The vast majoity of support requested by schools now takes the form of “hands-on” support along side teachers in the classroom. Here are a few of the kinds of things currently occupying my time:

Coding

This is still an area of the computing curriculum that many teachers do not feel confident to deliver. There are many resources and solutions out there but harnessing them is problematic. A model that’s worked well recently is a sequence of six sessions where I teach one and leave plans for the class teacher to carry on for a week when I return to take things further …

Children love extending their coding skills beyond a basic level and these sessions are a delight to teach. Precise equipment, apps, software will depend on what’s available and age of children. More here.

Virtual Reality Expeditions

Have you taken your class on a trip out into the solar system lately, what about to Egypt, into a volcano, inside the human body or into the desert. With half a class set of VR headsets and mobile phones and half a class set of iPads you’ve no idea how exciting things can get. Google Expeditions gives your children the chance to vist places that would otherwise be impossible. A great deal of learning goes on and with half a day there can be a great digital outcome from the session too to record the learning.

LEGO WeDo

Anything to do with LEGO excites children and WeDo capitalises on this and allows great learning to take place in Computing, Design & Technology and Science. A great way to develop coding and computational thinking skills. Several options are possible, the most popular being WeDo 2.0 which develops scientific thinking also. I’ll start you off with a half day session and then leave the kit with you to continue the excitement and learning.

Coding with drones

Children become wildly excited in these sessions, but when they’ve calmed down learning can take place with a number of challenges that allow the development of coding skills.

Seesaw / blogging

A fantastic free resource. I rarely make a visit to a classroom these days without making some use of this platform for getting resources to children, allowing them to share their thoughts around the class, documenting learning, sharing work beyond the classroom … the list is long. Seesaw can be embedded in most other sessions or