Reflecting on the Year

Reflections on this academic year, What a busy year it has been for CAS, culminating in the magnificent Virtual Conference. Hopefully, you all manged to join in at least one of the incredible sessions led by experienced educators. If not, you can still access the recorded sessions using the link below:

https://www.gotostage.com/channel/casvirtualshowcase-summer2021

There were so many positive conversations and engaging keynote speakers with a raft of resources and ideas provided. The conference began with the inspirational Baasit Siddiqui (Director of Siddiqui Education) sharing his 4 C’s (Content, Context, Collaboration and Creativity) which aim to ‘support teachers of computer science provide a love of learning and intellectual curiosity’. It was extremely interesting listening to his own computing journey and how creativity has shaped his career. Which was your favourite session and why?

Barefoot Computing shared some of their new Cybersecurity resources called Be Cyber Smart in a live session with Jon Chippindall and his Computing Ambassadors at his school in Crumpsall.  This session allowed teachers to see the resources in action and how they explore current cybersecurity issues such as the Computer Misuse Act.  This was a great follow on from previous Barefoot Live sessions delivered to schools earlier in the year which were very well received – my own children and staff loved them! These can still be accessed and completed in class on Youtube.  All of the short, online lessons included the Barefoot online games such as the Phisherman with a range of fun, unplugged computational thinking tasks.

 https://www.youtube.com/c/BarefootComputing

One last thing, I think it would be very worthwhile exploring some of the CAS Inspire 2020 stories on the Computing at School website https://www.gotostage.com/channel/casinspire20. Hear from some of the CAS community of experienced educators as they discuss topics such as Top Tips for combining Computing and Art to EYFS Foundations of Computing. All sessions are around an hour and offer unique insights into the Computing curriculum.

I would love to hear from you so please share any ideas or comments below so we can continue to improve and grow this forum. What are your priorities and support needs for this term/year?