The Junior School was delighted to welcome local schools to this year’s Junior Techathon. The Year 5 and 6 Digital Leaders were fantastic ambassadors as they hosted pupils from Poverest, Southborough, Trinity, Hayes, Farnborough, St Anthony’s and St Mary Cray Primary Schools.
The day began with an exploration of Sphero robots, including a mini obstacle course, Sphero Indi colour tracks and a Sphero Spark Bolt football match. After getting to know their teams through a binary code challenge, the visiting schools divided into activity groups for the remainder of the day. These included 3D designing a festive decoration, coding a timer game with Micro:bits, and creating stop-motion animations using iPads.
The school was particularly fortunate to welcome Andrew Tidswell from Discovery Education, who led a session for each group on using the SANDBOX Augmented Reality App. The children used the performance studio to design their scenes and bring them to life through the iPads, immersing themselves in environments such as a nature garden, an underwater world, a land of dinosaurs, or an ocean alongside blue whales. They then used these augmented reality experiences to create and record their own stories.
“Days like these have a massive impact on this age group, particularly when children who may never have considered themselves computer programmers begin to see creativity as an important aspect of using technology. Design thinking and problem solving are just as relevant as being able to code.”Sam Shallcross, EdTech and Innovation Consultant Teacher
The event provided an opportunity for the children to experience a range of technologies they may not usually encounter within the curriculum. It encouraged them to consider how creativity and collaboration are vital skills for the future, particularly when using technology to solve problems.
