<strong>Education</strong> Magazine We provide healthy snacks and water to make sure everyone has plenty of breaks. What are the benefits of starting to learn ICT skills at this early stage? We feed a child’s natural curiosity by providing the simple foundations to learning code – which is simply a set of instructions. As confidence grows, young children are surprisingly adept at absorbing quite complex ideas and can transfer their learning to screen-based work. The language of coding is in the end just a way of ordering your ideas and finding a way to communicate your concepts to someone or something else. Who does the teaching? We recruit two types of teachers – all young, enthusiastic and great with kids – who complement each other’s skills. The first are experienced, trained teachers with exceptional teaching qualities, able to engage and inspire children. The second group are from universities like UCL where we find inspiring computer science graduates who bring true coding power into the mix – rocket scientists! All teachers have Cypher teacher training and are DBS checked. We maintain the highest standard of safeguarding with all of our teachers holding Safeguarding Level 2 certification or above. “Great special teachers, they’re really good at coding, they make it fun.” Eli, 9 “I would recommend you do it because you can do so much, and there is lots of instructions on the screen and really helpful bits. After all the hard work you feel really proud. And then you get to play the game you made!” Jemima, 8 Do you get repeat visits from keen junior coders? We have many repeat students. The main philosophy of Cypher is to offer a methodical, cumulative education in the language of the future – coding. Our approach means that each individual child can progress successfully every time they attend. The nature of our creatively themed camps ensures that there is always something new, always a novel way to look at problems and engage with different projects. The more kids attend the more enthusiastic and skilled they get. Have any junior coders surprised you with how quickly they’ve picked things up, or what they’ve achieved? Many of our coders make huge leaps and strides in a very short time surprising not only themselves but surpassing their parents’ expectations. Our greatest delight is seeing their creativity. What gave you the idea to start the camps? We want to show children that coding can help them achieve anything they set their minds to, no matter what they want to be when they grow up. Starting an education company seemed to be the best way to get to as many kids as possible. Were you in coding yourselves? Previously to establishing Cypher, Elizabeth Tweedale was a computational design specialist at several leading architectural offices including Foster + Partners and also co-founded a software company. cyphercoders.com MARLBOROUGH HOUSE How much ICT is used on a daily basis in the classroom? All pupils have access to ICT on a daily basis; as part of their learning.. Children also have access to computers during break times in our library and the senior school ICT room. What type of coding is taught and why? Our pupils start learning coding skills early, with IT lessons part of the curriculum in Pre-Prep. Children are taught to use block-style coding and then they move on to text-based coding. They build on their coding skills as they progress up the school. Which programs do you teach? We use a variety of programs to give our children an opportunity to understand that code is part of every website, app, smart device, and that even their car relies on code to operate. Pupils have access to several block editor websites along with Scratch, JavaScript, HTML and Python. How do you ensure pupils aren’t constantly attached to a screen? We have a policy of not allowing personal electronic devices in school – so no phones, no tablets – and this means that our pupils actively engage with each other on a personal level, they chat, they share knowledge, they play and they are active. How have advancements in technology affected the way lessons are now taught? Technology has been incorporated into our curriculum in numerous different ways. Teachers have changed the way they teach by using technology to help them explore new opportunities for learning. They now have unlimited access to online resources and are able to easily share ideas with other teachers. In lessons, computers are used when doing so confers a clear benefit, but they are not used all the time – except in IT of course! Marlborough House 01580 753555 marlboroughhouseschool.co.uk Pupils at Marlborough House have access to ICT on a daily basis surrey-homes.co.uk 70
Inspiring Modern Minds An ‘Outstanding’ IAPS school for boys and girls aged 9 months to 13 years offering excellent academic results, small class sizes, extensive bus routes, flexi, weekly and full boarding. 01323 733203 admissions@standrewsprep.co.uk www.standrewsprep.co.uk
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