4 minute read
IN CONVERSATION WITH CHRIS WILDE
Paul Hudspith (92-99) interviews Chris Wilde (Staff 18-present), Head of Digital Technology & Computer Science
How do our readers differentiate between the widespread use of technology across the school, and the teaching of Computer Science?
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Put simply, Computer Science (CS) is “understanding of computer” versus Information Technology (IT) which is “use of computer”. What appealed to me from the job advertisement was Computer Science being viewed as an academic subject by an academic institution, as you’d expect from the RGS.
Talking of the job, what has been your career journey? Was computing a calling? Not at all –my degree is in Ancient History, Latin & Greek! I took a PGCE post-university, taught history for a few years, then off the back of independently developing online teaching resources, moved on to become an adviser supporting North Tyneside schools transitioning from IT to CS. A lot of those organisations struggled with a lack of ability to teach the subject of CS; in moving to RGS, I’ve been able to execute ideas I was previously struggling to implement thanks to support from the school, and the strong academic ability of the pupils.
How has the department evolved since you started in 2018?
We’ve grown and diversified to meet demand. In my previous role I had to up-skill in order to support the IT to CS transition, and whilst I could pass an A-Level I’m not degree level-educated in CS. Jo Lynn (Staff 19-present) joined us with an undergraduate degree in CS, then subsequently Matt Moore (Staff 20-present) joined the team having worked in the software industry before coming to teaching.
How do you introduce pupils to the subject?
In Year 7 and Year 8 (i.e. 11-13 year olds) we expose pupils to multiple programming languages, though emphasise an understanding of logic and the maths behind computing which is much more important than programming syntax. We use a book called Computational Fairy Tales by Jeremy Kubica, following a character through a magical kingdom experiencing a variety of computational problems in the fantasy context of the story (“Follow the established algorithm for quests, and you’ll be fine” the heroine is assured by a knight in the introduction!). This provides pupils with fundamental learning, an opportunity to play, then challenges them with a problem to solve.
How does this develop beyond Year 7 and Year 8?
Year 9 digs into CS proper including robotic control algorithms, fundamentals such as binary and hexadecimal concepts, and Python programming. We finish the year on cyber security; the RGS is one of 20 or so National Cyber Security Centre CyberFirst Gold-accredited schools in the country. Irrespective of whether pupils are continuing to GCSE or not, we believe cyber-awareness is an important area to teach.
How is the subject assessed at GCSE and A-Level?
GCSE is entirely paper-based; A-Level is both computer-based and paper-based. The paper-based exams feature specially laid-out booklets so pupils indent their code properly! There’s no coursework involved in GCSE (detecting plagiarism is hard!), though at A-Level there’s a nonexamined assessment of code written to solve a problem of the student’s choice. The GCSE papers are Computational Thinking and Programming, mostly factual recall, and Computing Concepts, testing pupils’ understanding and application of knowledge and requires more creative problem solving.
As if on cue, Jo Lynn enters the room and deposits a foot-thick ream of exam papers on Chris’ desk.
Are your pupils generally taking other STEM options, or is there a broader mix? Certainly at A-Level, there is a common pattern of Maths, Physics and CS. We find these students are often laser-focused on their particular solution, it’s sometimes difficult to convey that there are many ways of solving a problem in CS. Our current Year 12 students have been taught by the department since Year 9, and we’re seeing the impact of the lower school teaching on their approach to CS.
How does the pupil gender balance look when the subject becomes optional? It varies year to year of course, but roughly one-third of our pupils are girls. This compares very favourably with national numbers at both degree level and the wider industry. Having Jo on staff really helps us illustrate the subject isn’t just for the boys. We aim parts of our co-curricular agenda specifically at the girls; a great example is our all-girl Year 9 First LEGO League team, who were subsequently CyberFirst Girls finalists, all of whom are going on to take the GCSE.
Sorry, did you say LEGO?!
Yes! I’m a huge fan of using of LEGO to inspire interest and encourage creative problem solving. Teams competing in First LEGO League build a robot to take on an assault course and also have to present their work to a panel. They collaborate, iterate, learn and solve problems. This year we won a Breakthrough Award at the First LEGO League finals, but we’ve participated in many other competitions too. A Year 8 team won the Energy Award at the VEX Robotics championship, one pupil won the Game Concept award at BAFTA’s Young Game Designer competition and we had teams competing in the CyberCenturion finals. We strongly encourage broader engagement in the subject. We don’t run a “Code Club”, rather we open the classrooms outside formal teaching for the pupils to experiment with technology, and if they want to participate in competitions help and encourage them.
What’s next?
More more more! We have more students coming through every year who choose GCSE and A-Level, we have one of the busiest co-curricular programmes in the school and we’re seeing participation growing (who doesn’t want to build LEGO robots at breaktime?). We’re already smashing the various competitions and plan to continue this, but perhaps most close to my heart is to continue expanding RGS’s work supporting students and teachers in our local State schools. But I know there’s more about this elsewhere in the magazine.
Chris you’ve achieved so much, but I sense there’s even better to come. Thanks for your time.
