Curriculum Enrichment Day - Computing

On Wednesday 19th May the children from both Mendham Primary School and St Edmund’s Primary, Hoxne, joined together for a day of computing.

The focus was the new curriculum and although the children have been taught using the new curriculum since September this was a day to give the children a taste of what more there is to come as well as looking at how computing is used in the real world. The children were organised into their house groups and worked in mixed ability groups. There was a carousel of 4 activities;

  • making films using only a laptop (this activity was led by our yr6 digital leaders, from both sites working together, and it was completely their own idea!)
  • looking at how websites are used and then having a go at using a template to create their own house website
  • using the Lego Wedo to explore how the programming works, then programme their own alligators and complete different tasks based on algorithms
  • Barefoot computing (Algorithms) KS1 and How the Internet works (Barefoot)(KS2)

MuseumBox - A cross curricular tool

If you could put a number of items into a box that described your life, what would you include? What do you think would be included if you were a Victorian Servant or Queen Elizabeth I.

If you lived during the English Civil War, what items would you include to make a case for, or against, the parliamentarians? And what if you want to persuade people to a particular point of view – what evidence would you present?

Museumbox is tool which can help pupils build up an argument related to a specific issue or pull together digital resources - images, video clips, audio clips, Word documents, text files, spreadsheets, weblinks etc to answer a specific enquiry. They can then present the results in a unique way.

Glossary of E-Safety Terms

The Internet and its associated services has spawned a wealth new terminology and redefined the many old words. Check out our useful glossary of good, bad and plain ugly words and phrases.

History Lines - The essential companion to the new history curriculum for Key stage 2 and 3!

What is History Lines? History Lines is a comprehensive resources that covers history as set out in the new National Curriculum. Its focus is on British history, but it includes views of Europe and the Wider World. It aims to:

  • Help primary pupils to understand the main concepts and aspects of History required by the new curriculum.
  • Assist primary teachers who may not have a history background to teach history
  • Provide secondary history teachers and pupils with a starting point for more in depth study

Raspberry Pi Myths

“The Raspberry Pi is cheap.”

The RRP for a Raspberry Pi model B is £36. And yes, at a tenth of the cost of an iPad it’s within the range of most families, teenagers with a Saturday job and indeed schools. However, your £36 doesn’t get you a fully functioning, ready to program Pi. You need a few other bits and pieces if you want to do more than merely admire the circuitry. Unlike the iPad or indeed a laptop, Pis do not come with a fully integrated power supply, or a screen, or a keyboard, or a mouse. Not even a case! Without these things your Pi is just a circuit board. And these things will cost more than the Pi its-self.

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