Computer Science

2021 2022

COMPUTER SCIENCE REVIEW

WORDS BY Mrs Kashta Dale, Head of Computer Science

Computing is an exciting, interesting and engaging discipline which is increasingly permeating every sphere of human life. This includes keeping safe online; advances in medical science; space exploration; amongst so many others, all of which leads to a deeper understanding of our world as well as eliminating many mundane and laborious jobs. Our aims, at Bedford Prep School, are to continue to develop our students’ enthusiastic engagement with all things Computing! Each year group focused on a variety of topics within Computing from processing and digital assets such as: digital images and drawing in IT; Digital Literacy - being a great digital citizen and e-safety; and Computer Science - programming and computing theory. While students are introduced to E-safety as a stand-alone unit it is also revisited across the curriculum and in other subjects: in PD, tutor time and during assemblies, as it is such an important topic. This approach to the subject gives our students a breadth of knowledge from which to build upon as they move across the school and beyond.

YEAR 3

At the start of the year, our youngest students spent time getting used to our systems, learning passwords and password security for their E-safety component. They later went on to explore searching and sharing documents before moving on to inputs and outputs and digital drawing. Year 3 were also briefl y introduced to networks, security and how they work. This was followed by exploring block based programming on Scratch. It has been a fun year for Year 3: the students have really enjoyed the variety of activities and I cannot wait to support these enthusiastic students’ learning and building their skills next year. If there is one thing I would like to impress on these excited and keen students, it would be to learn their usernames and school email address ready for next year!

YEAR 4

Clockwise from top

left: Coolest Project Year 4 began the year Entry - Thomas, with an ICT project Dhruv, Ethan; which enabled them to investigate hyperlinks Coolest Project Entry, Thomas writing code; Austin and how to embed Reddy, Image links into text and Manipulation Unit; images when making Henri Helm, Website an interactive digital Year 6 Year, 5DR poster about a country in Africa. They progressed onto networks and how the internet works; looking at how to keep their information safe online. Year 4 advanced on to programming using LOGO turtle where they explored commands and count-controlled loops to create repeated designs using shapes. Writing commands, at this stage of their computing journey, will put these young coders at an advantage when it comes to other textbased coding later in their studies.

YEAR 5

Emailing was the focus for Year 5 at the start of the year; they learned how to send suitable emails, concentrating on formality and informality; attaching documents and embedding links. Their e-safety module

focused on reliability and identifying fake news which linked well to their digital photographic manipulation unit, where the students enthusiastically learnt a range of tools and vocabulary to create some very interesting images on Photopea. The Summer Term focused on programming where students used Scratch coding blocks to learn about selection in programming through making an animated quiz. Selection is a fundamental programming concept on which our students can build as they progress through the school.

YEAR 6

Year 6 stretched themselves to explore RAM, ROM, the CPU and computing hardware in the fi rst term. They moved into their e-safety unit where some students looked at how to keep their devices safe while others focused on staying safe online, particularly related to gaming. They used this knowledge and research to build a WYSIWYG website using Google sites. Students concentrated on web design principles such as building a navigation trail as well as the concepts of copyright and fair use in relation to using images or text online. “I enjoyed the freedom of making the website this year, as we could be really creative,” said Chris Gentry in 6W. The last term was split between Scratch blockbased programming; looking at variables and physical computing, using the Microbit to bring coding into a tangible realm. It will be exciting to see how the boys build on this experience next year in Year 7!

YEAR 7

Students began the year by studying computational theory, particularly looking at Logic Gates and Boolean logic. This was followed by Python programming where students began text-based coding. They made a Magic 8 Ball using the concepts of randomisation within Python. Dhruv Patel “I really liked the lessons and competition this year. I liked programming in Python, particularly making the Magic 8 Ball and using the random module as I found that really interesting.” Later the students showed off their sequencing and selection knowledge by attempting to build a Chatbot in Python that would pass the Turing test, giving their bot a persona that convinces a user that they are talking to a real person. “The most enjoyable Computer Science task this year has been the replit chatbot making. I fi nd this because it was quite fulfi lling to see all my ideas pour out into the code and create an ‘abomination’ of my own making which really opened my eyes to how fun coding can be.” remarked Jamie Kingsbury. The next unit for Year 7 was e-safety and ICT processing, where they completed a research project on Cyberbullying: wrote a report; created graphs and spreadsheets with their fi ndings and delivered a slide based presentation “I have enjoyed making a presentation and researching cyber-bullying.” commented Donnel Creek. Year 7 students’ fi nal digital design task was to make a low poly illustration using Adobe Photoshop “This was really fun, I’m going to continue doing it at home,” said Leo Clavier.

YEAR 8

Year 8 students developed upon the textbased programming skills they had begun in Year 7, albeit using different programming languages. They started the year using HTML and CSS to build websites. The boys learnt about design principles and colour schemes and embedding assets such as video and images into their websites. Next, they explored a module in data representation on binary calculations and character representation before the majority explored bitmap images on Photoshop. In the Summer term Year 8 investigated cyber security as their e-safety unit and the majority used their knowledge to produce a quiz using Python. Photoshop image manipulation Pixel Art work crested for Remembrance Day Competitions and Extra-Curricular: We have had a great year of Computing, fi lled with internal, national and international competitions.

The year began with students across the school, including Year 13, being invited to write an article entitled: “Are Robots a Threat to Humanity?” to be published in our prestigious ‘Bedford School Journal of Digital Learning’. The Year 8 students rose to the occasion and two students: Theo Young and Alfred Wright fought off fi erce competition to win the right to have their articles published. Both articles can be access via this link: https://issuu.com/ Below: Journal of Digital Learning bedford-school/docs/journal_of_digital_ learning_volume_4_-_robots_and_

This was a great start to an academic year fi lled with competitions and opportunities. The best part of joining in with computing competitions is truly ‘the taking part’. Other competitions in which students participated this year were: Bebras Computational Logic: open to all year groups was a fun way to explore Logic puzzles. The following students received best in school for their achievement: Isaac Raddan, Edward Keggin, Rory Brodie. Coolest Project Competition: Dhruv Patel, Thomas Whiting, Ethan Wrightson PA Raspberry Pi Competition: Year 7 – Daniel Lushchay, Christian Hiemstra, Dhruv Patel, Thomas Whitting, Ethan Wrightson Year 8 – Seth Baines, Ollie Cadman-Kerr, Charles Whittle-Queral. For their efforts in this competition the boys received certifi cates and Raspberry Pi Pico for the school and to inspire other boys to take part in coding competitions next year. Young Coders: Georgi Savkov-Lin in 5A received a certifi cate for his efforts in the activity. Internet Safety Day competition: won by Arthur Macey White in 3L

Taking part in competitions was only one of many extracurricular activities in Computing this year; we also ran a successful Coding Club/Computing Clinic as well as various 3D printing clubs.

Coding Club and Computing Clinic was open to all students who either wanted to further develop their computer skills; extend or work on their computer programming or needed extra support on a topic relating to Computing. The 3D printing Club, led by students in conjunction with DT - was also available to all students. Excellent work by Oliver Harris in Year 8 and Daniel Lushchay in Year 7 for their wonderful work and dedication in sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for 3D printing with the rest of the school. As mentioned above, it has truly been a great year for Computing and I am excited about the various competitions, topics and computing related clubs planned for next year!