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Computing Projects

Code Club

Mission Zero

In 2020, as part of our Computing Code Club, we had four Petersfield Code Club teams enter the Astro Pi Mission Zero Challenge. The children wrote simple programs using Python programs to take a humidity reading on-board the International Space Station and communicate it to the astronauts with a personalised message. The programs ran on the International Space Station whilst it was over:

  • 1. Orenburg Oblast, Russia
  • 2. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA
  • 3. Just south of Hawaii, North Pacific
  • 4. Near the Pitcairn Islands, South Pacific

Shaun the Sheep – Mission to Space

The Code Club children learned how to code their own animation about the global flock-star, Shaun the Sheep, and his new alien-friend Lu-La. This project was part of the Code Club 'Shaun the Sheep: Mission to Space' Competition, which was open to all Code Clubs around the world. The children created their animations using Scratch. Click here to see one of their entries…

On Friday 20th January 2017, Rowan class were chosen to represent KS2 who have been learning new programming skills thanks to the support of The Technology Partnership plc (TTP) and David Anderson. Rowan class were filmed designing and making Lego "frogs" move. The film is available to view below. Our pupils were very excited and were able to demonstrate their love for learning and their acquisition of these technological skills.

TTP brings robotics to the next generation of coders

The Technology Partnership funds new robotics lessons to teach coding to teachers and students alike

The Technology Partnership plc (TTP) has announced it is supporting an initiative in Cambridgeshire to help teachers with the new skills they need to teach coding to the next generation of learners. The idea is being led by David Anderson, a robotics/software expert and former employee at TTP, who has strong ties to the education sector. The programme was launched in response to the need for new skills amongst primary school teachers who are now expected to teach coding as a core part of the National Curriculum. As a world leader in technology and product development, TTP works to ensure that the fundamental skills within its sector flourish in the UK market and believes this has to start with education – of teachers as well as students.

Computing at Petersfield Computing at Petersfield Computing at Petersfield Computing at Petersfield
Supporting the New Curriculum

In 2014, a revolution in the National Curriculum for schools replaced ICT with Computing, with a focus on equipping pupils with the skills to thrive in a digital world. As laid out in the guidance from the Department for Education, this has a particular focus on teaching "the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming." Whilst changing the curriculum will help bring talent into the industry in the future, it has resulted in primary school teachers having to learn to teach the new topic. A plethora of online resources and communities have sprung up to assist teachers in learning how to teach programming skills. However, such programmes are voluntary and require considerable investment of already stretched teachers’ time to achieve success. David Anderson, Robotics Programme Leader, says: "In 2014, the Government recognised that the old ICT curriculum was not producing employees with the skills required for the growing technology sector. Thus, a change was made to the subject to ensure that basic programming skills were being taught. Although the change was welcomed by the technology sector, it was apparent that there was a knowledge gap amongst teachers. That’s when I knew there was an opportunity for both myself and TTP to give back to the community and to share our expertise."

Computing at Petersfield Computing at Petersfield Computing at Petersfield Computing at Petersfield
Recruitment challenges

Peter Taylor, TTP Group CEO also commented, "Recruiting candidates of the right calibre is still a challenge within the technology sector, and whilst changing the curriculum has been a step in the right direction, it hasn’t taken into account the need for teachers to upskill in order to teach it effectively. By supporting this initiative, not only are we helping increase our future talent pool, we are also directly giving back to the local community and sharing our expertise where it is sorely needed. We hope that more schools adopt this approach in order to deliver the best learning environment for our future tech stars."

Petersfield Church of England (Aided) Primary School, Orwell

Petersfield Church of England (Aided) Primary School was chosen for the project due to its commitment to driving forward teaching best practices in technology. The school’s vision is to foster a lifelong desire to learn in its pupils, which marries well with TTP’s own culture of innovation and achievement. TTP has worked with David Anderson and the school to identify and develop the best training programme to benefit teachers and students. TTP has covered the purchase of LEGO® WeDo kits, to assist in the teaching of basic programming skills. Designed with schools in mind, the LEGO® WeDo kit contains a selection of LEGO® bricks, sensors and components which pupils can use to create programmable models. Whilst the kits come with a number of predefined projects that can be created, Anderson has been working with the school’s teachers to encourage the children to branch out and discover what new configurations they can build.

David Anderson said: "LEGO® is the perfect medium to use in programmes such as this as the children are already familiar with playing and creating using the bricks. It allows them to be more imaginative and experiment with the options open to them. I don’t feel that I am teaching them in a traditional sense, I’m helping them to experiment and work out the problems and solutions for themselves."

About TTP

The Technology Partnership plc (TTP) is Europe’s leading independent technology and product development company. Part of TTP Group, it combines the strengths of science, engineering and business enterprise to develop new technologies, new products, and new businesses. TTP Group is headquartered on Melbourn Science Park (near Cambridge, UK) and currently employs over 300 people in its businesses, of whom the majority are scientists and engineers.

Mission Space Lab

Two teams from Petersfield Code Club successfully completed all four phases of the ESA Mission Space Lab 2020/21. The first phase of the mission involved designing an experiment to run on a special Raspberry Pi - an Astro Pi - on the International Space Station as it orbited the Earth. The second phase was coding the experiment. The third phase was deploying the experiments to the ISS. At each stage, judges decided which teams should go on to the next phase, with only the best experiments being deployed to the ISS. Each Mission Space Lab experiment ran for 3 hours, during which time the ISS orbited the earth twice. The Petersfield teams’ experiments took pictures of the Earth using a special camera and recorded ISS location data. The map shows where the ISS flew over on one experiment and where pictures were taken where the Earth was in daylight.

Computing at Petersfield

The results of the experiments were downloaded by ESA from the ISS and sent back to school. Phase 4 was the analysis of the results and the creation of final reports. The teams’ final reports are here.

Computing at PetersfieldComputing at PetersfieldComputing at PetersfieldComputing at Petersfield

Special thanks for the parental support on Mission Space Lab which helped make this possible.

Code Club 2020/2021

In 2020/21, Code Club met online and in school when permitted. At the conclusion of the school year, we had our first Y6 leavers from Code Club. Here are two great examples of their work during their time in Code Club.

Are you looking for a way to start that all-important conversation about social media, gaming and other online activities with your son or daughter? Check out the latest issue of Digital Parenting magazine.

Thanks to Mr Anderson and our parent volunteer, Code Club continues to run on several nights each week and this year, we have entered some exciting online projects which were shared with the school in a special assembly. Pupils leaving school at the end of their primary journey can, with parent permission, keep their Scratch account to enable them to continue their coding journey in secondary school.

Latest News

10th Oct - Today we all have the option to wear yellow for Mind to show everybody we're not alone with mental health. School uniform should worn but an additional yellow item - such as a
hair band, yellow PE t-shirt or sock - can be worn today.

9th Oct - Wow! The BMX workshops and assemblies were fabulous fun and showed us all we can try something new and even when we are out of our comfort zone, with a growth mindset we can succeed.

7th Oct - Today in Collective Worship, we talked about our upcoming elections for our 2024-2025 School Council.

3rd Oct - Children from Pine and Hazel classes visited Comberton Village College to take part in some sporting activities. The children enjoyed trying out new activities and were encouraged by the Year 10 sports leaders.

3rd Oct - Today and tomorrow our Mini Medics are refreshing their First Aid skills. We are very proud of the pupils who have used these essential skills since last year's training.

1st Oct - Thank you to Rev Felicity and our pupils for leading our Harvest Service in church. Thank you for the donations to the food bank and for the monetary donations for Machemba school.

Latest Publications

Notices

Mental Health support, including crisis support:
YOUnited offers support to children and young people aged 5 to 17 with their emotional wellbeing and mental health.

Click here to access their resources including a link to 'Help in a Crisis' info.


Is your child due to start school in September 2025? If so, click here to visit our admissions page.


Have you visited our 'Reading for Pleasure' page where local published author Ute Maria is adding stories regularly? Click on the 'Curriculum' tab to enjoy the stories.


Have you tried any of the experiments in the science magazines you can find on the 'Science is Fun' webpage? Click on the 'Curriculum' tab to find out more.


Save yourself time naming uniform and raise money for school. Visit www.stikins.co.uk. Quote code 15787


As per County and national guidance, Petersfield will only close in exceptional circumstances or where instructed to do so. The decision will be made ASAP and displayed first on our school website in the 'Latest News' above.


Funding for Petersfield - As you may have read in the media, school funding is under threat. Please click here to see the information about how you can continue to help.


As we explained in a newsletter, we have updates our policies and privacy notice about how we process data in line with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations). Click here for the updated policies.


Please see our vacancies page for an opportunity for a Playworker.


Are you interested in being a Governor? Do you have HR or Finance skills? If so, please do visit our Governors' webpage to find out more about the strategic role of our Governors.

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