Like everyone else during the Covid-19 crisis, Technocamps has had to adapt to a new way of working. As a European and Welsh Government funded project we have been lucky to have the resources to enable us to switch to an online version of ourselves. Now, our new ‘normal’ is almost entirely virtual.

At the start of April, we launched online Activity Packs for parents and pupils to use at home, keeping young minds stimulated and motivated. There are now over 20 of these packs on different topics, aimed at different ages and abilities. All packs are available bilingually on our website and are absolutely FREE.

Activity packs are also supported by a team of our dedicated delivery staff. In May, we introduced a ‘Live Chat’ feature which offers access to one of the team from 8:30 am to 6 pm every day. Any pupil, parent, or teacher who needs support can now talk to a Delivery Officer and find help and assistance directly. Our afterschool code clubs also switched to an online virtual stream on a range of platforms, opening them up to pupils from across Wales.

We have continued to teach the teachers throughout the crisis. Face to face sessions have been replaced by Zoom Seminars for our VTCT Teaching certificate learners. In June we also launched our online CPD programme – FREE training for teachers in short, sharp bursts.

As schools in Wales prepare for the return of their pupils, we turn our attention to how we can further support the incredible work that teachers are doing in their classrooms. Of course, we would love to come in and deliver sessions in the same way that we always did before Covid-19, but we realise that this is impossible until we are given the green light by Welsh Government.

Our experiences working online over recent weeks has given us a way forward, however. We are now confident that we can offer schools a valuable virtual learning experience.

We are offering schools the opportunity to book FREE VIRTUAL WORKSHOP sessions in the classroom. Sessions are generally around an hour in length, but we have some flexibility and will fit in to suit the needs of each individual school. Our Activity Packs and online resources can be used as follow up work, to keep motivation and interest.

The topics that are currently on offer:

• ‘Unplugged’ Computational Thinking Activities
• Algorithms
• Introductions to Coding through:
• Scratch
• Greenfoot
• HTML
• Assembly Language including Little Man Computing
• Python
• Cryptography
• Machine Learning
• Ethics
• Pixels