Club members was frustrated that they hadn’t yet managed to produce the next version of Fortnite. I said, “When you were in reception with me, I didn’t ask you to write a book did I? We started with writing your name — and now look at you! We all have to start somewhere.” And my own story attests to this.
