Tell us a little about yourself and your work
Kay: I am a Senior ICT Advisory Teacher with Ceredigion County Council and have been in post for over 10 years. Before that, I was a secondary ICT teacher.
Eryl: I’m working with Kay as an ICT advisory teacher in Ceredigion. I was a primary school teacher for about 20 years before being seconded to work with the county. The job is now permanent.

How did you get started working with Technocamps?
Kay: I was aware of the valuable work Technocamps was doing with schools for many years. During the lock-up periods, we as a county had to think of different ways of working and began live learning sessions to introduce digital skills to teachers and learners at the same time. We had seen the videos that Technocamps had provided to present different ideas about Scratch and various coding tools. This was one aspect we noticed that many teachers were quite unsure of how to present to their learners. We contacted Technocamps to see if they would be interested in working with us to run some sessions. We then arranged with Technocamps to hold one session introducing how to use the various aspects of Scratch aimed at learners in the primary sector. Feedback from the session was very positive so we organized a monthly session introducing different aspects of Scratch, for example animation and game making. These half-hour sessions were delivered in Welsh in the morning and English in the afternoon and were also targeted at different ages, from primary learners to learners in the secondary sector.
Eryl: He also invited Technocamps to run a virtual Scratch workshop with our Primary and Secondary Digital Ambassadors. The Digital Ambassadors aim to upskill groups of learners within our schools in Ceredigion in a variety of digital skills. They could then work with teachers in developing digital skills within their school by running lunchtime clubs and helping their peers in classes. The session was so successful that we invited Technocamps back to do a coding session within Minecraft with our ambassadors! The ambassadors enjoyed the sessions and learned a lot in the process.

Which part of the work has been most beneficial and why?
Kay: Holding the digital live learning sessions introducing various Scratch related skills has been a good way to upskill teachers and pupils at the same time. Feedback from these sessions has been excellent with many teachers praising how clearly Luke was presenting the concepts in an understandable way. As we were recording the sessions in both English and Welsh it was possible for teachers to watch the sessions back if they were unable to attend the live learning session or to revisit any aspect.

How do you think the skills and knowledge provided by Technocamps are used?
Eryl: Many of our teachers within the county have mentioned that their confidence and understanding of using Scratch has developed while watching the sessions. Some have adapted the ideas they have come up with to create their own projects using Scratch.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Kay: We would like to thank Technocamps and Luke in particular for his willingness to work with us on the live learning sessions and ambassadors projects and we look forward to working together more in the future.