The Junior School was filled with energy and creativity as our Junior Digital Leaders hosted their first Techathon for six local schools.
Our Year 5 and 6 Digital Leaders were joined by students from Poverest Primary School, Southborough Primary School, Trinity Primary School, Hayes Primary School, Farnborough Primary School, and St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School. Together, the children worked in teams with staff from various schools to complete a variety of engaging activities.
The day began with an exploration of Sphero Indi and Spark Bolt Robots, followed by group rotations through a series of activities. These included 3D design of luggage tags, coding flashing tree decorations and alarms using Micro:bits, creating augmented reality by drawing and photographing images and objects, crafting stop-motion animations with iPads, and tackling the Hour of Code Lightbot challenge to develop problem-solving skills.
The Techathon provided pupils with an opportunity to experience a diverse range of technologies, many of which are not typically part of the school curriculum. It also highlighted the importance of creativity and collaboration as essential skills for leveraging technology in solving future problems.
“Days like these have a massive impact on this age group, particularly when children perhaps have never considered themselves as a computer programmer, but start to see creativity as an important aspect of using technology. Design thinking and problem solving are just as relevant as being able to code.”Mrs Shallcross, Head of Computing (Junior School) & EdTech and Innovation Consultant Teacher
Feedback from pupils was overwhelmingly positive, with all feeling inspired to learn more about technology and its role in shaping their future lives.
