The ‘new’ national curriculum for Computing was introduced in September 2014. The curriculum includes coding for children from Year 1 (age 5) and goes all the way to Key Stage 3 (age 14) and beyond. At the younger age, popular programming languages include Scratch, Kodu and Alice. Scratch is a graphical programming language that could be used to create stories, games, and animations without a single line of ‘traditional’ code. It is a project from the MIT Media Lab and is free to use.

Jackie Samosa is the Assistant Headteacher of Mark Rutherford School and leader of the Bedford Hub of Computing at School. She helps local school teachers to deliver the Computing Curriculum and a crucial member of the local school team of the BCS Bedford School Coding Competition.

In the meeting, Jackie shall take us through a coding example and help us know how we can best support our school children. The professionals can learn about the newer generation of coding languages. Scratch runs through an online browser, bring your own laptop, tablet or even try using your phone.