Light, Clap, Action! Pupils at Norwich Primary Academy work with students from STEM specialist college to hone their Computer Science skills from a young age

Although Computer Science is a requirement at primary school, we also know that more often than not, children do not have access to specialists in this area but at Norwich Primary Academy we’re doing things differently! Not only do our pupils have access to teachers who are Computer Science specialists, but with one of our sister schools being the Ofsted Outstanding Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form, we’re able to give our pupils the opportunity to work with students who are taking the subject at an advanced level, developing their skills and knowledge even further. 

Recently, our Year 4 and 5 pupils got the chance to work with Computer Science students from the STEM specialist college, showcasing their existing knowledge and practical skills to create lighting circuits as part of the group of Computer Science Workshops we have been running. 

Led by Dr Trudy Coleman, Computer Science Specialist from Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form, our pupils worked together to create circuits using ZIP LEDs. They were supported by the sixth-form students to code individually addressable lights using Python programming language. Pupils used  ZIP halo and ZIP strip to flash different colours and sequencing patterns to provide different solutions. The pupils’ creativity was put to the test as they worked to discover how changing their codes could influence how their lights interacted.

Dr Trudy Coleman said:

“The children programmed some amazing light displays, with many going beyond the scope of what I had planned!”

Using algorithmic thinking our pupils were able to apply their existing knowledge of coding in this workshop whilst practising some computational thinking. And it was lovely to see how excited our pupils were to tell their teachers about what they had achieved and some even said, “it was the best thing ever!”.

The Year 12 Computer Science students from Sir Issac Newton Sixth Form were proud to attend the workshop and were keen to support the pupils from Norwich Primary Academy, helping them to learn more about coding and to help them achieve their learning objectives.