https://codingatschool.com/blog/ Coding at School collects and reviews the best software, tools and resources for teaching Computer Science and coding in UK schools — from Scratch, Python and Kodu to GCSE Computer Science for AQA, OCR and Edexcel. en-gb https://codingatschool.com/review-python-for-kids/ https://codingatschool.com/review-python-for-kids/ Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT Python for Kids is a new No Starch publication written by Jason R. Briggs. Aimed at children from the ages of 10 up who would like to learn Python, the book starts with the very basics even down to in AQA Computer ScienceGCSEKS2KS3NewsOCR ComputingPythonRaspberry Pi https://codingatschool.com/kodu-kup-launched-in-the-uk/ https://codingatschool.com/kodu-kup-launched-in-the-uk/ Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT Recently at this year’s BETT show, the Kodu Kup was officially launched in the UK.  It has been running in the US for a number of years, but this is the first time UK students will get the opportunity Kodu NewsKS2KS3News https://codingatschool.com/the-art-of-creative-coding/ https://codingatschool.com/the-art-of-creative-coding/ Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT Taken from the PBSoffbook channel on YouTube: GraphicsNewsPython https://codingatschool.com/the-art-of-motion-capture/ https://codingatschool.com/the-art-of-motion-capture/ Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT Revision 3 have released their second episode of Good Job which looks at different opportunities in the gaming industry. This episode looks at the art of motion capture where they talk to Nateon Ajel GraphicsKS3News https://codingatschool.com/review-super-scratch-programming-adventure/ https://codingatschool.com/review-super-scratch-programming-adventure/ Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT Super Scratch Programming Adventure is a new publication from No Starch Press. KS2KS3NewsReviewsScratch News https://codingatschool.com/codecademy-after-school-club/ https://codingatschool.com/codecademy-after-school-club/ Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT Codecademy have launched an after school club project which includes a scheme of work teacher’s pack and a lounge for teachers to discuss ideas. KS3NewsWeb Design https://codingatschool.com/gcsecomputing-org-uk-review-gcse-resource/ https://codingatschool.com/gcsecomputing-org-uk-review-gcse-resource/ Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT gcsecomputing.org.uk is an independent subscription site run by Mike Coley. It hosts resources aimed at the OCR Computing GCSE (although AQA is also planned) and covers unit A451 as well as a few tip NewsOCR ComputingReviews https://codingatschool.com/arduino-creating-a-touchless-3d-tracking-interface/ https://codingatschool.com/arduino-creating-a-touchless-3d-tracking-interface/ Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT A clever use of the Arduino to create a very simple touchless 3D tracking interface. Could be a good project for an after school club. ArduinoElectronicsNewsTechnology https://codingatschool.com/new-python-mooc-course/ https://codingatschool.com/new-python-mooc-course/ Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT A new style of course, MOOC, is about to launch and Python is first up. GCSEKS3NewsPython https://codingatschool.com/the-art-of-glitch/ https://codingatschool.com/the-art-of-glitch/ Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Glitches – normally a headache for most IT users. Whether it be a corrupt upload or a scratched game disc. However, there are a group of people who are embracing these glitches and instead are turni GraphicsNews https://codingatschool.com/the-evolution-of-8-bit-art/ https://codingatschool.com/the-evolution-of-8-bit-art/ Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Following on from our story on Glitch Art, 8 bit art also has a good following. It doesn’t just end with graphics either, 8 bit music also popular and even has live gigs! GraphicsNews https://codingatschool.com/gcse-wjec-cs-course-accredited-for-2012/ https://codingatschool.com/gcse-wjec-cs-course-accredited-for-2012/ Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT WJEC have gained accreditation for their new GCSE course and it is available from September 2012. GCSENewsWJEC Computer Science https://codingatschool.com/alice-3-1-released/ https://codingatschool.com/alice-3-1-released/ Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Alice 3 has finally moved from BETA to a full release. Designed to help support the transition to programming in Java, Alice 3.1 is aimed primarily at KS4 and A-Level students. Alice NewsNews https://codingatschool.com/animation-12-winners-anounced/ https://codingatschool.com/animation-12-winners-anounced/ Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT The winners of this year’s Animation 12 competition was announced this week and now the videos showcasing their efforts have been put online. Alice NewsGraphicsKS2KS3NewsScratch News https://codingatschool.com/kodu-mars-edition-announced/ https://codingatschool.com/kodu-mars-edition-announced/ Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT Kodu have announced that they are soon to release Kodu: Mars Edition Kodu NewsKS2KS3News https://codingatschool.com/challenges-of-getting-to-mars/ https://codingatschool.com/challenges-of-getting-to-mars/ Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT A great video outlining the difficulty in landing the NASA Curiosity Rover on Mars. It is mentioned in the video that it took over 500,000 lines of code to program the landing procedure. ElectronicsGCSEKS2KS3NewsTechnology https://codingatschool.com/why-do-youtube-views-freeze-at-301/ https://codingatschool.com/why-do-youtube-views-freeze-at-301/ Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT Numberphile pays a visit to YouTube and learns the secret behind one of the website’s famous idiosyncrasies – why view counts on new videos often freeze at 301. GCSEKS3NewsPython https://codingatschool.com/kuato-play-games-and-learn-programming/ https://codingatschool.com/kuato-play-games-and-learn-programming/ Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT Developers Kuato are currently working on a very interesting project to help teach kids how to program whilst playing a game. They have licensed the AI technology from SRI International – the company KS3News https://codingatschool.com/ygd-bradford-workshop-highlights/ https://codingatschool.com/ygd-bradford-workshop-highlights/ Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT Young Game Designers have taken the best bits from the live stream of their workshop at the National Media Museum and put them online as a video tutorial. Watch their guest experts share their top tip Alice NewsKodu NewsKS3NewsScratch News https://codingatschool.com/guardian-seminar-round-up/ https://codingatschool.com/guardian-seminar-round-up/ Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT An excellent round-up of the recent Guardian seminar for Computer Science can be found here. GCSEKS3News https://codingatschool.com/scratch-and-python-course/ https://codingatschool.com/scratch-and-python-course/ Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT Coding at School is pleased to announce that we are running our first CPD course on the 9th and 11th July. It will cover both Scratch and Python and is aimed at teachers with little programming knowle CoursesGCSEKS3NewsPythonScratch News https://codingatschool.com/review-code-avengers/ https://codingatschool.com/review-code-avengers/ Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT Code Avengers is a website which aims to help teach Javascript (and soon HTML) to students. Designed by Michael Walmsley, Code Avengers is aimed at GCSE level students at was initially designed to cov GCSENewsReviewsWeb Design https://codingatschool.com/adobe-generation-course/ https://codingatschool.com/adobe-generation-course/ Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT Adobe have started a free online course for young, creative students. Aimed at students between the ages of 14-19 who would like to be games designers, animators, video artists, or photographers. GCSEGraphicsNews https://codingatschool.com/electronic-lego/ https://codingatschool.com/electronic-lego/ Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT Ayah Bdeir is an engineer and an artist. She has developed an open source system called littleBits of preassembled, modular circuits that snap together with magnets. It is similar in idea to LEGO, but ElectronicsKS2KS3NewsTechnology https://codingatschool.com/bafta-young-game-designers/ https://codingatschool.com/bafta-young-game-designers/ Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT The BAFTA Young Game Designers competition has launched again, but this time there is a slight difference. Previously students could only enter a design plan for a game (Game Concept Award), but this Alice NewsKodu NewsNewsScratch NewsWeb Design https://codingatschool.com/google-the-story-of-send/ https://codingatschool.com/google-the-story-of-send/ Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT Google has launched a new site the details the journey an email takes once you click the ‘send’ button. GCSEKS3News https://codingatschool.com/exclusive-computing-gcse-news/ https://codingatschool.com/exclusive-computing-gcse-news/ Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT Today I attended a computing qualifications meetup at Anglia Ruskin University that was attended by the three main exam boards; OCR, AQA and Edexcel. Please excuse any typos or mistakes – I have type AQA Computer ScienceEdexcel Computing ScienceGCSENewsOCR Computing https://codingatschool.com/scratch-2-0-news/ https://codingatschool.com/scratch-2-0-news/ Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT The Scratch 2.0 prototype will be made publicly available from May 17 to May 21 at the following address: http://alpha.scratch.mit.edu NewsScratch News https://codingatschool.com/review-play-my-code/ https://codingatschool.com/review-play-my-code/ Fri, 04 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT Play My Code is a website by Studio Fortress offering a browser based development environment to program games. KS3NewsReviews https://codingatschool.com/io-changing-the-game-cartoon/ https://codingatschool.com/io-changing-the-game-cartoon/ Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT IO (Interactive Opportunities) has released a cartoon overview of the IT journey in the UK with examples of people who are already making a difference. HistoryKS3News https://codingatschool.com/learn-4-life-interviews-apps-for-good-raspberry-pi/ https://codingatschool.com/learn-4-life-interviews-apps-for-good-raspberry-pi/ Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT Learn 4 life have conducted two interviews recently. One with Debbie Forster of Apps for Good and one with Pete Wood at the Open Hardware User Group about Raspberry Pi. KS3NewsRaspberry Pi https://codingatschool.com/from-gamer-to-racing-driver/ https://codingatschool.com/from-gamer-to-racing-driver/ Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT For those gamers in your class that play games dreaming of it being the real thing, this story is a sign that maybe it isn’t completely out of reach. News https://codingatschool.com/hackasaurus-mash-up-websites/ https://codingatschool.com/hackasaurus-mash-up-websites/ Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT Hackasaurus is an open source project from Mission:Mozilla. It is a suite of tools and curriculum that make it easy for anyone to learn webmaking through HTML and CSS. It is built around their X-Ray KS2KS3NewsReviewsWeb Design https://codingatschool.com/new-computing-gcses/ https://codingatschool.com/new-computing-gcses/ Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT For anybody interested in delivering GCSE Computing, there is an event coming up at Anglia Ruskin University with representatives from AQA, EDExcel and OCR talking about their GCSE in Computing/Comput AQA Computer ScienceEdexcel Computing ScienceGCSENewsOCR Computing https://codingatschool.com/national-code-club-volunteers/ https://codingatschool.com/national-code-club-volunteers/ Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT A volunteer project has been set up to try and encourage programming in primary schools.  ’Code Club’ is aimed at students between the ages of 10-11 and their aim is to get the club up and running in KS2NewsScratch News https://codingatschool.com/code-racer-revise-your-html/ https://codingatschool.com/code-racer-revise-your-html/ Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT Code Race is a website that pits you against other coders in a race to solve HTML and CSS problems. GCSEKS3NewsWeb Design https://codingatschool.com/raspberry-pi-on-cbbc/ https://codingatschool.com/raspberry-pi-on-cbbc/ Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT CBBC recently made a short video introducing the Raspberry Pi. Worth showing to younger students if you plan to purchase them for your school (if you can get your hands on any!). KS2KS3NewsTechnology https://codingatschool.com/facebook-launches-groups-for-schools/ https://codingatschool.com/facebook-launches-groups-for-schools/ Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT Facebook has launched a new service called ‘Groups for Schools’. This allows teachers and students to collaborate together and share un-copyrighted files between each other. It plans to make it easier GCSEKS3News https://codingatschool.com/inside-foxconn-how-the-ipad-is-made/ https://codingatschool.com/inside-foxconn-how-the-ipad-is-made/ Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT An interesting video was uploaded to Youtube yesterday showing how the iPad in production in China. Certainly worth showing to your classes. GCSEKS3NewsTechnology https://codingatschool.com/google-x-project-glass/ https://codingatschool.com/google-x-project-glass/ Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT Earlier this month, Google released a video showing their idea of the future in Project Glass.  The video shows somebody waking up and, through a first person perspective, follows them throughout thei NewsTechnology https://codingatschool.com/how-is-computing-taught-in-the-rest-of-the-world/ https://codingatschool.com/how-is-computing-taught-in-the-rest-of-the-world/ Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT The Guardian recently published an article about how computing is taught in other areas of the world.  The good news is that the recent changes here in the UK has been noticed around the world with ma GCSEKS2KS3News https://codingatschool.com/aqa-gcse-computer-science-now-accredited/ https://codingatschool.com/aqa-gcse-computer-science-now-accredited/ Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT As expected, the new AQA GCSE Computer Science course has now been accredited. It is supported by Microsoft and designed around mobile, web and gaming technologies. AQA Computer ScienceGCSENews https://codingatschool.com/creating-bone-chilling-video-game-monster-sounds/ https://codingatschool.com/creating-bone-chilling-video-game-monster-sounds/ Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT A really good video looking at the people who are employed to create the sound effects for video games has been posted over at Revision3 (a great internet television site for tech news and info). GCSEKS3News https://codingatschool.com/scratch-day-may-19th/ https://codingatschool.com/scratch-day-may-19th/ Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT Scratch Day is when ‘scratchers’ all around the globe get together to show off their projects. It has had a consistent following for the three years it has run with around 120 events taking place all NewsScratch News https://codingatschool.com/the-difference-between-boys-and-girls/ https://codingatschool.com/the-difference-between-boys-and-girls/ Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT A study in the US looked at how girls and boys, who were taught using the same method, programmed. News https://codingatschool.com/android-pc-on-usb-stick/ https://codingatschool.com/android-pc-on-usb-stick/ Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT At Mobile World Congress 2012, a Norway-based company called FXI Technologies has made its Cotton Candy — a tiny computer the size of a chewing gum packet — available for pre-order. NewsTechnology