Skip to main content
Teacher Appreciation Day
Resources & Training

Teacher Appreciation Day

By May 3, 2022No Comments

Teacher Appreciation Day

         With Hardwick Green Academy

Creative Hut learning

Celebrating National Teacher Day with Hardwick Green Academy

To help celebrate National Teacher Day even further, we wanted to shine a light on Hardwick Green Academy and in particular, Sophie, who is a wonderful teacher at their school! We asked her a few questions about her role and in particular about computing & teaching. Make sure you have a read – Sophie is so passionate about her job and that really comes across in her answers!

What’s it like to be a primary school lead for computing? and how has the role grown during your time?

Being a primary school lead for computing is an extremely rewarding role. The role allows me to be able to share my passion and knowledge of the Computing curriculum with both staff and children throughout the school. The role of a Computing Lead has changed over the past few years due to lockdown. I was required to switch overnight from delivering Computing lessons to children in person to delivering and supporting the whole school staff remotely on how to remotely teach all subjects. I delivered remote staff meetings on how to use and teach using Microsoft Teams. Although at time this was very challenging, I was more than happy to help and support my colleagues in such unprecedented times. 
Now that we are back to teaching in person, I am able to put my favourite parts of being a computing lead into practice. For example, I love teaching KS1 how to write algorithms through dance moves. Delivering lessons to LKS2 using our fantastic resources such as Ozobot and Robo Wunderkind robots to allow children to put their computing knowledge into practice. Finally, using practical resources in UKS2 such as our Crumble controller to combine knowledge of Maths, Science, D&T and Art in STEAM based lessons. I could go on about all the things I love about teaching computing but this pretty much summarises it nicely. 

Do you think it’s important for teachers to support each other? How do you do this and how can other teachers do the same?

Being a primary school teacher is one of the most rewarding jobs you can have but at the same time it can be very tough! Teachers who do not have a computing background often say to me that they are worried about delivering computing lessons as the feel their subject knowledge is not up to scratch. I always encourage these teachers to have a go at delivering a computing lesson and not to be afraid of making mistakes. As teachers, it is not possible to be perfect all the time and I feel our children need to know we make mistakes when learning too and that mistakes help us learn. Having a growth mindset towards a subject you are not confident in delivering takes courage. However, it also brings the most rewarding results.

What’s your favourite success story you have seen when working with your students?

I would like to share an example of this that happened to me just before lockdown. When 6 boxes of RoboWunderkind robots arrived at our school, I had never used one before but rather than spending a few weeks practicing and learning how to use the new computing equipment outside of the classroom, I took the boxes straight to our Year 4 classes and explained the situation. I told them, that I loved computing, always wanted to learn more and that we have just had a delivery of brand new equipment and I asked them if they wanted to come on a learning journey with me. Together, we systematically worked though some example activities provided by Robo Wunderkind. I believe that as I was honest with our children about not knowing exactly how they worked allowed children who are normally reluctant to take part in computing lessons (predominately girls) feel at ease knowing that even their teacher was likely to make mistakes and learn at the same speed as them.
After using the equipment for a few weeks, all of the children thrived in lessons and were unknowingly demonstrating knowledge of other core subjects (science and maths) in our computing lesson and writing advanced code and debugging eachothers algorithms when things didn’t go to plan.
One lesson, usually shy, child exclaimed in class, “It must be 360! because that’s how many degrees are in a circle” followed by, “You need to debug your algorithm and add 360 not 90 to the sequence. You must have put 90 because you’re thinking about a right angle!” After hearing this, I knew my work was done and that I had created a learning environment where children were combining knowledge form other subjects, successfully using our Robowunderkind equipment independently and covering advanced computing concepts. That certainly was a proud teacher moment.

Being a primary school teacher is one of the most rewarding jobs you can have but at the same time it can be very tough! Teachers who do not have a computing background often say to me that they are worried about delivering computing lessons as the feel their subject knowledge is not up to scratch. I always encourage these teachers to have a go at delivering a computing lesson and not to be afraid of making mistakes. As teachers, it is not possible to be perfect all the time and I feel our children need to know we make mistakes when learning too and that mistakes help us learn. Having a growth mindset towards a subject you are not confident in delivering takes courage. However, it also brings the most rewarding results.

Contact CreativeHUT for more information!

Contact Us