Surrey Homes | SH97 | February 2023 | Education Supplement inside

Pavel Malik, Assistant Head & Director of Digital
Learning at Radnor House Sevenoaks (below), discusses
the benefit of teaching coding skills from a young age
Learning coding offers many educational benefits. From
helping to develop digital skills and building future career
opportunities to teaching mathematics, computational
thinking and problem-solving. Coding also links to different areas of
the curriculum, particularly STEM subjects.
Setting the foundations for coding
Technology plays such an important role in our lives that we want
to instil interest and understanding of technology from a young age.
Creating a programme of study where Coding and Robotics start
in Reception enables us to build interest. Furthermore, it develops
IT skills at the same time we are introducing reading, writing and
arithmetic. Our focus is on robotics, using block coding instructions
in Year 1 and progressing to text-based coding in Python in Year 5
and above.
Developing digital thinking
All pupils in the Prep School receive one hour of computing per
week, helping them to develop computational skills which transfer
across different educational disciplines, including logic, writing and
research. When our Prep School students enter our Secondary School,
they are much more advanced at handling technology than many
new entrants and often help new students get up to speed.
Closing the digital skills gap
Reports show that the global jobs market is suffering a shortage
of digitally able workers, making skilled individuals highly desirable
and necessary for progress and economic growth. By investing in
skills from a young age and continuing this support throughout the
school, we are equipping students for global workplace success and
hope to inspire more under- represented groups to achieve careers in
technology.”
Radnor House Sevenoaks has an Open Morning on Saturday 18th
March 2023. Register interest at radnor-sevenoaks.org/opendays-tours
Cracking the Code
Two schools give us the
lowdown on coding and
computing
St Andrews Prep share their coding education know-how
How is technology integrated into your curriculum and school life?
Our rich and varied D&T curriculum encompasses a wide range of
technologies. As early as year 5 children work with and use computer
aided design and a laser cutter to manufacture their design ideas. In
Engineering children use civil engineering software to design and
simulate bridge designs.
Which year groups get involved in coding?
From year 5 to 8 children construct a wide range of electronic
products, including a Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer project where
children programmed their product to play different Christmas songs
and display different sequences of lights dependent on different light
levels, Silent Night being a popular choice as light levels dropped.
How do you encourage kids to get coding?
In D&T children develop their understanding of programming
through System and Control projects. Children use a software to
develop and simulate their programs before downloading their
program to their finished product. Year 8 have just finished making
and programming their electronic dice, where they developed their
understanding of electronic systems and micro-controllers.
Do you have any technology clubs?
We have an electronics club where children have extended their
learning by programming and constructing different electronic
products. In another D&T club children are developing technical
drawing and architectural modelling skills.
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