Hillcroft pupils take part in international event

Pupils at Hillcroft Primary School were given a glimpse of their
educational future earlier this month when they joined millions of other
school children across the world in taking part in an international computer
event called the Hour of Code.

Every child at the school, from Nursery through to Year Six, was given the
chance to explore the world of writing computer coding by spending an hour
working on an iPad or a Chromebook.

The worldwide event, supported in Britain by organisations such as Google,
Microsoft and the Department of Education, is to introduce children to the
basics of a skill which is likely to play a significant role in their
education in the years to come. To make it fun, however, they were given the
opportunity to discover how to animate popular characters such as Angry
Birds or Frozen.

“This is something that the children really respond to, which is also of
huge educational impact,” said executive head teacher Stephanie Scutter. “As
they grow older, coding is going to become an ever-more vital tool in their
future education and employment, so this is a great way to introduce it in
an enjoyable way, whilst also teaching them an essential lesson. It’s also
something that parents can get involved with at home, on home PCs and
tablets, as there are so many coding apps available, so what starts out as a
lesson in the classroom could end up having a far more wide-reaching result
for the whole family.”