Computer programming or ‘coding’ is now a huge part of the Primary and Secondary computing curricula, and for very good reason! It is an absolutely fantastic subject for fostering a wide range of vital transferrable skills including problem solving, reasoning, resilience, creativity, self-regulation and thinking outside of the box, not to mention the extremely useful cross-over with maths. Thinking to the future, computer programming and software games design is also one of the fastest growing global industries and most lucrative employment opportunities, and this certainly shows no sign of slowing down. Above all it is immensely fun, can be done on your own or collaboratively and doesn’t require any expensive apps… just a device with an internet connection. If your child is keen to get stuck into some extra programming and coding at home, please take a look at the suggestions below.
KS1
For the younger children there several brilliant apps to try, all of which are free!
Daisy the Dinosaur https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daisy-the-dinosaur/id490514278
Scratch Jnr https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/scratchjr/id895485086
Bee-bot https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/bee-bot/id500131639
KS2
The hands-down best option for KS2 children is the Scratch website, which is free and just requires a parent’s email address to create an account. It has a lot of fantastic tutorials and ready made projects, as well as the chance to ‘look inside’ and tinker with all of the existing projects on there.
Mr Adkins
Head of Digital Learning