Teachers are really

getting their teeth

into the

Computing

curriculum,

with some

fantastic

digital products being planned and

created by the children—across all

year groups. Scratch has been a

pivotal program to get children

coding.

Mrs Davies

said “ All

my year

three class

loved learn-

ing how to

use Scratch

Junior on

the iPads. It gave them clear, step

by step instructions and each week

the children learnt a new skill.

Now my class are able to produce

their own projects with speech,

movement and sound. Here are

some quotes from them:

“It’s the best!” Bailey Davis

“You get to colour in the

characters how you like,” Katie

Cox

“You can create different scenes

and link them together,” Micky

Daniels

“Awesome projects with different

topics,” Tereza Noone

Business

Name

Issue 2—May 2016

Part 1 Pickhurst Juniors Tech News

Digi-

tal

In the second edition we hear from teachers

delivering computing lessons in the classroom, in

addition to key contributions from Digital Dudes.

Pickhurst

gets

creative in

computing Above: year fours are also learning

the required technical language

(well done Aaron Matthew)

Mrs Smith leads year five and has

been really pleased that children

now have their own unique login:

“By each child

having their own

independent area

on the network, it

has helped make

the students more

responsible within

computing and

ICT. They are building their own

portfolio of work, over time, that is

their own. Children (and teach-

ers) can review work from the

term and evaluate progress. I am

pleased the children have been

given this opportunity.

Emma Gjoni

(left: 5W)

designed her

own game

using

Scratch. Ask

Emma what

happens

when the helicopter collides with

the apple… ouch!

Below: Emma’s game with code

ClassDojo delivers! Mrs Robinson

is the Pickhurst

ClassDojo

Queen and she

had this to say:

“ClassDojo is a

brilliant app

which has

really been embraced by teachers

and students alike at Pickhurst

Juniors. It allows parents to be in

touch with their child’s day

through something called Class

Story – this allows teachers to

upload pictures from the class and

get quick whole-class messages

out to parents.

“Great activities,” Layla Djemali

“I like doing animations,” Lillian

Counsell

Below: original hand drawn design

by Leo Karageorghis (year three)

Mr Tugwell’s year fours used the

laptops - he said: “They enjoyed

learning from each other and

making their character carry out a

real life movement.”

Mr Tugwell believes that taking

tech to the next level would

require greater access to ipads for

the children, using apps to confirm

understanding.

Left: Our Tech News Top Man is

Year four’s Matteo!

Do you want to be

involved in the

next edition of

Tech News?

Do you have an

idea for an article?

Speak to your

Class’s Digital

Dude!

Above: Parents of 6W will have

seen this photo minutes after it

was taken.

Busi ness

Na me BYTE SIZE 1

Super Digital Dude Joe (above) has worked tire-lessly this year, co-ordinating many things including tech in the hall, running tech train-ing - and he also interviewed Matteo!

Rheannon (below)

is really passion-

ate about tech and

says getting into

“tech” is the way

to go as there will

be more jobs in

this sector. (oh

and Rheannon’s

Dad loves his

iphone upgrade!)

If you would like to contribute to the next Tech

News, speak with your Class Digital Dude!

ClassDojo continued: The children

also like seeing the points go up on

the board for good behaviour –

apps like this are also beneficial as

the children see how tech can help

in school.”

Emily Young interviews

Mr Rampton about

Instagram... What do you think of Instagram?

“If it is used in a sensible way so

it’s fun then it’s a good thing. I

don’t like it as you can dislike a

photo.”

Are you

worried that

children under

the age of 13

are on Insta-

gram?

“Yes, because

some pupils

don’t use Instagram in a kind way

and that’s because they are not

emotionally mature. If they are

using it and are under the age of 13

then an adult should supervise.”

ADVICE:

1) NEVER COMMUNICATE

WITH STRANGERS ONLINE

2) DON’T MEET UP WITH

SOMEONE THROUGH THE

INTERNET

3) IF YOU DON’T WANT TO DO

SOMETHING IN REAL LIFE

THEN DON’T DO IT ON THE

INTERNET (Emily - left - is interested in “using

moviemaker to create cool clips” and

wants to edit film and video when she

gets older. Thanks Emily for the inter-

view with Mr Rampton.)

Razak Gomes reviews

the Grammar-Monster

website

Digital Dudes

have been

very busy on

this edition -

Razak went

away and

looked at this

website, which might be really

useful for Pickhurst students.

“This site is about grammar and it

helps users to improve and check

their grammar via the internet.

The pros of this ingenious site are

that it is simple to find your way

around the website and instead of

just showing you the correct way

to do something, it also has the

incorrect way, which is helpful.

The website is good and

I would definitely recommend

Grammar Monster to children aged

7-15 - and to adults who want to

brush up on their grammar as it is

a useful resource.”

Blogtastic ideas!

Ms Ashraf has

some great ide-

as for year five:

“For the sum-

mer term, the

team will be

focusing on

forming cross-

curricular links with the ICT

curriculum. For example, we are

going to have the children record

themselves imitating The Talking

Skull, the story we are currently

working on for our Pie Corbett

unit. This will be an interactive

and engaging way to get students

actively involved in ICT and

English. In the second half of the

summer term, we hope to have the

students record themselves

performing a Greek chorus, which

is a collective dramatic perfor-

mance. The students will be post-

ing these videos to their blogs

along with a description. By using

ICT as a cross-curricular tool, the

year five team hopes to enrich the

learning experiences of the

students, and provide them with a

memorable end to the year."

Sounds fantastic!

Ms Walsh

added: “ So far

in computing

this year, the

children have

used Scratch to

illustrate their

knowledge of

algorithms in order to create ani-

mations and games. They loved

it.”

Tech biog -

Robert Noble tells all...

“Since I came to the juniors, my IT

skills have really improved. Like

many people, I am lucky to have

an iPad, which I use for just about

everything. My latest piece of tech

is a Dell Inspiron 3000 desktop

which I use for homework and to

complete my touch-type course

which I am doing with Mrs Allen

and Mrs Robinson. These days

my passion is film making. I use

a Go-Pro action camera and

sometimes I use a green screen to create special

effects. I edit my films using iMovie on a MacBook

Air. This term, I am editing a Year six dance video

with my friends. Watch out for it on the Pod very

soon.

Apart from making films, I also enjoy coding using

Scratch and HTML. I go to a Coding Club and my

dad is helping me to improve my skills. We have

just begun work on a project using a Raspberry Pi

2B. In Year five I ran a Scratch Club with my

friends and this year I even helped train the teachers

to use Scratch!”

Code Club - parent volunteers

wanted!

Year six have been

lucky to have Mark

join us for Code Club

but he has now

moved on. Recently

Mrs Malik took over

(left - with two

“coders”) - another

terrific parent

volunteer - in the first

part of this summer.

She had this to say:

“Code is everywhere

these days - the apps

on the smartphones

and tablets we use

everyday, the smart electronics in our kitchens and

living rooms, the smart wearable fitbits etc. These

are just very few of the examples of the code that

exist around us.”

IF YOU ARE AN INTERESTED PARENT WHO

MIGHT WANT TO BE INVOLVED — let Mr

Winkless know!

Hope you enjoyed this Tech News update - thanks to

ALL who contributed.

Issue 2—May 2016

Part 2

BYTE SIZE 2

Hishaam (above) has been busy running training sessions and you can see him on the Year four Scratch lessons website!

Cayan is getting

ready to step into

the year six tech

team - we are sure

she will be a

fantastic attribute

next year!

Eliana is another

student ready for

year six - we look

forward to working

with you!

Pickhurst Juniors Tech News