Fantastic Colleagues and some Computing

I don't think I am going to be able to do justice to any discussion about everything I did, either Computing or other, this week at The Abbey School, Reading !

So perhaps I should start with Mei-Wah Field - the font of all knowledge. She was moaning at me yesterday; because I put on here last week that I missed her last Thursday and then this Thursday when she was doing her duty up on the #Computing Corridor (yes, I know we share it with #MFL as well!) I was absent!

Sorry Mei-Wah ... I would say next week but that's not going to happen either!

I love that I have colleagues who are so much fun to work with though.

I had a meeting after school yesterday with the wonderful Nadine Doble . I love the fact that not only did she apologise for having to have the meeting Friday after school but referenced the department karaoke Alex Baker , Paty Mogio and myself tend to have to finish the week. Fortunately the team waited for my return and we were able to belt out a few songs to see out the week in style.

After Easter Michael Dennedy and his form (Upper Fives, Yr11s) are having a Staff #Karaoke competition to raise funds for ... something, I really ought to know. Well, foolishly for me I was in the staff room when he and some other teachers were discussing it. Not only did I enter the room, but without thinking I said something. Next thing I know, the amazing Kimberley Jest , who I am so fortunate to have sitting at the desk next to me (even though her work ethic makes me incredibly jealous every day!) had not only signed me up but picked the songs I am to sing.

So last night I forced Alex and Paty to try singing one of my songs ... Dancing Queen by Abba. Great song. Not sure I will do it justice.

Paty then sang her song - Flowers (?) - I am going to have to admit my total lack of music knowledge at this point! I have no idea who sang the song.

Anyway ... Paty is going to thrash me in the competition!!

Re-reading this I realise I have used adjectives for lots of my colleagues but not Micheal. Which is unforgivable really given he is the #EnglishTeacher. What could I call Michael? He is obviously a #MicrosoftOfficeSpecialist Master. So maybe Masterful? It has a nice alliteration too?

So, this week.

It started on Monday. Monday was another big day for The Abbey. During the day there was a celebration of Women in Law, with the borrowing of a display from the Royal Courts of Justice and the unveiling of the #PurplePlague for the #InnovateUK award for Innovation in Family Law awarded to?Samantha Woodham's school.

I stayed late that day to be there at the launch of ARCH. This included fascinating talks including one from Sam, as well as drama based upon the stories of some of these First Women in Law.

ARCH is a hub bringing together individuals and organisations across Reading to offer opportunities and learning experiences for young people and young women in particular.

The ARCH programme offers a range of activities that develop aspiration and self-discovery, built on innovative community connections. At the heart of ARCH is a multi-school and Reading-wide partnership. This partnership connects to a network of individuals and organisations with whom we collaborate.

What unites us is the desire to improve the life chances of young people to help them explore and fulfil their potential and live with confidence, purpose and joy.

The Headteacher gave his usual brilliant talk too but one that resonated with me as it matched my values totally. The desire to support others who are not in the fortunate, privileged position that I find myself in.

I am just in the process of trying to persuade the #SeniorLeadership Team that the Computing Department should do its part in this; sharing our expertise and working with the National Centre for Computing Education , supporting our local hub acting as a venue and possibly with Alex and myself revisiting our Facilitator roles.

For anyone who doesn't know one of the main foci of this organisation is to train up more Computer Science teachers and support more schools to offer Computer Science to their students.

Obviously I do not know if this will happen or not. I know there is a genuine desire in the school to support the community and our partner schools. But, as we know, this can't be at the expense of the quality of provision in the school and it is this balancing act that the school, and me within the department, have to agree and plan for ... I will, as always, let you know if I manage to pull it off!

One of my colleagues who started at the school at the same time as me ran the House #Swimming competition on Thursday. Ollie Brewer did a brilliant job that I was surprised to get the opportunity to watch when I discovered that half my A-Level #ComputerScience students were competing!

What a great atmosphere to see students cheering their Houses and indeed all the competitors. Obviously I would have enjoyed it whichever House won ... the fact that #PagetHouse thrashed everyone is just an aside!

So what Computing have we done this week?

Well you all know I love #Cybersecurity and I truly do love the exercise we do with UIV students to illustrate a #DDoSAttack. In essence, if you have two people throwing a screwed up piece of paper to each other, this might demonstrate a server dealing with a normal level of requests. Now if you get the rest of the class to throw bits of paper to the server ... it can't handle all the requests and hides away from all the incoming missiles.

It's not an excuse to get lots of people to throw paper at a student. Honest!

We also got into a fascinating discussion about whether it was ever ethical to hack into another computer or account?

• If someone was missing?
• If you disagreed with what a company or country was doing?
• If a company paid you to test their security?
• To protest, or make a political point?

Our LIV students were trying to get their head around x, y, z coordinates this week so that they could build walls and houses in #Minecraft using Python. Add to this the use of iteration in the form of for loops and you have quite a tricky concept which they picked up remarkably well.

UIII meanwhile have been coding #Microbits in #Python - learning to use the accelerometer and radio functions to build tracking devices. Again, amazing to see them tackle tricky concepts with resilience and JOY.

And LV meanwhile had Parents' Evenings this week. Some doing really well and me sowing the seed for them to consider #ALevel after their #GCSEs - I feel it is important in Computing to make them think about continuing the subject, as for many, they have not actually thought about it before.

Of course, some students are finding it harder to pick up the algorithmic thinking element of #ComputerScience. I tried to explain how, when starting out, having to concentrate on both learning the syntax and trying to solve the problem means sometimes students who try to jump ahead (often because they see others doing this!) find themselves struggling because their mind is trying to do too much.

Trying to get students to focus solely on what they need to learn and to sometimes step away from the problems to make sure they fully understand the syntax and how to write the code before going back to the problems is hard.

Too often we look to what others are doing and compare ourselves, rather than comparing ourselves with where we were a week ago, a month ago, a term ago and so on...

Anyway, if you have got this far, well done!

Have a great week!