Year 9 students have had the opportunity to programme Lego Spike robot kits. The robots kits included distance sensors, colour sensors and grabbers, which students use to complete different missions. Students followed the Coding Success qualification and will all achieve a certificate to recognise their completion of the course. 

 Let’s see what Khadija had to say about her experience of programming with robots in her computing lessons: 

Robots are becoming more prevalent. According to some computer scientists, computers will play a larger role in your life during the next decade. We looked at how robots can be programmed to perform jobs in the previous unit.  

We started off by creating simple programs that were used to solve a problem by using a programming platform called Spike Prime.  We also studied things like sequences, iteration and corrected syntax errors in the program to ensure the programme worked as planned. At the end of the topic we made our robots move to different spaces avoid certain places or to program it to do tasks such as drag objects out of the way. 

We then started to look at the Mars Rover which had been programmed to land on Mars and accomplish tasks like digging and finding different materials or rocks which might not have been discovered on Earth which are later tested in the robot itself. The Rover included hearing sensors, direction sensor and an object sensor. We had some Scratch lessons on processes, selection using IF, and variables in order to code a game or complete a task. 

In general I think this unit was very fun and interactive as it was quite entertaining to be programming a robot to accomplish things, do multiple challenges which really pushed us to get better and also working as a group and improve our teamwork abilities. 

Khadija Y9 

Ms Shafiq 

Head of ICT  

Safer Internet Day 2022 was celebrated earlier this term, with the theme: ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online’ 

Safer Internet Day inspires a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively. Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, the celebration sees thousands of organisations get involved to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.  

Aim: To encourage year 6 pupils to stay safe online and learn how to behave respectfully whilst playing games and having fun online 

How: By creating one of the following: 

• Podcast 

• Poster 

• Comic Strip 

• News article 

• Presentation 

When: Entries need to be sent to your Computing teachers by Friday 25th February. 

The winning entry will receive a certificate and a gift voucher.  

Find out more about Safer Internet Day here: 

https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2022 

https://www.childnet.com/safer-internet-day/ 

Ms Shafiq 

Head of ICT  

Safer Internet Day Top Tips for Parents/Carers 

Ayumi Konno, the Outreach Manager of Ada National College for Digital Skills delivered a Digital Careers workshop to year 11 computer science and creative iMedia students.  

Students were able to find out about potential careers in the digital IT field and took part in online interactive activities to understand the digital field further.  

Ms Shafiq 

Head of ICT  

All year 9 students took part in the Bebras challenge last term.  The Bebras Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking to students. It is organised in over 50 countries and designed to get students all over the world excited about computing. We have had amazing results this year, with even more year 9 students achieving a distinction.  

Best in School 

Saoirse 9S 

Distinction (gold award): Top 10% score nationally in the intermediate age group 

Saoirse 9S, Aaliyah 9W, Yvette 9H, Isma 9S 

These participants will have the opportunity to take part in the 2022 Oxford University Computing Challenge, of which students who do well in the Bebras challenge are invited. It will be completed online by qualifying students in February.  

Distinction: Top 25% in the school 

1 - Distinction: Top 25% in the school 

Merit (silver award): Top 50% in the school 

41 participants achieved a Merit award for achieving the top 50% score in the school.  

All participants will receive either a certificate for participation or a certificate for the awards listed above. Many congratulations to all those who achieved a Best in school, Top 10% Nationally, Top 25% and Top 50% score in school. The ICT faculty looks forward to supporting those students taking part in the Oxford challenge in February. 

Ms Shafiq  

ICT Faculty 

Fun ways to learn and develop your coding skills. Happy coding!

The fun way to learn programming and develop problem-solving & critical thinking skills! Ages 5-18

Try a one-hour tutorial designed for all ages

Free coding classes in 12 different programming languages including Python

Create stories, games and animation

Trinket lets you run and write code in any browser, on any device.

Gina in 7G produced this beautiful pattern in Art based on a algorithm that she wrote the rules for.

Gina spent a long time doing it and it looks like she really enjoyed completing this task.

Well done Gina—a fantastic piece of work that celebrates Computer Science and Art!

Ms Healy
ADT Faculty

Words supplied by the ICT  Faculty

Our Year 7 students have recently been taking a closer look at their phones and identifying the similarities and differences between their phones and a desktop PC. They have done this as part of a new GREEN home learning project with their outcomes produced as interactive online presentations using Microsoft Sway.

If you want to find out more about this topic and see some of the excellent work produced by our Year 7 students then take a look below.

Mya

Hana

Elissa 

Gaia

Mahnoor

Aaminah