Hello from BCS's new Primary Computing Subject Lead

Something unusual happened for me this September. For the first time in 23 years, instead of returning to Primary School for the start of a new academic year, I took up the position of Computing Subject Lead (Primary) at BCS. Over the years, I've been a CAS master teacher, a community leader, and I've been involved with developing resources, providing CPD, and delivering ITT sessions. However, this was always alongside my role as a class teacher. Now that I've made the switch, I thought I'd introduce myself to the community. 

My first week of work was a whirlwind of HR meetings, induction activities, training videos, and getting to know my new teammates and their roles within the organisation. It also included attending some exciting thematic community events. 

The first event was part of the primary community and focused on Canva. This wonderful tool allows pupils to publish a range of media resources and comes with a gallery of subject-specific materials, as well as the ability to import your existing media. It's incredibly user-friendly, contains a fantastic classroom tool for managing whole-class interactions, and, most importantly, is free to schools! 

The second training session was part of the AI thematic community and was entitled 'Mastering AI ChatBots.' I'll admit, if I were still in the classroom, I might have assumed this was aimed at secondary schools and skipped it. How wrong I would have been! The session provided a brilliant introduction to artificial intelligence and discussed ways that chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude might be used in the classroom as teaching tools. My favourite example was using a chatbot for hot seating; I couldn't resist playing around with this afterwards and ended up getting the chatbot to respond to questions as if it were a monk who had experienced the Viking raids on Lindisfarne. Fascinating stuff! 

If you didn't get the chance to attend either of these sessions, don't worry – links to the video recordings can be found at the end of this post.

My final takeaway from my first week was related to Barefoot, as I began to audit the existing resources. I was amazed by the sheer number of resources available and their exceptional quality. Some are approaching 10 years old and are just as relevant now as they were at the beginning of computing as a subject. It's a treasure trove for primary teachers! 

So, there you have it – my thoughts on my first week as BCS primary subject lead. Don't worry, I won't subject you to weekly musings on the role, but I will be sharing lots of information across our various platforms. Please feel free to contact me regarding any aspect of primary computing, whether it's to share your ideas, promote something within the community, seek advice, or alert us to some wonderful practice you've seen elsewhere. 

Have a great half-term! 

Ben 

Computing Subject Lead (Primary) 

ben.davies@bcs.uk 

Writing effective prompts with Chatbots

Canva session