CAS Conference 2025

TBC

You will have a choice of workshops to choose from. More details to come

Chat to colleagues and browse the exhibitors

You will have a choice of workshops to choose from. More details to come

Chat to colleagues and browse the exhibitors

You will have a choice of workshops to choose from. More details to come

You will have a choice of workshops to choose from. More details to come

A final catch up on the day and perhaps even the chance to head home with a prize!

Joe Cozens -Head of Transformation & AI , Clifton High School

A focus on the main teaching and learning AI tools that are being widely tested and used by schools, with a main focus on Microsoft & Google technologies. This will showcase exactly how these tools can be used for supporting teachers.

Ellie Overland , Manchester Metropolitan University

Following on from her edited book on inclusive computing education, Ellie explores the development of a truly inclusive curriculum. The session will consider how stripping back to basics, to revisit the purpose of the curriculum, can focus teacher’s attention on the learning that matters. Subject leaders will then be challenged to explore how minor tweaks to sequencing and activity design can better support pupils who face barriers to their learning. Participants may find it useful to bring their curriculum plans to the session.

Mark 'Mr.C' Calleja & Rujeko Moyo , Raspberry Pi Foundation

Raspberry Pi Foundation Code Clubs are accessible, engaging, and safe spaces where young learners build coding skills, develop transferable skills, and cultivate positive mindsets towards digital technologies. In this session, you’ll discover how to launch your own Code Club—with free, ready-to-use resources, expert guidance, and ongoing support to make it a success. But that's not all! You’ll also get hands-on with our AI Toolkit, packed with fun, easy-to-run projects designed to bring AI to life in your club. Whether it’s facial recognition, decision trees, or micro:bit-powered experiments, there’s something for every skill level!

Neil Rickus , UCL / King's College London

An introduction to pedagogical approaches suitable for use in the primary classroom when delivering computing content, including the teaching of programming concepts. This hands on session includes practical examples from the recently released CAS Primary pedagogy guide and is suitable for teachers of both KS1 and KS2 pupils. We'll examine the benefits of the approaches examined, along with discussing hints and tips to implement the guidance effectively.

Dr Yasemin Allsop, Prof Filiz Kalelioglu, Dr Melike Aslan, Dr Valerie Critten, Hannah Hagon , UCL

Stories provide children with a natural and engaging way to explore the world, fostering imagination and creativity while making learning more meaningful. When learning is connected to storytelling, it becomes more relevant, enjoyable, and easier to remember. This is especially true for abstract concepts like Computational Thinking (CT), which can sometimes feel disconnected from children's everyday experiences. In this workshop, we explore how stories can be powerful tools for teaching CT concepts and approaches. By embedding CT into storytelling through both plugged and unplugged activities, we create learning experiences that are interactive, hands-on, and appropriate for young learners with diverse needs. Activities such as retelling a story, identifying patterns, sequencing events, and breaking narratives into structural parts (characters, actions, and settings) naturally align with key CT skills like decomposition, pattern recognition, and algorithmic thinking. Throughout the session, we will showcase practical examples of story-based activities that integrate CT into classroom lessons. You will gain insights into how to design engaging learning experiences that not only teach computational thinking but also enhance children's literacy, problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Whether you are new to CT or looking for innovative ways to incorporate it into your teaching, we hope that this workshop will provide valuable strategies and inspiration.

Chris Leek & Aimee Williams , Three Spires Trust

This session will showcase how we’ve designed and implemented a progressive AI curriculum across our Multi-Academy Trust, spanning Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 5. We’ll highlight how AI concepts are embedded into science and computing through real-world, hands-on learning—including our Raspberry Pi BirdNET STEM project, where pupils build and train AI models to identify bird species from audio data. The session will offer practical insights into curriculum design, cross-curricular delivery, and strategies for scaling innovative digital learning across multiple schools.

Anna Wake and Harry Wake , Mission Encodeable

Experience a unique perspective on coding education from those who know it best - the students themselves! In this workshop, we’ll discuss some of the best ways we’ve found to make learning to code more engaging for our peers. We’ll also introduce you to Mission Encodeable, a platform that teaches students to code in an engaging way through building cool and interesting projects.

Jake Gordon , Cambridge Maths School

I'll be demonstrating some free online tools/resources I've made to help me teach OCR A-level computer science. I'll discuss how to use them to teach the course content, and the kind of activities you can set for students with them too. Tools include: - Binary LMC simulator: a user-friendly animated simulator using 2's complement instead of denary; a great way to learn assembly code, the FDE cycle and much more - Pathfinding on real maps: visualise Dijkstra and A* algorithms on real maps with over 100k nodes - Sorting algorithms: bubble, insertion, merge and quick sort visualised, with lots of options - PageRank: create nodes and edges and iteratively run the PageRank algorithm on your graph

Jonny Tridgell , University of Oxford

During this session I will share some of the key scholarly definitions of what it means to be a digital citizen and the application of virtue ethics to digital citizenship. I will make a case for the importance of thinking about digital ethics in every area of the school, as well as provide some practical suggestion for how this might be woven into the life of the school.

Jane Waite , Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre

As we shift to using and developing applications with machine learning elements, how can we help students develop useful (and correct) mental models of the data-driven parts of a software product? What different underlying competencies are needed to both critically use such applications and to develop them? To inspire our exploration of a new version of computational thinking, we will use a teaching tool created by a Finnish research team called Somekone. Don’t expect all the answers to what and how we might teach about AI; this is an opportunity to come together, discover and learn together.

Claire Griffiths

Come along and unleash your creative side while learning how to code a game at the same time! Scratch can be used to teach many aspects of the broader curriculum including numeracy, literacy, game development, music creation etc... Examples will be shown. Learn about the free online Scratch support materials including discussion groups, downloadable teaching manuals / help cards and lessons etc.. N:B Scratch files can be downloaded from the Scratch website/Desktop Offline Version to be opened / edited at a later date. Find out how to download Scratch 3.0. Offline Desktop editor.

Rachael Coultart

In this session, Rachael shares ideas and physical computing projects that will inspire even the most hesitant of teachers to get physical computing happening in their classroom. From EYFS to KS2, Rachael uses a range of culturally relevant physical computing projects that promote computational thinking, collaboration and programming skills.

Phil Wickins

If and when you get some much needed leadership time, do you know what to prioritise? What are your easy wins? What if you’ve missed something out? Join Phil in this session to maximise your impact as a leader, focusing on aspects such as sorting out your curriculum, assessment and evidencing, training your staff, keeping up with the latest pedagogy and resources and raising the priority of computing in your school.

Richard Pawson

At the 2024 CAS Conference, Richard announced Elan - the first new programming language to be designed specifically for teaching in British schools since BBC Basic in 1981. Based on feedback gained over the intervening months, as well additional innovative ideas, Elan has progressed significantly. Version 1.0 was released on May 1st 2025. However, Elan was conceived not just as a new programming language but as a means to the enabling of a new and better approach to the teaching of programming. In this session, Richard will be announcing and showing a new set of (free) teaching resources aimed at both GCSE and A-level. Naturally, these resources will use Elan - but you will also see that they are qualitatively different to other available teaching resources. The key differences are: - In each resource, pupils develop an interesting application that they will feel proud of: not a routine to find the largest of 3 numbers! - Every single programming construct and pattern in the syllabus is introduced as the answer to a need that has arisen, or a possibility that has been identified, in the development of one of these applications. - Drawing on the PRIMM concept, each resource includes reading existing code and trying to predict what it will do, before then modifying and/or extending existing code, and then writing new routines. Most surprisingly, perhaps, Richard will show that this approach can be adopted from the very first lesson in programming.

Nicola Looker , Edge Hill University/University of Glasgow

As computing teachers, we aim to help students develop the knowledge and skills required to solve programming problems while also empowering them to think critically and creatively. But are the problems we set sometimes too “sanitised”? Often, we don’t work with real-world problem statements and instead we deal with specifications that look like problems. These problems don't allow for discussions about how technology relates to the world, how real-world problems turn into technical solutions, or how technology is shaped by clients and users. They also limit students' opportunities for questioning, decision-making, and sense-making as this work has already been carried out by the question setter. So, what can we do about this? How can we ensure that our students are truly ready to tackle authentic, real-world problems, while also being exposed to different ways of thinking and knowing? In this collaborative workshop, we will explore key elements of programming problem-solving using insights from my PhD research. Together we will share experiences, engage in meaningful discussions and explore strategies that help students not only succeed in exams but also develop the critical thinking, creativity, and real-world problem-solving skills needed to thrive in the world.

Balazs Kecskemeti , Stamford Welland Academy

In this interactive workshop, participants will explore space technology through Arduino, building circuits to blink LEDs and measure temperature, pressure, and altitude. They will learn basic C++ programming using the Arduino IDE. The session will also introduce ESA’s Classroom Resources and highlight STEM competitions like CanSat, Moon Camp Challenge, and Climate Detectives Challenge. Additionally, participants will discover the STEM School Label initiative by European Schoolnet. This hands-on experience is designed for teachers, fostering creativity and engagement in STEM.

Justin Heath , Arunside Primary School

Discover how to bring code comprehension to life in your classroom using the FLARE model (Framework for Learning About Relational Elements). Building on last year’s successful introduction at CAS 2024 and recent publication in CEP ’25, this practical session explores how to help pupils make sense of structure and logic in block-based languages and Python. You’ll explore: A simple, powerful language for analysing relationships in code Ready-to-use templates and strategies for lesson inputs, comprehension tasks, and formative assessment Hands-on time to create your own classroom-ready materials with expert support

Tom Phillips , Moorlands Junior School

I want to explore the broader use of AI to support children’s learning needs across the wider curriculum. There is a growing demand for this, particularly in supporting children with English as an Additional Language (EAL) and those with special educational needs. The workshop I want to lead will focus on how AI can be used to support these children by training AI to assist teachers in the classroom, scaffolding learning, and ultimately reducing workload.

Meg Brough , Perth and Kinross Council

A session on the importance of learning through play, games based learning and how Minecraft can teach an entire curriculum. Meg will explain how video games can engage learners and support inclusivity in the classroom whilst demonstrating how simple blocks can help learners with ASN to understand the world.

Katharine Childs, Sonya Coakley-Hanan and Lynda Chinaka , Raspberry Pi Foundation; Three Bridges Primary School; University of Roehampton

Culturally relevant and responsive computing aims to connect learners' diverse backgrounds, heritage, and perspectives with computing topics and activities. This session is a mixture of research and practical activities for attendees. We will share examples of teachers’ real-world classroom use to engage all learners, including those from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Teachers attending this session will be inspired to consider how they can adapt their own computing teaching and curriculum to be culturally relevant and responsive to their learners.

Phil Wickens

Do you have Micro:bits that you’re not sure what to do with? Do you need Ideas and challenges for pupils? Want to know more about the awesome Crumble? Join me in learning how to make the most out of all the kit you have in school, and exploring cross curricular opportunities. Includes hands on experience with Crumbles & Micro:bits, please have Redfern’s Crumble software installed on your device: https://redfernelectronics.co.uk/crumble-software/

Claire Griffiths , Aberlour Primary School

Computational thinking can be introduced right at the start of a child's school life and will be useful to them throughout their school and working life, for example for breaking down tasks and looking for patterns. Unplugged Computing uses free activities such as puzzles and games to teach computing concepts such as algorithms, logical reasoning, cryptography and binary numbering. This workshop will introduce fun and very practical ways to learn about Computing Science.

Prof Miles Berry , University of Roehampton

In this practical session, Prof Berry begins with a consideration of the affordances and limitations of block-based or visual programming languages such as Scratch and Snap!. He explores some of the challenges that young programmers face when first encountering traditional, text-based languages such as Python. Participants share their strategies for supporting pupils with this transition during Key Stage 3. Prof Berry discusses some approaches, and demonstrates a range of programming tools and environments which can make this transition easier, and help pupils develop their knowledge and skills in text-based programming. Please bring a laptop, and stories to tell about how you've helped pupils take this step.

Laurie Gale , Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre

This session will introduce PRIMMDebug, an approach for teaching the debugging process to secondary students learning a text-based programming language. As the name suggests, this is an adaptation of PRIMM in the form of a scaffolded debugging-specific teaching process, along with an online tool that guides students through the process. I’ll introduce the process, demo the tool, share some initial experiences from teachers and students. This session will also be an opportunity to discuss the joys and challenges of teaching debugging more generally – and to share some approaches that have worked for you.

Ben Hall , Raspberry Pi Foundation

We have developed a comprehensive, multi stage, learner led digital skills based qualification aimed at students aged between 14 and 19. Try out the content for yourself and see how your students could benefit from our innovative approach to bridging the digital skills gap.

Richard Pawson

'Functional Programming' (FP) is expected to become the next dominant paradigm in programming, and is already gaining significant ground both in higher education and industry. As of now, the only place it features in school-level Computer Science is in the AQA A-level. Even there, while some teachers relish teaching that part of the curriculum, many more find it daunting and give it only the minimum attention possible. Richard Pawson, along with several other experts, believe that FP should play a much more substantial role at A-level, and even in GCSE. If you already have to teach FP and want to improve your understanding of it, or if you don't yet teach it but would like to be better prepared for its arrival, or you would just like to be able to talk intelligently about it in response to a question from one of your more curious pupils ... this workshop will help you.

Emma Goto, Tom Box & Ben Davies , Wonderblocks & Barefoot

Discover how BBC’s Wonderblocks can be a powerful springboard for developing computational thinking in your classroom. In this interactive session, we’ll explore how episodes can introduce key computing concepts and demonstrate how to extend learning using engaging follow-up activities from Barefoot Computing. You’ll leave with practical ideas and ready-to-use resources that connect storytelling and real-world themes to the computing curriculum—ideal for primary teachers looking to inspire learners and enrich their digital literacy provision.

Sue Sentance , University of Cambridge

In this session teachers from around the UK will present on action research projects that they have undertaken in their classrooms over the past year, supported by the TICE3 project. They have some very interesting insights to share that may be very relevant for your own classroom! You may also be interested if you have been thinking about carrying out your own action research project.

Jordan Stringer , St Andrew's Academy

The presentation discusses the journey of St Andrew’s Academy in improving curriculum sequencing and consistency using AI. Initially, their curriculum frameworks were inconsistently implemented, with planning relying heavily on teacher interpretation. Attempts to collaboratively sequence learning were valuable but time-consuming and unsustainable. The integration of AI offered an efficient solution, creating objective sequences aligned with their 'Preparation for Adulthood' curriculum and engagement model. These sequences, refined over months, are used as ‘St Andrew’s Stepping Stones’ to structure knowledge and skills progression. Future plans include linking these stepping stones with Evidence for Learning insights, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and improved outcomes for students post-19.

Andrew Hardy-Lenik & Nicholas Hughes , Yateley Manor School & Raglan Schools

An introductory session for educators interested in harnessing the power of esports within their extra curricular provision. We will explain the pitfalls and successes we have found whilst embarking on the journey. In this session we will discuss and explore what esports is, its benefits, the skills it can develop and possible curriculum links. We will discuss the events that have been run and how you might go about creating an esports club in your school. They'll even be an opportunity to try some of your skills.

Jo Hodge

Introduce the concept of what is AI and facial recognition. Unplugged activity similar to who's who with monster cards then link this to Scratch AI facial recognition and video recognition extension. Fun, practical hands on session that could be delivered in the classroom.

Matthew Wimpenny-Smith & Sam Lovatt , Oxford Brookes University & St Mary's University Twickenham

This interactive session explores practical, age-appropriate ways to introduce artificial intelligence through a digital literacy lens. Drawing on curriculum-aligned activities and the latest national guidance, we’ll unpack key AI concepts such as data, pattern recognition, bias, and ethical considerations. You’ll leave with adaptable ideas, resources, and strategies for helping children understand and think critically about AI.

William Lau -Assistant Headteacher , The Hospital School at Great Ormond Street Hospital & UCLH

I will discuss sample programs, do nows, workbooks and what we can do outside the classroom to improve pupils programming skills and their confidence in programming.

Jon Witts & Josh Crossman , Raspberry Pi Foundation

Get hands-on with physical computing using the Raspberry Pi Pico and micro:bit! This practical session will explore programming these devices using Python. Perfect for bringing coding to life in your classroom or club!

Neil Brown , King's College London

Motivating novice learners at school age to learn programming can be challenging. Printing “Hello world” or printing out your name rarely creates excitement in a world of full screen graphical games. In this session, we will show you how to make your programming lessons fun and engaging, leaving your students coming back wanting more. We do this by starting with programming interactive animated graphics in the first 20 minutes. This workshop will present both the examples and the tools that enable this approach. To achieve this, we will introduce a novel, online Python IDE – named Strype – that supports frame-based editing, a unique interaction style. Strype is free, open source, and runs online entirely within your web browser. It supports initial learning in Python as well as transition from block-based to text-based programming. Strype is aimed at teaching and learning at Key Stage 3.

CyberFirst, the NCSC/ GCHQ-led accreditation scheme guiding young people into careers in cybersecurity, is changing! What was once a regional programme is due to go national, and encompass all aspects of computing: AI, coding, web development and more. This session will give an outline of the plans as we know them, and why schools might want to be part of it.