Computing at School is excited to be supporting the Festival of Computing on Friday 5 March 2021, in partnership with the University of Plymouth.

This online event is packed full of inspirational lectures, activities and ideas for teaching and learning computing.

Coinciding with National Careers Week, there are also sessions for students and teachers which highlight the range of careers and higher education opportunities in technology, engineering, cybersecurity and more.

The Festival of Computing is a three-track festival: one for Primary and Secondary teachers, a student track for GCSE, and a student track for A-level students. At a time when most things in the world are driven by technology, this festival aims to support teachers with CPD needs, provide teaching information and inspiration, and to enthuse students with ideas around careers in tech and some of the subject areas they can study at the University of Plymouth.

This festival is a collaboration between the University of Plymouth and Computing at School (CAS) with a keynote speech from Julia Adamson Director of Education from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

The festival will be opened by Beverly Clarke of CAS and Dr Shirley Atkinson from the University of Plymouth.

Beverly Clarke, National Community Manager for CAS said; “This is an exciting collaboration between CAS and University of Plymouth. We’re thrilled to have packed so much variety into the festival programme and that so many different speakers are taking part. We hope that you join us for an enjoyable day at this, our first online digital festival.”

Dr Shirley Atkinson, Associate Head of Computing at University of Plymouth, said; "I am delighted that we continue to support the CAS community and the teachers in schools. This is so important and has been important to us in the six or so years that we have supported the community. Our physical conferences were always well received in years gone by and we hope that even in these strange times we can still help and support."

See below for a summary of events, to book your free place in the primary or secondary teacher sessions, and for details of the events aimed at students.

You can also download a full programme here and a copy of the brochure here.

Festival of Computing, Friday 5 March

9.30am Conference Opening and Keynote

Primary

10am Barefoot Computing

11am CAS Communities - Microbit & GoBubble

12pm NCCE Teach Computing and Computer Hub Programme

1pm Using STEM Ambassadors to support curriculum delivery

2pm EdTech Strategy for Primary Schools: beyond Covid

Secondary

10am An Overview of Isaac Computer Science and Discover Digital at PwC: Opportunities for you and your students with a leading technology employer

11am CAS Communities - Neon & The National Museum of Computing

12pm Using STEM Ambassadors to support curriculum delivery

1pm NCCE Teach Computing and Computer Hub Programme - the support available to secondary schools from the NCCE Computing Hub

2pm Edtech Demo Introduction and Taster Webinar - How to run CS on a Chromebook session

Students events

10am - 2 sessions to choose from:

1. What is a career in Computing really about?
2. Cybersecuritylecture + CyberFirst (NCSC)
   Cybersecurity Lecture: Cryptography – Cracking the Code Part 1 (with Rory Hopcraft) / Cyberfirst (NCSC): Cyber Defence Against the Dark Arts

11am - 2 sessions to choose from:

1. BigData/Recommendation Algorithms:
   If Romeo and Juliet were friends on Facebook... (with Marco Palomino)
2. CybersecurityEscape Room + Qufaro
   Cryptography – Cracking the Code Part 2 (activity) (with Rory Hopcraft) / Developing the Cyber Talent Pool via The CyberEPQ (with Julia Humphries, Qufaro)

12pm Artificial Intelligence – building machines that think for themselves (with David Walker)

1pm RetroCoding: Use a BBC emulator to make a game of Snake (with Anne-Marie Langford from The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC))

2pm Coding Challenge (Vivian Hocking/Shirley Atkinson)