Confident Explorers: home coding ideas for educators
The Confident Explorers programme from Parent Zone, supported by Google, aims to help all UK children and parents feel more confident about computing and to make the most of the future opportunities tech offers – especially those that might be marginalised in the tech world.
Computer science and coding can seem intimidating for parents – especially as it’s a subject that wasn’t widely taught in primary schools until relatively recently. This blog from Super Prof explains how it can open new horizons for children while Coda Kid has the ultimate guide for parents
Your pupils are a gateway to parents. Through them, you can engage parents in the importance of computing confidence for their children’s future careers and lives.
There are also many organisations that make it easier for educators to teach computing – especially if it is a topic that you don’t always feel confident in yourself.
Explore our resources for teachers, pupils and parents – and help your family community become Confident Explorers.…
Educator Inspiration
The National Centre for Computing Education has free membership, courses and resources for primary educators.
Computing at School has a wide range of resources, courses and events to connect teachers who teach computer science.
Hello World is a free magazine by RaspberryPi for educators exploring computing and digital creation.
Computer Science For Fun is a free magazine of activities, inspiration and ideas for pupils (and teachers!)
Ready Set Code offers coding magazines and activities for primary years.
Accessibility
Coding is for everyone – and it is more accessible to all that it might sometimes seem. There are a number of organisations that can provide additional information and support, especially for groups who have traditionally been under-represented in the world of tech.
Coding isn’t confined to those with easy access to computers! CS unplugged has fun offline games, including ‘mind-reading magic’, ‘guess the sentence’ and ‘kidbots’.
Discover resources for girls and non-binary children at She Code Connect.
Explore organisations inspiring girls to explore technology interests at Tech She Can.
Use Swift Playgrounds, a coding app designed to support children with visual impairments, from RNIB.
Discover great computer scientists with disabilities at Teaching London Computing.
Download classroom posters celebrating diversity in computing careers.
Listen to Parent Zone's podcast, Tech Shock.
Engaging Parents
CS First has lots of family projects – including designing a hero in your life, creating a story, or animating your family name.
Raspberry Pi helps families learn to create a website, code in ‘scratch’ and ‘html’ and more.
Blockly Games has loads of simple games and puzzles to try that build foundation coding skills.
Scratch helps children build stories, games and animations. There are lots of ideas to explore, whatever their interests.
Coding clubs are great opportunities to make friends, be creative and collaborate on exciting projects. If your school doesn’t run a coding club, you can help children and families find one nearby with Code Club. You can also search for Code Ninja.
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