1. ISSN: 2050 -1277 (online) 2050 -1269 (print)
The “Computing At School” group (CAS) is a membership association in partnership with BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
and supported by Microsoft, Google and others. It aims to support and promote the teaching of computing in UK schools.
p2-3
News of ten new Re-
gional Centres to help
CAS build communi-
ties of practice.
p4-7
A focus on pedagogy.
Recognising and com-
batting learnt helpless-
ness and the promise
offered by guided discovery.
p8-19
A host of articles high-
lighting resources, pro-
gramming pedagogy
and cross curricular
opportunities.
p10-11
Introducing divide and
conquer through ways
to shake hands.
p12-13
A pioneer of Compu-
ting and an inspiration
for women today.
p20
First part in a quickfire tour of
the history of insatiable curi-
osity, bright ideas and awe-
some innovation.
It’s only been a year but… Computing has taken giant steps forward in that
time. Many teachers new to the ideas have grasped the nettle, got stuck in and
found, whatever their initial fears, that their students have (almost overwhelm-
ingly) loved the sort of tasks and problems posed. At the annual CAS Teacher
Conference anecdotes abounded about the growing realisation that Computing
is serious fun! We are at the start of a long journey of discovery, exploring to-
gether how best we can develop young children’s capacity to think like comput-
er scientists. What is emerging is a vibrant Community of Practice.
Research identifies key pillars (left) on which suc-
cessful professional development is built. CAS are
developing tools, resources, accreditation and
training to facilitate these. This year, ten new CAS
Regional Centres will help consolidate the
groundswell of grassroots activity that underpins
our community. At its heart lie local CAS Hubs,
where colleagues swap ideas, share insights and
forge friendships based on a common purpose. No
-one can deny the challenges curriculum change
brings, but CAS members can take real pride in
the way they are stepping up to meet them.

2. The CAS Community reaches around
20,000 people online. It plays host to a
vibrant discussion forum, provides a cen-
tral listing service for the vast array of
meetings and events now being organised
up and down the country, and, perhaps
most importantly, is a place where many
teachers contribute and share resources.
CAS will no doubt continue to grow as
more and more schools begin to address
the demands of the new curriculum. Get-
ting the message out about the joy of
teaching Computing is not always easy.
Alongside the CAS Community, we have
looked at ways to share information
through direct mails to members and
schools. There are limits to an online com-
munity alone, and the strength of CAS re-
ally lies in the face-to-face support organ-
ised at grassroots level. As Simon Hum-
phreys notes (right), the development of
Regional Centres is a move to help consol-
idate the activities on the ground.
Over the last few years SWITCHEDON,
our termly magazine, has become an im-
portant part of the way teachers can share
ideas and spread good practice. A growing
number are contributing articles and it has
become another vehicle for keeping col-
leagues informed of important develop-
ments. Past issues are available on the
CAS Community at resources/3127. They
chart the remarkable journey for schools
since 2009, told largely by teachers.
We are often asked by teachers how to get
hard copies. Unfortunately, costs preclude
us sending individual copies out, though
we will send complimentary copies to con-
tributors! However, we can now deliver
boxes (in multiples of 40) to Hub Leaders,
for local distribution at Hub meetings and
events. If you are a Hub Leader please
contact claire.davenport@hq.bcs.org.uk for
details of how to place a regular order. The
newsletter is more than a magazine; we
hope it will be used to grow the community
and keep local groups together. Teachers
are busy people. By offering local distribu-
tion points, we hope it will also help people
maintain contact, even if they can’t always
attend meetings. Roger Davies
The DfE has agreed a continuation of fund-
ing for the CAS Network of Excellence in
Computer Science (NoE). Simon Humphreys
outlines plans for the next stage.
We are delighted that the DfE has agreed that CAS should continue to
run the Network of Excellence. Over the last two years it has played an
important part in providing training opportunities for both Primary and
Secondary teachers, and in preparing the ground for the introduction of
the new curriculum. Nearly 400 Master Teachers have provided CPD
sessions for colleagues in their localities, and over 550 Lead Schools
have initiated a raft of exemplar activities further fostering the ethos of
local support. CAS has very little central administration and virtually all
its activity grows from the efforts of those in the localities. Add to those
efforts the explosion of local Hubs and other ad hoc activity, and it has
become clear that we would all benefit from a greater degree of co-
ordination across the regions.
The biggest change is that ten universities across England will be taking
on responsibility for regional co-ordination and support of the NoE. We
believe this will help ensure that the communities of professional prac-
tice that you have helped to build will continue to grow. Local Hubs and
existing Master Teachers will be at the heart of the new regional commu-
nities, supported by the activities of local universities and Lead Schools.
The CAS Regional Centres will be organised by the following university
partners:
 Newcastle
 Plymouth
 Southampton
 Hertfordshire
 York
 Manchester
 Lancaster
 Nottingham
(Nottingham
Trent)
 Birmingham (Birmingham City University)
 London (Queen Mary University London & King’s College London)
The overarching aims of the Network of Excellence are to ensure that
Computing becomes firmly established in all Primary and Secondary
schools across the country, and that teachers, in both phases, are confi-
dent, enthusiastic and possess the subject knowledge and skills to be
effective. As they develop, so we hope they will become active partici-
pants in local communities of practice.
A key role of the CAS Regional Centres will be to build relationships with
head teachers and school leadership teams to ensure the importance of
the curriculum changes are fully understood. Already Regional Centres
are making plans for the year ahead and all schools registered with the
NoE will be contacted with further details of their plans. If your school
isn’t registered, now is the time to do so. You will see whether your
school is registered by looking at your CAS Community profile.
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 2
SimonHumphreys at theLondonCRC launch

3. The Certificate offers an opportunity
for teachers to gain accreditation from
a professional body with respect to
their teaching of Computing. You may
wish to gain this because you have
trained in a different subject, including
ICT, or because you simply wish to
have recognition, from BCS, The
Chartered Institute for IT, of your com-
petence as a Computing teacher. Af-
ter a successful pilot, we launched last
October and have seen steady regis-
trations since. Tim Dolan from The de
Montford School, Evesham, the first
Certificate recipient, had it presented
at the CAS Conference: “The course
was excellent and I would recommend
any ICT or computing teacher apply. It
encouraged me to find new ways to
engage my students.”
The Certificate is intended to comple-
ment other CAS activities. Teachers
can access face-to-face training
through CAS Master Teachers and
local Hubs. The certificate gives you a
chance to log and reflect on these
sessions. Each teacher is allocated to
an e-assessor. Mostly these are uni-
versity academics who have a passion
for supporting teacher development. E
-assessors give guidance on pro-
posals and feedback on drafts, thus
giving a strong emphasis on formative
assessment. At the time of writing,
over 180 teachers have already en-
rolled on the BCS Certificate in Com-
puter Science Teaching.
To provide a smoother service, we are
making a few small changes. There
now will be six cohorts a year starting
on every odd-numbered month. This
will enable us to give teachers more
support in their first month, as a group
will start together. We will evaluate
this approach and review next year.
We have also introduced free coding
days for teachers working on their
Part 2 (see right) in the school holi-
days (6 days per year). This is for
teachers already working on a project
who need some support from experts
as well as an opportunity to put aside
some uninterrupted time to work on it.
Janice McGinty of Joseph Swan
Academy said "It was very helpful and
I thoroughly enjoyed it - even though I
am an absolute beginner. It was great
to meet other people who are doing
the course and share our thoughts,
problems and ideas." The days are, of
course, optional and the rest of the
Certificate runs completely online.
Although the Certificate is completely
flexible we aim to introduce a more
structured option this year, giving
teachers the chance to take online
modules leading to completion of Part
2 and Part 3.
The Certificate requires evidence
from three areas. Firstly a demon-
strable commitment to developing
your own knowledge and practice
by attending CPD. Secondly we
ask participants to develop a pro-
gramming project. We have had
some great ones completed so
far. From Primary teachers exam-
ples include a
Test Yourself
Tables applica-
tion, Fractals, a
Binary learning
tool and farm
shop program.
Secondary pro-
jects are more
involved but
manageable.
Rigorous, not
onerous is the
watchword.
Examples in-
clude a pass-
word checker,
Computing and Maths quizzes, a
tracker and data representation
system, Most Likely Grade (MLG)
convertor, calculator and runners'
training database
The Classroom Investigation is
the third aspect of the Certificate.
We have seen an interest in in-
vestigating effective teaching with
unplugged methods, investiga-
tions around the implementation
of GCSE and many more. Some
of the diverse examples include:
how teaching digital ethics can
enhance Computing in Key Stage
2; incorporating the Programme of
Study and associated methods of
assessment in KS3; the impact of
mini (high impact and specific)
Python programming tasks on the
confidence of low ability male
learners; investigating the benefits
of code copying as part of learning
to program. Are you inspired to
give it a go?
3 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
It’s a year since the BCS Certificate in Computer
Science Teaching launched. With one year to com-
plete, the first teachers are now getting accredited.
Sue Sentence reviews progress so far.
To find out more go to http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/certificate or con-
tact certificate@computingatschool.org.uk. The cost is £300 (+VAT) with op-
tions to pay by invoice, credit card or instalments. You can follow us at
@cas_certificate where we regularly tweet about useful CPD offered by CAS
Master Teachers. We look forward to hearing from you!

4. 1: Recognising the issue is the first step.
Without that, we can’t effect any change.
2: It takes time both to change your own
practice and move pupils to better strate-
gies. It took me several months to change
my own practice. With pupils in KS2, where
learnt helplessness had become a way of
life, to make any impact took five weeks.
3: Establish a positive attitude towards
problem solving. Computing calls errors
bugs and finding errors debugging. The
language is much more impersonal than
mistakes which imply blame or fault. Let
pupils know that bugs are normal and you
will not be cross if their work has them.
4: Promote the idea that it is not your job to
fix their algorithms or debug their code. It
is your job to promote strategies they can
use to fix things themselves.
5: Pupils transitioning from learnt helpless-
ness need to see what they are doing. I
ask pupils: ‘Are you trying to get me to fix
your code?’ ‘Are you trying to get me to
solve the problem for you?’ An element of
challenge is inevitable to identify the issue.
6: Having a ban on touching someone’s
mouse, keyboard or touchscreen is a good
start. Compare this to writing in someone
else’s exercise book.
7: Move pupils away from language that
personifies difficulties. “My computer hates
me,” is typical. Machines are deterministic,
not capricious.
8: Don’t neglect the other adults in the
class. Train them to help pupils by sug-
gesting good strategies and giving hints
rather than solutions.
Learnt helplessness is a strategy for getting other people to solve problems for
you. For pupils, these others may be the teacher, LSA, classroom assistant or oth-
er children. Phil Bagge, from the Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service, notes
its prevalence in Computing lessons and suggests ways to recognise and overcome it.
In the last three years I have taught nothing but Computer Science in six
Primary schools (over 1200 hours) and have seen learnt helplessness to
varying degrees in all those schools. It can be seen in various ways.
Sweet helplessness often manifests to the teacher as a pupil putting on
a sweet helpless voice and declaring they are stuck. Aggressive help-
lessness manifests with a cross tone and the implication that they think
the work is ‘stupid’ or they don’t get it. Being stuck is never a problem
but if you ask what they are stuck on and the pupil cannot tell you or
describe the problem or they give vague indications that they are stuck
on everything then there is a good chance they are using learnt help-
lessness to get you to solve their problem. Similar strategies will often be
used with their peers, tailored to make the problem solver feel valued,
superior or pressured into helping.
Often excellent teachers, who wouldn't dream of doing work for pupils in
other areas of the curriculum, will jump in and solve the problem for the
pupil. The fact that so many pupils use learnt helplessness suggests that
it has been a successful strategy for many. Getting someone else to do
your work for you would be an issue in any subject, but it is the antithe-
sis of computing with its emphasis on problem solving and debugging. In
fact, to solve a problem for a child is to deny them the opportunity to de-
bug code or fix algorithms and as such is debilitating.
So how has it become so prevalent? I suspect that it has grown out of
teachers’ fear or unfamiliarity with the subject material, coupled with a
belief that pupils know more about technology than adults and an em-
phasis on the finished product rather than the process. All of these fac-
tors lead teachers to fix things for pupils rather than to steer them to find
solutions for themselves.
If we recognise this as an issue, how can we counter this and encourage
resilience and problem solving? You’ll find a range of suggestions in the
accompanying sidebar.
Finally it is worth noting that learnt helplessness isn’t just confined to
pupils. You may also notice the signs in the behaviour of some teachers
and learning support assistants. Is it worth the hassle to challenge this?
As a parent I know that my children don’t do what I say but what I do. I
lead mostly by example or lack of it as my wife will testify. This is just as
true in the classroom or computer suite. Of course we need to be tactful
and recognise the good practice of teachers and the excellent problem
solving strategies in other curriculum areas, but if we don’t identify the
problem, nothing will change. I have found that talking about my own
struggle to change has enabled others to do likewise.
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 4
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on Phil’s blog.
His reflections on teaching Computing, and many excellent resources,
are on his website, Junior Computer Science at www.code-it.co.uk/

5. The CAS forum is a fantastic place to
share ideas and ask for help and ad-
vice. It was during one of these con-
versations that I realised how many of
us were interested in developing Digi-
tal Leaders in a Primary setting. I
would highly recommend doing so and
here are my experiences of recruiting
and running such group over the past
two years.
I have learnt a lot in that time. Firstly,
give pupils ownership of the recruit-
ment process. I advertised for the new
group with posters around school and
pupils completed a questionnaire. I
was looking for great technical skills
but also, equally important was an
enthusiasm for collaboration, commu-
nication and teamwork. Initially, I re-
cruited a group of 10 children from
Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 and intro-
duced them to staff and pupils during
an assembly. One of the final tasks
this year for my Year 6 team members
will be to interview and recruit the next
cohort of Digital Leaders by shortlist-
ing and interviewing candidates.
I would also advise giving Digital
Leaders roles which are as varied and
as interesting as possible. We identi-
fied several specific tasks we would
benefit from. Some of the activities in
which they have been involved this
year are:
 Contributing to E-Safety Assemblies.
 Demonstrating new programs in
class. Pre-teaching a small group of
Digital Leaders has worked really well
to improve teacher confidence.
 Providing content for the school
website / blog.
 Demonstrating technology like Ma-
key Makey at Parent Learning Events.
 Showcasing new apps to teachers
at CAS Primary Hub Meetings.
 Being responsible for uploading im-
ages from iPads to shared drives.
 Checking the Computing Suite.
 Attending an afterschool Code Club
to support other pupils.
Good communication is vital and I
have found holding regular meetings
is important to maintain impetus, en-
thusiasm and the profile of the group.
Make it fun too! Trips are an ideal way
to enthuse your group, whether to visit
another Digital Leader group to share
ideas, or to learn more about new
technology. We had a very good
Lego Mindstorms session
at the University of Man-
chester’s Robogals. I have
seen how much the chil-
dren enjoy the responsibil-
ity and the opportunity to
develop new skills and I
certainly wouldn’t be with-
out them! One Digital
Leader explained, “I like
being a DL because I like
to program and see new
things like robots!” whilst
another commented, “I like
to experiment on new websites and
get more confident so I can explain it
to other children.” If you’d like more
information on Digital Leaders, see:
www.digitalclassrooms.co.uk and
chrismayoh.com/digital-leaders/.
Registration for the annual UK
Bebras Challenge is open. The
challenge takes place in the sec-
ond week of November and takes
around 40 minutes. Now in its
third year, it is fast becoming a
well established part of the many
schools’ Computing calendar. De-
signed to stimulate Computational
Thinking in students, the ques-
tions are inspired by Computer
Science, but require reasoning,
rather than specialist knowledge.
No preparation is required and the
results could form an important
part of a department’s assess-
ment strategy. There is obviously
the potential for collating across
schools in a region as well.
A sample Secondary age question
is shown above. The challenge is
free to enter and marked automat-
ically. Your school will receive
feedback and certificates, and the
highest scores can feature in the
online ‘Hall of Fame’. There are
categories for all age groups. Kits
and Castors challenges (Years
2/3 and 4/5) can be tackled in
small groups if preferred. Junior,
Intermediate, Higher and Elite
categories cater for Years 6 to 13.
Indicative questions are available.
More details can be found at
www.beaver-comp.org.uk
5 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
Sally Jordan, a teacher at Acacias Community
Primary School, Manchester, and CAS Hub Leader,
shares her experiences of developing a group of
Digital Leaders. She urges you to give it a go!
A magic word is needed to open a box. A
secret code assigns each letter of the
alphabet to a unique number. The code
for the magic word is written on the out-
side of the box. What is the word?
Possible Answers:
LOOSER
WINNER
LOTTOS
TICKET

6. Are we nearly there yet? Well,
our journey continues and so
does the progress made by the
children. Our learning platform
has been enthusiastically estab-
lished by many of the older pu-
pils. They are developing their
own ‘sites’ within it and sharing knowledge
through forums. Their grasp of the technol-
ogy is exponentially quicker than ours and
they share the delights they discover with
staff. The inevitable buzz has meant more
reluctant pupils taking ownership and re-
sponsibility for their online access and
passwords. In addition, home learning has
been far more interactive. The students
are starting to consider alternatives to
word processing to demonstrate their
learning – we will get to multi-media yet…
Without a doubt the greatest excitement
has been the arrival of Chromebooks. With
set-up almost complete we are eager to let
the children loose. These enormous car-
rots remind us why we have spent time
with ‘unplugged’ learning. Only this week –
working as human robots – it was apparent
that although our students will quickly ex-
ceed our knowledge, they need secure
grounding for understanding. This is a key
lesson that we must preserve as our pleth-
ora of equipment comes online.
On a personal note, I led my first CAS
training session. It was daunting but fun. It
also made me rethink some of my own
programming approaches. Of course I had
spent much time revising what I was going
to do: collecting resources and preparing
the presentation. Having been observed
many times and led numerous inset ses-
sions, I was not prepared for the nerves
that arrived with my guests… Equally,
despite pre-checks, the normally compliant
whiteboard and laptop connection had a
‘moment’ or two and we were truly un-
plugged. Fortunately I had included practi-
cal activities that superseded the display.
Afterwards, Dave (my regional coordinator)
and I reviewed the session. Like most
teachers, I nit-picked the bits to improve. I
was reminded that ‘appraisal’ is about the
praise bit too – thanks Dave. With two
more planned it is a work in progress.
The options available for Primary age chil-
dren to develop control and sense projects
has grown dramatically. Andrew Shields
provides a timely review of some of them.
The variety of products has increased rapidly over the past year. Per-
haps this is due to the new Computing curriculum or perhaps to the suc-
cess of the Raspberry Pi. Whatever the reason for it, the number of
small computer devices now available to purchase allows us to build and
program devices that can sense distance, pressure, light; follow a line;
and enable movement through the use of small motors and servos.
Moreover, some of these devices are relatively cheap to purchase.
The 'Crumble Controller' from Redfern Electronics
is an easy-to-use programmable controller. It can
drive 2 motors forwards and backwards at variable
speeds. It has 4 Input/Output (IO) pads which allow
connections to switches,light sensors, low power
LEDs and more. A Crumble costs £12 and a basic
starter pack will set you back £18. You’ll find details
at redfernelectronics.co.uk/crumble/. Software
to program the Crumble is free to download from the
website and is based on Scratch, so it is easy to
get to grips with. 4Tronix (4tronix.co.uk), who
supply a range of computing kit for
Raspberry Pi's, also have a range of
items to add to a Crumble to extend
what you and your children are able
to do - there is even a programmable
Crumble floor robot. Class sets of
components can also be provided.
Codebug (codebug.openlx.org.uk) was a recent feature on Kickstarter
(the website to help fund ideas) and is a small programmable and wear-
able device in the vein of the BBC micro:bit. It has 25 LEDs arranged in
a grid that can be used to display an image or scroll text. It is also pro-
grammable in a free to use Scratch-type language. At the time of writing
only class sets of 30 CodeBugs are available, but the ability to purchase
individual ones is ’coming soon’.
4Tronix sell a range of items including their own floor robots. The Pi2go
is a robot controlled by a built in Raspberry Pi and can be programmed
in either Scratch or Python. 4Tronix sell the Pi2go as both a self assem-
bly kit without a Pi or, for a higher price, with a Pi included. You can add
a number of options and even have them build it for you if you don't fan-
cy the challenge of assembling it yourself. As the months go by, the in-
genuity of people to create usable devices for school continues to
amaze me. These devices are not overly complicated or overpriced and
would be a great way through which to start a Computing club. Show
them to the children, get them started and they will show you what is
possible. Once the children are on board, have them share what they've
done with the staff. Hopefully this will get the devices into classrooms
and into the general curriculum. Give them a try, you won't regret it.
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 6

7. 7 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
The phrase is the starting point for the
Computing Programme of Study. It
establishes a clear and exciting pur-
pose but also a tremendous responsi-
bility for us to ensure the approaches
we take achieve this. It was action
research with Somerset primary
schools in 2013 that led me to estab-
lish some key principles to underpin
the teaching of programming. Since
then I’ve taught many lessons and
found that these principles apply to
different ages, abilities and resources.
The principles come from the three
foundations of exploration, independ-
ence and collaboration.
Learners need time to explore the
software, app or robot to build their
confidence. For older learners this
may be a 30 minute starter with a new
resource or new aspect of a resource.
For younger learners it may be a se-
quence of two or three 10 - 20 minute
opportunities. Learners also need
planned experiences which encourage
independent choices and building
of knowledge and skills. Apposite
challenges with appropriate interven-
tions by the teacher will provide the
independence where children learn
from their mistakes and persevere to
achieve the outcome they want and
challenge themselves to achieve other
outcomes. Learning will increase
where children support each other,
recognising their own strengths and
the strengths of others. Children will
often benefit from working 1:1 with a
device but need to be encouraged to
be talking and looking at what others
are also doing.
The skill of the teacher lies in being
the guide providing the appropriate
activities. Phil Bagge, for example,
has produced a wonderful video and
lesson plans which demonstrate the
way in which Bee-Bots or other floor
robots can be used to develop compu-
tational thinking with the youngest
children. See bit.ly/BaggeBeeBot.
My research established a progres-
sion for Key Stage Two learners with
Scratch software. Children begin with
open exploration and are then guided
through the software. Tasks such as
the telling of a ‘knock, knock’ joke, 5-
block and 10-block challenges and
‘what happens when …’ type puzzles,
occur between learning experiences
based on support sheets. The sidebar
outlines some of the outcomes from
adopting this approach.
With this approach children make
mistakes from the beginning and
learn from those mistakes. They
are in control of technology and
confident to have a go at new
things. They challenge them-
selves and persevere to achieve
the outcomes they want. They
develop logical thinking through
‘doing’ and the technology gives
them immediate feedback.
The benefits of a guided discovery
approach are illustrated by the
outcomes in the diagram (left).
These are skills and attitudes that
can make a difference to all as-
pects of life and learning. One
teacher whom I worked with de-
scribed the difference lessons with
Scratch had made to the ability of
her Year 6 children to inde-
pendently tackle problems in
mathematics. Another described
the way in which learners were
more ready to challenge them-
selves rather than rely on input
from their teacher. The approach
we take is important and will
make a difference to the learn-
ing that takes place in our
schools. It will also impact on
the future when our learners will
truly be changing the world.
‘Developing computational thinking and creativi-
ty to understand and change the world’ made
Julia Briggs determined to establish a curricu-
lum to empower both learners and teachers.
Julia Briggs is an Education Technol-
ogy Advisor working with Primary
and special schools in Somerset.
The Somerset ELIM team created
the Computing curriculum model
which was the basis of the Wessex
Computing planning resources, to be
found at el.im/et-WessexPlanning.
This has been used and adapted in
many classrooms across England.
The broader curriculum overview, the
Somerset Model for Primary Compu-
ting, suggests how different elements
or threads can interlink. This can be
found at el.im/et-primarycomputing

8. All new year 7 pupils should be receiving
their own BBC micro:bit at some point this
term. The micro:bit is the flagship project
of the BBC’s ‘Make It Digital’ campaign. A
small number will be supplied to teachers
first so they can familiarise themselves
before the devices start arriving for the
children towards the end of October. At the
time of writing, actual dates were still to be
confirmed. The micro:bit public launch took
place in July and there were plans in place
for a group
of teachers
to undertake
beta testing
during the
summer.
The small
(4cm by
5cm) pro-
grammable device houses a 25 LED dis-
play, two simple input switches and capa-
bility to connect other input / output via
standard connectors. It can communicate
with other devices too via Bluetooth. It also
has a built in compass and accelerometer.
It has a very low entry threshold, allowing
children with no prior experience to quickly
code something simple using a block
based language such as illuminating a
pattern in the LEDs but can support com-
plex activities in a range of other lan-
guages. As such, it is accessible to chil-
dren coming up from primary schools with
a wide variety of experience and can sup-
port the transition to text based coding.
Programs are written on the dedicated
website, which should be live by the start
of the autumn term. These are compiled in
the cloud, then saved to the device (which
is initially attached, via USB to a pc/tablet/
mobile, rather like a pen drive). The
micro:bit therefore requires no special
installation. Once ‘flashed’ to the de-
vice it can be disconnected and runs
the program from its own memory. The
website will include tutorials and projects.
Following the BBC distribution to Year 7
students, there are plans to open source
the technical specifications to ensure conti-
nuity and further development.
One of the strengths of the new curriculum
are the potential cross curricular elements.
CAS Master Teacher Beverly Clarke argues
this allows for a fuller learning experience.
At Sunbury Manor School, in Sunbury on Thames, we have fully imple-
mented the new curriculum. In year 7, we have been coding in Python
using turtle graphics and creating polygons. This has been linked with
the Maths department who have reinforced all the required knowledge
around polygons – angles, number of sides etc. In Computing we have
been able to focus on the structure of the programming language as
students already have the underlying concepts of what we are creating.
Year 8 have completed a sound unit getting to grips with file sizes, types
and compression. They have also recorded their own sound files. At the
same time in Music they have been studying sound and creating compo-
sitions. Students have then coded their compositions in Computing using
Scratch. This has allowed a real world view of sound and music.
Similarly, in Year 9 students have studied number systems, used logic
gate simulator software and applied their knowledge of binary to create
seven segment displays. Having understood the binary behind the dis-
play they have then worked in the Technology department to build a sev-
en segment display, which they then took home. This has encouraged
students to see the natural links between different subjects and for con-
cepts to be reinforced across those subjects. It has been the input of all
the departments that has allowed for a smoother and more successful
implementation of the new curriculum.
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 8
To help teachers get to grips with the BBC micro:bit, a short help guide
will be distributed along with the devices. The
guide explains all the basic steps required to
quickly get up and running. It includes 3 ‘walk
through’ challenges which introduce all the basic
functionality. They demonstrate how programs
can be written in both blocks and Touch Devel-
op, and how a block based program can be
converted to its Touch Develop equivalent.
Opportunities to introduce Computer Science
in the activities are highlighted. Further guid-
ance is given on how to develop your own
tutorials for students.

9. School computing focuses on algo-
rithms and programs, but the way in-
formation is represented is just as
important. Choosing a good represen-
tation matters. It can completely
change the algorithm you design, turn
a slow program into a fast one, and
convert a hard problem into an easy
one. Puzzles are a great way to ex-
plore computational thinking and es-
pecially representation. With this in
mind, Teaching London Computing
has developed a series of puzzle-
based activities on graph representa-
tions. A graph to a computer scientist
consists of circles (‘nodes’) with lines
between them (‘edges’). It is just a
simple map - an abstraction used to
describe ‘places’ and ways you can
‘move’ between them.
The ‘places’ don’t have to be physical
locations - they could be web pages
linked by hyperlinks, the modes of a
digital watch linked by button presses,
or even different steps in a puzzle
linked by moves. Graphs are used to
organise data that needs to be ex-
plored or processed in some way.
Our activities on graphs aim to intro-
duce them in a fun way, while also
exploring why choosing a good repre-
sentation matters so much. First start
with quite a hard puzzle - moving a
chess knight around a board to visit
every square once. Next move to a
really easy puzzle: a Tour Guide using
an underground map to plan a visit to
tourist attractions. Working out why
this second puzzle is so easy gives us
a way to make the first problem easy
too. It boils down to the right choice of
representation of the information.
A third activity goes a step
further. It uses an intri-
guing folded paper puzzle
called a hexahexaflexagon
to introduce the idea of a
finite state machine: a way
of using a graph as a kind
of program. Hexahexaflex-
agons (template shown)
appear to have two sides
when constructed, but
they can be folded and
unfolded to reveal other
sides. Some sides are
harder to find than others.
When exploring the puz-
zle, drawing a graph is a
natural thing to do to help
work out how you get from
side to side. The graph is
a computational model of the flexagon
describing the computations involved
in folding it. By seeing the graph’s
edges as inputs that lead to changes
in the state of a program, the graph
(now called a finite state machine)
becomes a simulation of the flexagon.
Finite state machines are used to
quickly prototype designs of hardware,
control systems or even user interfaces.
These activities are available from
www.teachinglondoncomputing.org
with supporting booklets ready in Au-
tumn 2015. This work is supported by
the Mayor of London, Department for
Education, EPSRC through CHI+MED
and Google.
At 11:03am on December 15th, a
British astronaut will be blasting
off for the first time in 25 years, for
a six-month mission on the Inter-
national Space Station (ISS). Tim
Peake is currently training for his
mission in the USA and Russia.
He's especially interested in edu-
cation so lots of free educational
materials are being built around
his mission. The European Space
Agency (ESA) have partnered
with the Raspberry Pi Foundation
and UK Space to send two Rasp-
berry Pi
computers
into space
with Tim.
Software
written by
children
will be run
on the two
Astro Pis as
part of the
mission.
The Astro Pi
project allows
UK pupils to own and program the
same hardware that will be used
by the crew of the ISS: a Raspber-
ry Pi with a space-grade add-on
board called the Sense HAT
(available to buy soon). The
Sense HAT is packed with sen-
sors that can be programmed very
simply using Python. You can
measure, temperature, pressure,
humidity, acceleration, magnetic
fields and angular momentum. It
has an 8x8 grid of big multi-
coloured LEDs for a display, and
there is even a little joystick built
in! Over the coming months a set
of free educational resources will
be released surrounding the Astro
Pi project. There will even be an
on-orbit activity that schools can
get involved with. For more infor-
mation visit the Astro Pi website at
astro-pi.org. Dave Honess
9 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
Puzzles are a great way to explore computational thinking and
especially representation says Paul Curzon. With this in mind,
Teaching London Computing has developed a series of puzzle-
based activities on graph representations.
Tim Peake
A simple example ofa graph
showing threenodes, connected
by edges

10. The notion of ‘divide and conquer’ as a
strategy for solving a problem can be intro-
duced in a variety of simple ways to young
children. One entertaining example, with a
particularly seasonal flavour has been pro-
duced by the team at CS Unplugged.
The downloadable pdf tells the story of an
unhappy mistake on Christmas Eve. The
elves have accidentally wrapped Santa’s
dirty socks up with 1024 roller skates! Told
in a child friendly poem, the pdf provides
illustrations that could be used as slides to
accompany a class reading. If you prefer
to have the story narrated for you a video
is available too.
The solution in the story points out that
when there are 1024 boxes to test, instead
of having to open all of them until the
socks are found, one half can be eliminat-
ed at a time, and repeatedly halving the
problem very quickly narrows it down to
one box (the size of the problem starts at
1024, then with one weighing there are
512 boxes, then 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4,
2 and 1.) This idea comes up frequently in
the design of fast computer algorithms.
You’ll find the resources on their website
csunplugged.org/divideAndConquer/. This
also includes a list of suggestions for fol-
low up points to develop in class discus-
sions after the pupils have heard the story.
If you are new to the idea, these provide a
model approach for developing pupils un-
derstanding by encouraging a deeper
grasp of the concepts through a series of
overlapping questions. There are ques-
tions too for mathematically able students
to consider which generalise the solution
to look at n boxes. Roger Davies
We’re holding an event and everyone has
to meet everyone else. What’s the short-
est time this might take? Greg Michaelson
considers possible approaches.
Suppose that, as each guest arrives, they meet in turn all the people that
are there already. Starting with the first guest, who doesn’t meet anyone,
the second guest has 1 meeting, the third guest has 2 meetings and so
on until the Nth
guest has N-1 meetings.
So the total number of meetings is: 1+2+...+N-1
We can simplify this to: N*(N-1)/2. If we write the same series in re-
verse order underneath and add them together we get:
(1+(N-1))+(2+(N-2)+(3+N-3)... +(N-1+1)
which gives us N + N + N ... or N-1 lots of N. Since we have
added two series we then need to divide by 2, hence N*(N-1)/2.
Each meeting takes place sequentially, so the time is proportional to N*
(N-1)/2, which is roughly N2
as N gets big.
Now, in contrast, think about a sporting event between two teams, say
the Blues and the Reds, each with N/2 players. Before the match, the
Blues line up and the Reds walk down the line, shaking hands with each
Blue in turn. The 1st
Red shakes hand with the 1st
Blue. Then the 1st
Red
shakes hand with the 2nd
Blue while the 2nd
Red shakes hands with the
1st
Blue player, and so on. When the 1st
Red has shaken hands with the
last Blue, time proportional to N/2 has passed. Note that, at this point,
the last Red has also shaken hands with the 1st
Blue. When the last Red
has shaken hands with the last Blue, a further time proportional to N/2-
1 has passed.
In total, that’s time proportional to: N/2+N/2-1 == N-1
We can do even better than this. Suppose the Reds forms a circle round
the Blues with the players facing each other. Then, each Red shakes
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 10

11. hands with the opposite Blue, and the Reds moves round one player in,
say, a clockwise direction. Now they’ve taken time proportional to N/2.
But if we try this with our original event with N guests, and split the
guests into two groups of N/2, then, at the end of the process, half have
met the other half, but the guests in each half haven’t met each other.
Let’s apply the same process to each half, so next we’ll have two circles,
each with N/4 guests facing N/4 guests, shaking hands in parallel,
with an overall time proportional to N/4.
We can then halve again, and we’ll have four circles of N/8 guests, tak-
ing time proportional to N/8. Continuing the process until we just have
pairs of guests meeting, the total time is proportional to:
N/2+N/4+N/8...
If we consider summing successive terms we get:
N/2; 3N/4; 7N/8; 15N/16...
which tends to N.
In Computational Thinking terms, we’ve repeatedly decomposed a prob-
lem at each stage into two identical but smaller problems at the next
stage, stopping when we can’t decompose any further. And all the prob-
lems at each level can be solved by the same algorithm in parallel. That
is, we have found that a divide and conquer pattern that applies to the
problem.
As an exercise write a program in your favourite language to animate the
N people meeting each other, for the sequential, two teams and full di-
vide and conquer cases.
Divide and Conquer is a very useful tech-
nique when we can repeatedly decompose
(divide) a problem into smaller and smaller
identical but independent sub-problems,
whose results are then combined
(conquer) to find the overall solution. The
big benefit is that each sub-problem can
be solved in parallel, by recursively apply-
ing Divide and Conquer.
Algorithmic examples that make use of the
technique include mergesort and quick-
sort. For both algorithms, an unordered
group is decomposed into more and more
pairs of smaller and smaller unordered sub
-groups. Ultimately, there are lots of pairs
of sub-groups of one element, which by
definition are ordered. The sub-groups are
then recombined to form larger and larger
ordered sub-groups, until the whole group
is ordered. Note that, in practice, imple-
menting a Divide and Conquer algorithm in
parallel may not give any speed-up if the
communication outweighs the processing.
You can find out more about the Divide
and Conquer pattern at bit.ly/1S0yIBT
11 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
Greg Michaelson is a Professor of Computer
Science at Herriot-Watt University in Edin-
burgh. He was a member of the Qualifica-
tions Development Team for the new Scottish
Qualifications Agency (SQA) Curriculum for
Excellence for Computing Science. We’re
delighted that Greg will be writing a regular
column for SWITCHEDON in the future. For
those unfamiliar with his work, a good intro-
duction might be a twenty minute talk he
gave to colleagues in Scotland about Compu-
tational Thinking. See bit.ly/1IL2ERq.

12. Even though the Difference and Analytical
Engines were never completed, Ada Love-
lace experimented with writing sequences
of instructions. She noted
the value of tech-
niques such as sub-
routines, loops and
jumps that remain at
the heart of pro-
gramming today.
As a Mathemati-
cian, Ada was
excited about the
possibility of au-
tomating labori-
ous calcula-
tions. But she
was far more
interested in
the principles underly-
ing the programming of these devices.
She died at a tragically young age. Had
she not died so young what might have
been possible?
Sydney Padua’s beautifully quirky book is
unique. A real labour of love, it imagines
what might have happened had the Differ-
ence Engine been completed. On one lev-
el a humorous cartoon tale but it contains
much, much more. Extensive footnotes,
supplementary explanation and a wealth of
historical detail provide a thorough insight
into ideas behind logic and computation so
readers gain a deep understanding along
the way. There will no doubt be a flurry of
new books to mark Ada’s bicentenary. I
doubt any will top this. Roger Davies
Sydney Padua, graphic artist, animator
and author of The Thrilling Adventures Of
Lovelace and Babbage outlines the role of
Ada in the birth of scientific computing.
The woman most often known as ‘Ada Lovelace’ was born Ada Gordon
in 1815, sole child of the brief and tempestuous marriage of the erratic
poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, and his mathematics-loving wife An-
nabella Milbanke.
Fearing that Ada would inherit her father’s volatile ‘poetic’ temperament,
her mother raised her under a strict regimen of science, logic, and math-
ematics. Ada herself from childhood had a fascination with machines –
designing fanciful boats and steam flying machines, and poring over the
diagrams of the new inventions of the Industrial Revolution that filled the
scientific magazines of the time.
At the age of 19 she was married to an aristocrat, William King; when
King was made Earl of Lovelace in 1838 his wife became Lady Ada
King, Countess of Lovelace. She is generally called Ada Lovelace, which
is a little incorrect but saves confusion! She had three children.
In 1833, Lovelace’s mentor, the scientist and polymath Mary Sommer-
ville, introduced her to Charles Babbage, the Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics who had already attained considerable celebrity for his
visionary and perpetually unfinished plans for gigantic clockwork calcu-
lating machines.
Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace both had somewhat unconventional
personalities and became close and lifelong friends. Babbage described
her as “that Enchantress who has thrown her magical spell around the
most abstract of Sciences and has grasped it with a force which few
masculine intellects could have exerted over it,” or an another occasion,
as “The Enchantress of Numbers”.
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
Finding Ada (findingada.com) will be
organising the annual Ada Lovelace
Day on 13th October, an internation-
al event designed to celebrate the
achievements of women in STEM.
Sign up to their mailing list to be
kept informed of activities planned
for that day. October 13th
is also the
closing date for a competition aimed
at teenage girls, organised by The
National Museum of Computing and
University of Oxford in conjunction
with cs4fn at Queen Mary Universi-
ty, London. The competition asks
entrants to show or tell what they
think would fascinate Ada Love-
lace about the technology of today
(remembering of course that
words like smartphone would
mean nothing to her). More details
can be found on their website:
www.tnmoc.org/ada/enter.
The next issue of cs4fn will have a
special focus on Ada Lovelace.
Make sure you receive copies for
your school (see back page).
The 200th
anniversary of the birth of
Ada Lovelace falls on 10th
Decem-
ber this year. The bicentenary is a
© Charlotte Knee

13. Whilst the Science Museum has a working Differ-
ence Engine, built to Babbage’s design, the unfin-
ished Analytical Engine is difficult to visualise. Yet it
is the first design for a programmable computer,
created in 1840. Having researched the fine details
Sydney Padua has produced some wonderful ani-
mations outlining the principles on which it works.
You can find more details at bit.ly/1OldXQf.
Lovelace was deeply intrigued by Babbage’s plans for a tremendously
complicated device he called the Analytical Engine, which was to com-
bine the array of adding gears of his earlier Difference Engine with an
elaborate punchcard operating system. It was never built, but the design
had all the essential elements of a modern computer.
In 1842 Lovelace translated a short article describing the Analytical En-
gine by the Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea, for publication in Eng-
land. Babbage asked her to expand the article, “as she understood the
machine so well”. The final article is over three times the length of the
original and contains several early ‘computer programs,’ as well as strik-
ingly prescient observations on the potential uses of the machine, includ-
ing the manipulation of symbols and creation of music.
Although Babbage and his assistants had sketched out programs for his
engine before, Lovelace’s are the most elaborate and complete, and the
first to be published; so she is often referred to as “the first computer
programmer”. Babbage himself “spoke highly of her mathematical pow-
ers, and of her peculiar capability — higher he said than of any one he
knew, to prepare the descriptions connected with his calculating ma-
chine.”
Ada Lovelace died of cancer at 36, a few short years after the publica-
tion of “Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with Notes from the Translator”.
The Analytical Engine remained a vision, until Lovelace’s notes became
one of the critical documents to inspire Alan Turing’s work on the first
modern computers in the 1940s. Her thwarted potential, and her passion
and vision for technology, have made her a powerful symbol for modern
women in technology.
It is one thing to appreciate the historical
role played by Ada Lovelace, quite another
to convey it to a young teenage audience
so it can excite and
enthuse. Published in
2002, Lucy Leth-
bridge’s wonderful
account of her life
does just that. In
just under 80 pag-
es, Lethbridge situ-
ates Ada Love-
lace’s pioneering
work with Charles
Babbage in the
context of the
stultifying
norms of Victo-
rian England.
What runs through this short
biography is her frantic energy and rebel-
lious spirit, told in a personal style which
will resonate with many. “’The Analytical
Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as
the Jaquard loom weaves flowers and
leaves,’ wrote Ada, as ever making perfect
poetic sense out of mathematics… Imag-
ine how it must have been for the Victori-
ans who first read Menebrea. As children
they had lived in a world with no rail-
ways… Now this book explained that it
was possible to build a machine that could
operate like a human mind. Some feared
that it was an abuse of nature, an outrage
against God, to suggest that machines
could think… No wonder Menebrea made
Ada so notorious—especially since women
in that era were not supposed to under-
stand science and mathematics, let alone
write books about them.” Winner of the
Blue Peter Book Award, many second
hand copies are still available. It is worth
checking your school library has copies.
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
chance to raise awareness in
schools of the key role many wom-
en, not just Ada, have played in the
development of Computer Science.
For too long, many of their achieve-
ments have been hidden from histo-
ry, yet women have been at the
forefront of developments in Compu-
ting from the outset. How about get-
ting your students to do a school
assembly on that day? A great place
to them to start to get ideas for
themes is the cs4fn special and sup-
porting webpages which can be
found at www.cs4fn.org/women.

14. Subject knowledge is but a small part of
teaching. Paul Powell, Computing HoD at
George Mitchell School, London shares his
experience of learning how to convey ideas.
As someone who transferred into teaching from industry I’ve had an in-
teresting time with the new curriculum. I have the subject knowledge, but
how best to share it? I’m not much of a theorist but I want what works in
in practice for me and my classes. Accordingly I’ve been experimenting.
Whilst training to teach I quickly found out that subject knowledge
doesn’t count for anything if you can’t share it. Being used to being
around software engineers and other professionals I was quite unpre-
pared for making myself understood to a bright 14 year old, let alone an
11 year old with EAL and a short attention span.
At first I simplified my language; my mentor gave me lists of words that I
used in a lesson that most of the class didn’t understand. By the end of
my training I still slipped up occasionally, but I could usually tell when I’d
confused them and I could go back and simplify it. But simplification was
not good enough. Some terms are critical and enable students to think
about the subject clearly. I asked pupils to explain their entirely valid
solutions to a problem. They could create, but they couldn’t explain how
they worked. I was shocked. I now see building student confidence to
talk about programming as one of the main drivers towards success.
I set code comprehension exercises to get them to explain programs to
peers and the class. I get them to be very explicit: I insist that they say
“the variable a is set to the value of b plus one” rather than “a equals
b+1”.This language guides how they think about each statement and
sets them up for the killer question: “if the input is 5, what is the output
and why?” This helps them to think through a sequence, putting all
the ideas together.
To further enhance the amount of talk I asked them to attempt these
exercises in pairs. Not only were they talking about what the code did –
they were having arguments about it! Having several hypotheses (note
to self – introduce the word “hypothesis” to class in the context of cod-
ing) meant that they were becoming more interested in what the code
did than what it should do. Before this pupils modified code according to
a theory before testing to see if the theory was correct. When this failed
to correct the program they left the change in and formed a new theory.
Rinse repeat. Now they are starting to be more careful, more deliberate
and ultimately more successful. The experiment continues…
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 14
The graded code cognition exercises in
Python can be found on the CAS Com-
munity at resources/3542. Print the
PowerPoint in handout view (3 per slide
with a space for them to write) and
give them to pairs/groups. Ask them
to write the output and why. After 10
minutes pairs are asked to explain the
code to the class.
Part of making sure the new curriculum is
enthusiastically received by students is to
ensure it is fully supported through enrich-
ment activities. Here are some of the activ-
ities used in the past year at Sunbury Man-
or School. A writing competition run in con-
junction with the English and Science de-
partments to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day
helped to raise the profile of women in
Computing and to get students to appreci-
ate past and present female achievements
in STEM.
A Science and Computing trip to the Big
Bang Fair meant students had a go at
Python programming on a Raspberry Pi
and found out what it was like to be an
engineer. They measured the radioactivity
of various sample materials found in the
home with the Nuclear Institute, under-
standing how a nuclear reactor works us-
ing a virtual reactor simulator on a PC.
They designed and built rockets using
plastic, paper and sticky tape – looking at
how changes to fin size, shape and num-
bers affect how the rocket flies. This
helped students appreciate common terms
such as variables. Another Science and
Computing trip to the Science Museum
visited the Computing Gallery and saw The
Difference Engine.
Our students have also
visited The National Muse-
um of Computing, which
has given them a sense of
history about Computing,
looking at punched card
systems, and the analogue
computing, Colossus and
Tunny galleries. They be-
gan to appreciate the role
of women in code breaking
during the war.
Additionally we have involved our faculty
governor and other outside agencies to
come into school and run one off events
for our students such as HTML program-
ming workshops. Through offering these
activities outside of the curriculum we have
broaden the horizons of our students and,
as a result had a good uptake of Compu-
ting at GCSE level. Beverly Clarke

15. This well-established competition lets
students demonstrate and develop
problem-solving and programming
skills, and they could end up repre-
senting Great Britain at the Interna-
tional Olympiad for Informatics.
The first round of the BIO is a three-
hour programming exam, run in your
own school or college at a time con-
venient for you in December. This
round consists of three questions, the
first of which is accessible to any stu-
dent with programming experience:
each year several of our Year 12 stu-
dents enter after less than a term of
the AS Computing course.
The box above gives an example of
question 1 (from the 2006 paper). The
other two questions are much tougher
and require good maths skills and
more experience. We prepare our
students by running student-led
lunchtime workshops during the au-
tumn term, working together on past
questions. Students can use any pro-
gramming language for this round.
The exam is marked by you, the
teacher, but this is quite quick as the
mark scheme is based on test data
and functionality: you don’t even need
to look at the code.
All students who take part get a certifi-
cate of participation; there are merit
and distinction certificates for those
who do well and the top fifteen in the
country are invited to the second
round in Cambridge at Easter. This
round is really challenging, way be-
yond my ability, and the very best are
selected for the national team and get
an all-expenses-paid trip to an exotic
location in the summer for the Interna-
tional Olympiad for Informatics.
You can find more information about
the BIO, and register to take part, at
http://www.olympiad.org.uk/.
A course in algorithms and pro-
gramming for teachers, adapted
from an exemplar for CAS Master
Teachers at UCL, is in develop-
ment. It is an attempt to harness
the small but growing body of
computing pedagogy derived from
published research, classroom
experience and action research
across KS2 to 4. The course con-
sists of a repository of 20 work-
books for teachers, with accompa-
nying worksheets for
students, free for
you to view, down-
load, use and
adapt under a Cre-
ative Commons
non-commercial
license. There
are two free sev-
en-meeting
training courses
planned, to be
delivered by the team at UCL: for
Primary teachers in October/
November; and for Secondary
teachers in February/March 2016
The courses and materials are
sponsored by the Google CS4HS
award. Details will be available on
ispython.com with registration
through the CAS Community.
The first pathway is a blend of
tried and tested pedagogical
method with new approaches de-
rived from, and guided by, re-
search sources. It investigates, in
an innovative way (making use of
the simple sprite/turtle concept),
the understanding of the simple
geometry of regular shapes, lead-
ing to student creation of unique
patterns. No prior programming
knowledge is assumed, as the
process of solving problems is
explored, using a novel unplugged
programming approach prior to,
and alongside, Scratch 2.0
and/or Python 3. Dave White
15 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
Ian Crosby, who teaches at Hills Road Sixth Form
College, Cambridge urges you to stretch your
brightest students by encouraging them to en-
ter the British Informatics Olympiad (BIO).
Two words are anagrams of each other if they can both be formed by rear-
ranging the same combination of letters. For example, GADGET and
TAGGED are anagrams because they both contain one occurrence of
each of the letters A, D, E and T, and two occurrences of the letter G.
Write a program which inputs two words and
then prints Anagrams if they are anagrams of
each other, or prints Not anagrams otherwise.
Your program should then terminate.
Many colleagues have reported successfully using the
Primary QuickStart materials with Secondary teachers.
The QuickStart guide provides an excellent grounding
for any teacher new to the concepts involved in Compu-
ting. Designed to be used collaboratively, the resources
could form the basis of some excellent introductory ses-
sions, perhaps organised via local CAS Hubs. All materi-
als are free. The booklets come with supporting re-
sources on CD. Details of your nearest local distributor
can be found from the website: quickstartcomputing.org.

16. SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 16
The overarching goal of the 2014 Compu-
ting National Curriculum is to provide “A
high-quality computing education [that]
equips [learners] to use computational
thinking and creativity to understand and
change the world”.
With an ambitious and challenging curricu-
lum, and without much statutory guidance,
assessment of the subject knowledge con-
tent can be, for many, challenging enough.
But moving forwards, as the subject beds
into the curriculum the question for many
is, can you assess computational thinking?
If so, how?
It will take time to adapt and review current
ways, or develop new ways of tracking and
reporting progression, and for school re-
porting systems to change and adapt. So
how do you start preparing these systems
for the change to the curriculum, including
identifying computational thinking opportu-
nities? How do you track, measure, reward
and report progression of computational
thinking skills?
The Winter 2014 issue of SwitchedON
highlighted the philosophical change in the
focus of the curriculum from “what” to
“why” and “how”, and introduced the plan-
ning cycle outlined in the CAS Computa-
tional Thinking Framework. We can evalu-
ate the artefact produced on three levels:
 against the hook of the project (why) e.g.
is the artefact produced fit for purpose.
 consider the artefact for the subject con-
tent knowledge (what) and then compare
this against the aims of the planned learn-
ing journey (unit of study).
 demonstration of the functional skills
(how) and the computational thinking skills
(how) that will have been applied to pro-
duce the artefact and the subject
knowledge learnt, through the learner’s
explanation or justification for why they did
what they did.
When assessing artefacts in Computing we can consider them and the Computa-
tional Thinking involved in relation to the ideas of “why”, “how” and “what”. Adopt-
ing this approach makes the evaluation and grading process much easier argues
Mark Dorling, formerly the National CPD co-ordinator for the Network of Excellence.
It is possible to assess computational thinking through the model de-
scribed in the sidebar, but we must first consider four practical things:
 in assessing computational thinking, is the ‘whole’ more important than
assessing the ‘parts’?
 how to combine formative and summative assessment effectively,
 having sufficient time to understand the intervention needed,
 using assessment to maximise interventions (support) for learners.
Given sufficient time in the classroom with learners, formative assess-
ment can be an incredible useful tool; observing and discussing how
they developed a particular understanding of a problem. How learners
explain, demonstrate and justify the process they went through will pro-
vide a snap shot of how learners applied computational thinking (CT) to
the given problem. This is no guarantee they will demonstrate the same
competency, applying the same CT skills to future activities though.
Rather, it is important to build a holistic understanding how the learner
applies CT skills to a range of classroom activities, in addition to looking
at a particular use of skills for a specific classroom activity. One way of
achieving this is through recording the CT opportunities for a range of
activities. It is good practice to assess and record attainment from activi-
ties via the artefacts produced. Over time it is possible to identify pat-
terns in the sort of activities learners struggle to complete (or vice versa).
By recording the association between the activity and the CT opportuni-
ties, it is possible to identify the computational thinking skills where
learners appear to be weaker.
This holistic understanding of the learner’s computational thinking abili-
ties makes formative assessment more useful to predict the kind of ac-
tivities where the learner is likely to struggle, e.g. abstraction. In turn that
makes any intervention more targeted and in time this should reflect in
an improvement in the learners capability and attainment (grades).

17. Computational Thinking has relevance in
many fields. Aida Martinez, Program Manager,
Google UK outlines a new resource that explores
what it is and why it is important.
Computational Thinking, another new
trend? Yes and no. For some it is
new, but for some of you it has always
been lurking in the background of your
subject area, though unnamed. A new
course (bit.ly/1Mu2Abi) explores what
it is and why it is important in your
classroom.
Professional development is hard be-
cause, as a mission-driven educator,
you want to be better at your craft
especially as teaching quality is one of
the most impacting factors in student
achievement. But it’s also required by
schools, time-consuming and not al-
ways practical. The toughest part is
that it often requires you to do addi-
tional work and spend extra time to
improve your classroom, when you
don’t have enough time as it is.
We would love to say that this course
will be a course that requires no extra
work on the part of educators, but we
can’t say that. We can say that the
work you do will be integration work -
how to integrate computational think-
ing into your arts class, maths class,
language class, biology class. Mathe-
matics, science, the humanities - all
subject areas can benefit from stu-
dents and teachers who begin to think
computationally. Students can begin
to see patterns across the curriculum,
making connections between siloed
subject areas and applying tools
learned in one discipline to another.
The nice part about this course is that
it helps to enhance what you already
do and teach in your classroom.
This course will not teach you every-
thing about Computational Thinking,
This course will, however, define CT,
show you how to integrate it into your
curriculum, and provide you with op-
portunities to explore more examples
of CT integrated into specific subject
areas. And if you don’t have time to
create new CT-integrated materials,
the course will direct you to many of
CT-integrated resources made by oth-
er teachers who have already done
some of this work in various disci-
plines and subject areas.
The course will also connect you to
other educators and subject matter
experts in a community where you can
ask questions, collaborate, and share
new resources. Additionally, CAS will
be developing resources later this
year that will be blended with this
online course to help CAS Master
Teachers teach and support teachers
who must teach the new UK compu-
ting curriculum. If you are a teacher
who is teaching the new
computing curricula, but
you feel you need some
help, guidance, or instruc-
tion, computational think-
ing will give your students
the processes and skills
they need to design and
develop algorithms. The
course helps differentiate
between computer sci-
ence and computational
thinking and introduces
you to the latter.
Attending my first CAS conference
in June, it occurred to me that two
Open University projects could be
useful resources for teachers and
KS5 students.
In The Jewels of Heuro
(bit.ly/1GjLrc2) the aim is to quick-
ly collect gems before the zom-
bies catch us. It’s a free interac-
tive activity that explains what
algorithms and heuristics are, and
how to measure the efficiency of
an algorithm. It’s a light and play-
ful introduction to advanced con-
cepts, like big-O notation, the
Travelling Salesman Problem, and
the fundamental P = NP question.
A short MOOC: Learn to Code for
Data Analysis, to start 26th
Octo-
ber, could also be useful to Maths
and Science teachers and their A-
level students. The MOOC, which
assumes no prior coding or data
analysis experience, introduces
Python and its application to data
science. It teaches participants
how to write short programs, one
line at a time, that can load in data
files, clean, filter and transform the
data, compute simple statistics,
and produce common charts (e.g.
line charts). The course uses in-
teractive Jupyter notebooks with
explanatory text and code that can
be edited in a browser. Notebooks
can be shared publicly, promoting
reproducible data analysis. For
more information and to register
see bit.ly/1g6kGlZ.
Michel Wermelinger
17 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

18. To get a feel for the BYOB interface here's
how to create a block to draw a rectangle
on the screen.
In the Variables category,
select Make a block.
Decide which category
should hold the new block
(I've chosen Motion), then
type in a description of
the new block. It's going
to be a command not a
reporter (function), or
predicate (function re-
turning true or false), and
it will be useful For all sprites.
In the Block Editor win-
dow you can change any
word to an Input name
(i.e., a parameter). By
clicking on the spaces
between words (shown as + signs) you
can add new Input names or Title text into
the description. When showing students
how to write procedures I start by leaving
using the sample values, then rename
them to something more sensible like
width and height.
Drag existing blocks from
the Pen and Motion cate-
gories to produce a final
definition, filling in the
values for the move ()
steps command by
dragging and dropping
the width and height pa-
rameters.
Click OK and the draw a rectangle (width)
wide & (height) high will now be availa-
ble alongside the existing blocks in the
Motion category.
The atomic checkbox guarantees that the
code will run completely without other
scripts running: this has the side effect that
graphics will run more quickly although
only display when the script finishes.
Do you wish there was a way of incorporating sophisticated con-
cepts in programming in non threatening ways? Darren Travi and
John Stout illustrate how BYOB builds on familiarity with Scratch,
but can be used to teach concepts to A Level and beyond.
BYOB (Build Your Own Blocks) and Snap! are versions of Scratch
which let you build your own blocks (procedures or functions) which can
then be used in exactly the same way as the standard blocks (see the
sidebar for a simple example) and as such it is a good stepping stone
between building logic and text based programming. There are many
ways key ideas and constructs can be developed through BYOB. Take a
program like a Unit Convertor which converts seconds into minutes.
There are quite a few concepts associated with abstraction involved in
developing a program such as this. The program
below illustrates how a variable can be passed
into a function, enabling it to return a value.
To take a more complicated example such as a lottery
program to generate 7 ran-
dom numbers. Here a func-
tion checks to see whether
a number has already been
selected.
One the real great things
about BYOB is that it is easy
to transition to text based
programming. It is possible
to pseudocode programs
from BYOB and for pupils to
attempt to put together the
logic in a text based language. In many ways it is the stepping between
the idea of dragging out blocks and a textual based language. We have
found from experience that BYOB helps develop pupils computational
thinking, logic and problem solving skills so they are a lot more confident
with algorithmic planning, the bedrock of most courses beyond KS3.
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 18
BYOB 3.1.1 was the last standard BYOB version from University
of California, Berkeley. It introduced much functionality not available in
Scratch. If you have used Scratch 1 it is backward compatible. Down-
load from byob.berkeley.edu Snap! is the current version of BYOB
written in Javascript to run in a browser, so no installation required. Try
it at snap.berkeley.edu
Both these
examples are
of Reporter
blocks, These
act as
functions. to
return (report)
values.

19. To do something using every ele-
ment of a string we can define a
for () in () do [] block.
Note that the first input name
(character) must have the Make
internal variable visible to caller
radio button selected (see input
types above). Call it like this:
A similar block for list traversal
would be needed as BYOB uses
different commands to do this.
19 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
You can design your own language in BYOB/Snap! Because it supports func-
tional programming (treating procedures and functions as first class values, just
like integers or strings) we can create new Control blocks, not just new Motion
or Looks blocks. This is a powerful tool, so rather than asking What's the best
programming language for x? we can design language constructs that are ideal
for x. The examples below give a flavour of the possibilities. Editing an input
name gives the options shown. They allow you to restrict the type (and shape)
of the slot used for the input. To use the simple Rectangle example (far left) you
could ensure that width and height were Number inputs (you could also give
each input a default value).
To define new control structures we can use the C-shape type of input.
For example, conditions using not are often difficult to build/understand,
so we can define an unless <> do [] block instead. This could be
placed in the Control category, and function like if <not <>> [].
The inputs are called this (of type Boolean) and something (of type C-
shape). The only new thing we need is the run [] block, which runs the
code given as the parameter something (it can be as many blocks long
as you like). You can change the title text of the block to any other word-
ing as long as you keep the test and the block parameters, e.g. unless <this> do [something].
The techniques below are intend to show how useful defining your own language using functional programming can be
for teaching. If you want to teach simulations, for which the Taking chances blocks are useful, you could get the stu-
dents to import a project with just those blocks defined before they start. Similarly if you want do shape manipulation,
you could write a project with square (), rectangle () by (), line from ((),()) to ((),()) and
circle centred at ((),()) with radius () blocks defined.
Students can simulate throwing a die,
or tossing a coin, by picking a random
number between 1 and 6 (or 1 and 2).
Having tested the value to see if it's
the number or numbers required, then
some action can be defined. The
steps are complicated and can over-
whelm students with the detail re-
quired when all they want to do is
throw a die. Why not develop a
‘Taking Chances’ block? Using the C-
shape inputs define a with a () in
() chance do [] block, as shown.
Alternatively, if students are thinking in
terms of percentages, then define
with a () percent chance do []
The draw a rectangle ... block used as
the opening introductory example (see
far left sidebar) does have a slight
problem: if the sprite's direction is up
rather than right when it is called,
width becomes the height and vice
versa. We can address that too.
Amending the block so that it saves
the direction, draws the shape, then
restores the direction would be one
approach but that would need imple-
menting for every other ‘shape’ block
too. A better alternative might be to
define a ‘save state’ block, such as
the save state, do [], then
restore as shown.

20. We are at the pointy-end of a spiral of
innovation spanning generations, cul-
tures and continents and today’s stu-
dents are the next in a long line of
innovators. The Babylonians, living
c2400BC in today’s Iraq, are thought
to have invented the first calculator,
the Abacus, to aid their arithmetic.
The abacus was developed separate-
ly and with increasing sophistication in
China and Japan, supporting complex
calculation processing at very high
speeds. Babylonians, c1600BC, also
created the first algorithms for factori-
zation and finding square roots.Their
legacy fuelled innovation in other cul-
tures. In around 500BC the Indian
grammarian Pāṇini developed the
grammar of Sanskrit with 3959 rules,
using recursion and transformations,
foreshadowing today’s formal lan-
guage theory where Backus-Naur
form is similarly used to describe
modern programming languages.
Greek academia continued where
Babylonians had led, with problem
solving in many forms including Eu-
clid’s seven volumes on geometry and
algorithms. ‘Euclid’s Algorithm’ c300BC
calculates the greatest common divi-
sor of two numbers, just one item from
his huge body of innovation. Greeks
also gave us the ‘Sieve of Eratosthe-
nes’, the first algorithm to identify
prime numbers. Meanwhile the Antiky-
thera mechanism, thought to be the
first analogue computer, could track
relative positions of heavenly bodies.
Developments continued in diverse cul-
tures around the globe. Indian mathe-
maticians started using zero, which had
also been identified by the Babylonians.
The binary system, forming the basis of
modern computing, was described c300
BC by the Indian mathematician Pinga-
la. In c100BC Chinese mathematicians
used negative numbers.
Heron of Alexandria, a prolific inven-
tor, developed ‘sequence control’ in
c60AD where an operator would run a
machine with sequences of determin-
istic instructions, similar to a Turing
Machine. Some consider this the first
computer program. His innovations in
automata were some of the earliest
steps in robotics. Hypatia of Alexan-
dria c370AD, a female mathematician
and teacher, developed the astrolabe
which was used for navigation until
the sextant arrived in the 16th
century.
Around 800AD the innovation baton
passed to the Persians with Caliph
Harun al-Rashid, and later his son,
establishing the House of Wisdom in
Baghdad. This centre for learning,
translating and research gathered
learned Jewish, Persian and Christian
scholars who from 9th
to 13th
centuries
translated scientific and philosophical
Greek texts into Arabic making the
learning of the Greeks accessible to
Arabic cultures too. Around 820AD,
the Persian mathematician Muham-
mad ibn Mūsā al-Ḵwārizmī described
algorithms for solving linear and quad-
ratic equations. He was a prolific writ-
er on algebra, astronomy and geogra-
phy whose arithmetic work precipitat-
ed the use of Arabic numerals in the
Western world. These were derived
from the Hindu-Arabic system devel-
oped in Indian mathematics, again
demonstrating one culture’s develop-
ment supporting another’s. The word
algorithm comes from his Latinized
name, Algoritmi. The House of Wis-
dom supported Al Kindi, a cryptog-
raphy pioneer, who developed fre-
quency and cryptanalysis algorithms
and wrote ‘A Manuscript on Decipher-
ing Cryptographic Messages’, with
algorithms on breaking encryptions
and ciphers. Extraordinary work was
done at Bletchley Park, but the foun-
dations were laid long before.
The Banu Musa brothers, teachers
and mathematicians, also studied in
the House of Wisdom. These schol-
ars, inspired by Chinese, Indian and
Persian engineering, wrote the ‘Book
of Ingenious Devices’ on automatic
machines and mechanical devices,
which in turn helped inspire subse-
quent cultures including, through
Spain, those in Europe.
So, there is nothing new under the
sun – the robotics we explore now
were conceived of millennia ago, and
algorithms, the buzzword of the mo-
ment, have been around even longer.
But there is a wealth of opportunity
here to explore cultural development,
history, geography, maths, religious,
economic and political advances. In
the next issue we’ll see where these
cultures led, in beginning this spiral of
innovation that others followed. The
momentum they started continues to
grow, its invention underpins much of
our global society today, and inspires
the next generation of creators.
Stephen Wolfram (CEO,
Wolfram Research) charts
the rise of the data civilisa-
tion at bit.ly/1dZeB9N. The
plot shows the number of
events per decade and per
century. The article also
has a link to purchase (£5)
a wonderful 1.5m timeline
- ideal for your classroom.
Lyndsay Hope, Wye Borders Hub Leader asks what
our students have in common with Babylonians,
Greeks, and Persians? Curiosity, or a desire to in-
novate and build something better?
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 20
Exploded view ofthe Antikytheramechanism
© Stephen Wolfram, LLC

21. In 2001, I was fortunate to land a job
at our local 6th
form college covering 6
month maternity leave, teaching ICT.
My main qualification for the post was
‘life experiences’. My last 2 years in
the Armed Forces had been with a
Territorial Unit as the Regular Soldier
responsible for ensuring all training
happened to the same exacting stand-
ards required by the Regular Army. I
took it upon myself to cobble together
an ‘in house’ MIS System using MS
Access to be used by commanders
planning soldier’s training require-
ments.
On the 1st
September 2001, there
should have been 3 new staff in the
department but the teacher of Compu-
ting failed to show. At this point in my
teaching career that I discovered that
being flexible and dynamic was as
important in education as it had been
in the army. As part of my ‘getting
ready to be a civilian’ I had completed
a 10-week course in networks and
networking and a City and Guilds
course in computer maintenance.
Armed with these qualifications I was
asked if I would also teach the theory
side of the AS Computing course!
The next 12 months was a learning
packed whirlwind. Binary Trees, never
heard of. Normalisation, never heard
of. I’d covered hexadecimal in school
23 years previously but forgotten it.
Armed with ‘Understanding Computer
Science’ by Ray Bradley, and aided
by a very understanding wife, I set
about grasping the key concepts of
the AS syllabus. Helped by some ex-
ceptionally supportive colleagues I got
to the point where I could deliver the
course with confidence. I was there-
fore greatly saddened when declining
numbers meant I would not be teach-
ing it the following year.
At the end of the 2012-13 academic
year our sole Computing teacher took
voluntary redundancy. With some
trepidation I agreed to takeover the
AS provision. Whilst there had been
some significant changes since I had
last taught it I had no doubt in my abil-
ity to learn content I had not covered
before. For both self-study and teach-
ing Logic Gates I used Atanua
(sol.gfxile.net/atanua). De Morgan’s
law was learned via YouTube and the
rest covered in an Open University
Unit, M150 or the excellent resources
shared through CAS and the A-Level
Computing WikiBook.
M150 was, however causing appre-
hension. Whilst I had excelled on the-
oretical assignments, the ‘Introduction
to Programming’ had proven to be my
Achilles Heel. Lack of debugging facil-
ities in JavaScript meant many a frus-
trated evening looking at a blank win-
dow with no idea as to which comma
or semi-colon was incorrect. I feared
this would manifest itself whilst teach-
ing programming. As it transpired, my
fears were not realised. The outgoing
teacher had left comprehensive notes
on the use of VB.Net. With the guid-
ance of a close colleague, hours of
practice and a re-write of the re-
sources to suite my delivery, students
had no idea I was only ever one step
ahead of them.
Whilst unorthodox, it worked very well.
It meant that resources were always
fresh and had been tried and tested
the previous Sunday. It also meant I
could adapt delivery to better support
the range of abilities. As with all
things, the effectiveness of a strategy
is reflected in the results. It is with
some degree of pride that I can say
2013-14 saw a significant improve-
ment in results.
Teachers are using icould.com as
a way of making the leap from
classroom learning to the world of
work and careers especially with
students who are choosing their
GCSE and A Level options.
The website features over a thou-
sand videos of people telling their
personal career stories in their
own words. From Technical Spe-
cialists and IT Architects at IBM to
Graphics Artists and Software
Engineers, icould’s videos can
help young people in seeing Com-
puting as key to their future career
prospects.
Bring learning to life with films that
give practical examples of careers
in the Computers and IT category.
You can use the Labour Market
Information below each video to
start discussions about average
salary, skills and qualifications,
predicted employment and more.
There are also helpful articles
about Computing related careers
that you can share with your class
as well as free classroom re-
sources to download.
If you would like to know more
then join the icould Networking
Group on LinkedIn. Signing up for
the newsletter here brings news
on new resources for teachers, or
you can get in touch directly at
info@icould.org.uk Ruth Mulcare
21 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
After 23 years serving as a Military Engineer in the
Army, Martin Fletcher moved into teaching. His sto-
ry of facing up to the challenge of AS Computing
should give heart to others in a similar position.

22. In just its second year the CAS(NI) conference reached its
maximum capacity of 100 people and offered 13 different
breakout workshops to delegates. Irene Bell reports on
another stimulating day.
“I had a really good feeling about the conference and felt that for the first
time in two years we were actually getting somewhere”. These were the
encouraging words in an email received the day after the conference
from one of the attendees. The conference took place on 19th
June at
Stranmillis University College. The launch was co-delivered by Emma
Dunseith, Executive Producer and leader of Digital Learning at the BBC
and Mark Nagurski of CultureTECH, the Education Partner with the BBC
in the roll out of 'Make It Digital' and the Micro:bit.
Workshops ranged from computational thinking, for both primary and
post-primary, to programming and contextualised computer science in
the ‘Not so hard hardware’ workshop. This included a ‘tour of Belfast
paying particular attention to the 5 different types of traffic lights that we
have in the city’. Workshops were delivered by CAS teachers, university
staff and industrial partners. Each breakout session offered four work-
shops to teachers with a balance of Key Stages across the events and
content for both the beginner and the more experienced teacher.
This year for the first time we invited attendees to submit posters. This
proved very popular with teachers using this as a networking focus. This
will be something that we will continue in years to come. Teachers used
the poster sessions to discuss with colleagues how they were managing
and implementing computing in their work. Through the posters they
could see what their neighbouring schools were achieving.
Another first for the NI conference was the video that we made of the
keynote session and some of the breakout workshops. The video also
includes interviews with one of the workshop leaders explaining why
computing is both crucial for our society and feasible to run in schools.
The number of attendees and the buzz on the day reflect the growing
interest and enthusiasm of teachers in Northern Ireland to engage in
computing and sets a firm foundation stone for the work next year.
SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk 22
Experimenting with theOTOTO circuit board
synthesizer atthe CAS(NI) Conference
A number of primary and secondary col-
leagues interested in getting involved with
small research projects in schools have
come together in a pilot project set to run
through this academic year. A small
amount of funding has been secured to
foster the pilot project which involves bud-
dying up with some of our CAS academics,
learning a bit about how to carry out some
action research in school, carrying out re-
search with a group of other teachers, and
then writing up/presenting what you have
achieved. As the front page feature points
out, a key pillar in successful professional
development is developing classroom re-
search which fosters an appreciation of the
importance of evidence based research
and helps develop reflective practice.
There is already an active higher educa-
tion community in Computing Education.
The 10th
WiPSCE (Workshop in Primary
and Secondary Computing Education) will
be held on November 9th -11th at King's
College London. This is an annual interna-
tional conference with presentation of re-
search papers on many aspects of the
teaching and learning of Computing in
school. For teachers who would like to
attend, there is a special rate for a Teach-
ers' Day on Tuesday 10th November
(£70), where the papers presented will
have most resonance for practitioners.
Attending WiPSCE '15 would give you a
good idea of what research is currently
being carried out and an opportunity to
meet and talk to some of the key research-
ers internationally in this field. As our sub-
ject develops greater collaboration be-
tween academics and teacher practitioners
can be hugely beneficial to all. More infor-
mation and a link to register can be found
at wipsce.org. Sue Sentance

23. In creating the programme we wanted
to try to address two major develop-
ment challenges for in-service teach-
ers; how to focus on more effective
teaching (rather than just specific
technology) and how to close the im-
plementation gap. Often a teacher
can’t quickly implement something
learned into their regular practice.
With these aims in mind both myself
and Professor Quintin Cutts ran a se-
ries of lead teacher hub meetings
where we could bring together teach-
ers who had applied to become leads
for their local area. Every lead experi-
enced a compressed form of a re-
search informed programme over a
period of two to three months. Meet-
ings for these hubs were spaced out
to allow them to try out various teach-
ing approaches with their own classes
and reflect on that experience. Alt-
hough there are many different activi-
ties in the programme that help ex-
plore different approaches they mostly
involve increasing the range of com-
prehension methods a Computing
teacher has at their disposal.
This comprehension orientated ap-
proach really helps with two major
difficulties we regularly face in Com-
puting Science namely
 it’s difficult to understand computa-
tional systems just by example. They
have many hidden mechanisms that
are completely invisible but work in a
precisely defined way. If we develop
an alternative model of how they work
it makes activities such as program-
ming extremely difficult.
 completely free problem solving too
early overloads most beginners and
leaves them frustrated and demoral-
ised. They don’t have a rich enough
background knowledge to draw on so
every detail, no matter how low level,
requires conscious mental effort.
Feedback was generally very positive
with one experienced teacher saying
that “having a group of like-minded
teachers together with the same goal
has given me back my motivation for
improving my teaching in the class-
room.” Where there were unexpected
difficulties, or leads had suggestions,
we were able to incorporate these into
the next lead teacher hub and the
local hub materials.
After taking part in a lead teacher hub,
groups of lead teachers are now run-
ning their own local hubs, using more
detailed versions of the support mate-
rials. We now have 24 active hubs
across Scotland with just over 270 of
the 650 Computing teachers in Scot-
land regularly taking part. Teachers
are already noticing changes in the
quality of learning. One commented
“My pupils have already appeared to
be much more engaged. They have
enjoyed the lessons in which I have
experimented with the new strategies.
Next year, they will definitely have a
much better understanding.” Another
said it was “great to see kids actually
discussing code and trying to work out
what a program is actually doing.”
Most of the hubs are now well
established and have almost fin-
ished the initial set of activities so
what’s next for PLAN C?
The main issues we’d like to try to
address are
 Not everyone has been able to
join in and take part in a face to
face local hub. Family, work cir-
cumstances or no hub close
enough to them means that alter-
native self-study methods are
probably needed.
 There’s still a huge volume of
new material that could be created
for a range of topics for each of
the approaches that have been
explored in local hubs. A greater
range of exercises would make it
easier for the new methods to
become firmly embedded rather
than ending up as an occasional
set piece.
 We still have a range of inter-
esting issues that have surfaced
in various pieces of CS education
research that didn’t make it into
our original sequence but would
be useful for teachers to explore
in more depth.
After September 2015, the re-
sponsibility for funding the ongo-
ing work of the network will pass
from the Scottish Government to
Education Scotland, our main
agency for supporting and improv-
ing learning. We hope that both
our Leads and local teachers will
continue to meet together and
work to transform the quality of
learning. We hope Computing will
come to be seen as one of the
most exciting curriculum areas.
23 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk
Two years ago CAS Scotland secured funding from the Scottish
Government to provide a locally delivered programme of profes-
sional development. Peter Donaldson, the National Project Officer
for PLAN C, reviews the progress made.

24. Computing At School
are supported and
endorsed by:
Seals are contributing to global
warming research by carrying bat-
tery-powered sensors on their
heads, gathering data from re-
mote and inaccessible places.
The non-invasive sensors, tried
with sharks and turtles too, are
shed when a seal moults. The
sensors have been affixed to at
least 1000 seals over 10 years
and were developed by St An-
drew’s University Sea Mammal
Research Unit. Power is limited so
software must be efficient: they
have batteries lasting around 10
months. Concise data is fed back
to researchers via satellite.
Meanwhile, 13 endangered North
Atlantic right whales had their
calls recorded via sensors at-
tached to their backs with suction
caps. Analysis demonstrated that
one type of call, an upcall, let re-
searchers identify individual
whales. Whales use this call,
starting at low frequency but swift-
ly rising, to contact other whales.
Moose are being tagged in Maine.
They wear collars with GPS and
other sensors, monitoring their
wellbeing and feeding back when
a moose dies. Ticks, a deadly
threat to moose, are becoming
more prevalent as Maine winters
become warmer. Ticks usually fall
off moose and die as they hit
snow, but if snow melts early ticks
begin their egg laying-cycle again.
Research continues to explore
possible links between tick popu-
lations and climate change.
Increasingly, animals are regard-
ed as researchers. Bird tagging
provides migration data but mili-
tary applications use the data to
improve missile navigation sys-
tems, raising ethical questions on
the use of animals in research.
More information at bit.ly/1fZNhdf
and meop.net. Lyndsay Hope
The current issue of the cs4fn magazine is devoted
to multimodal design, showcasing technology de-
signed to help us experience the world using com-
puters, but through more than one sense at once.
Multimodal design is also a great way to support
people with limited senses who can't hear, or see,
or smell, or taste or touch. Some people find lots
of sounds, sights, textures, tastes just too much, and the mag-
azine looks at how computer science might one day help them too.
This latest issue was sent free to schools just before the summer break. Two
issues of cs4fn are published each year. Details of how to register to receive
hard copies can be found at www.cs4fn.org/teachers/. Past issues can also be
downloaded as pdf’s from the cs4fn site. New articles are also regularly added
to the website. Together they provide a wealth of interesting features, written for
school students looking at the application of computer science.
Computing At School was born out of our excitement with the discipline, combined with a
serious concern that students are being turned off computing by a combination of factors.
SWITCHEDON is published each term. We welcome comments, suggestions and items for
inclusion in future issues. Our goal is to put the fun back into computing at school. Will you
help us? Send contributions to newsletter@computingatschool.org.uk
Many thanks to the following for help and information in this issue: Phil Bagge, Irene Bell,
Julia Briggs, Beverly Clarke, Ian Crosby, Paul Curzon, Claire Davenport, Roger Davies, Peter
Donaldson, Mark Dorling, Lorna Elkes, Miles Ellison, Martin Fletcher, Dave Honess, Lyndsay
Hope, Simon Humphreys, Sally Jordan, Catriona Lambeth, Aida Martinez, Greg Michaelson, Ruth
Mulcare, Sydney Padua, Paul Powell, Sue Sentance, Andrew Shields, John Stout, Darren Travi,
Michel Wermelinger and Dave White.
www.computingatschool.org.uk
If you are a secondary school
teacher, please check your
school is registered with the
BBC to receive their micro:bits.
It is planned that pupils will get
their devices towards the end
of October, with teachers re-
ceiving them in advance. You
can keep up to date with de-
velopments (and find a link to
register) at bbc.in/1JLgSne.