How to Teach Coding in Schools

Takes coding from off-screen thinking onto the first screens, pitched for the infant and early-primary classroom. Floor robots make a sequence something children can physically walk; ScratchJr moves them to their first on-screen blocks; loops introduce the first genuinely powerful idea; and a lesson on routines makes sure the practical side actually works. Participants leave with a Bee-Bot activity plan, a ScratchJr lesson idea, a loops lesson sketch, and a coding-lesson routines plan.

Scratch is the workhorse of middle and senior primary coding. This module gets participants teaching it well: a first lesson that gets every child making something, a real project built with the PRIMM progression, a low-floor high-ceiling differentiation approach, and a way to assess coding that needs no written test. Participants leave with a first Scratch lesson plan, a Scratch project plan, a differentiated coding task, and a coding assessment plan.

The senior end of primary opens up the most motivating tools: MakeCode Arcade for designing and coding real games, the micro:bit for coding that reaches into the physical world (entirely on the simulator if you have no hardware), and a first taste of the web with HTML and CSS. Each is shown through a real student lesson and pitched as something a non-specialist teacher can genuinely lead. Participants leave with two Arcade lesson plans, a micro:bit lesson plan, and a web/micro:bit lesson idea.

The final module turns everything into a plan you can actually use. Participants map a coherent coding progression from Junior Infants to 6th Class, make coding genuinely inclusive for every pupil, fit it into a crowded timetable, and finish with their own year plan, a re-measured confidence audit, and a concrete first move for September. By the end, the Professional Learning Portfolio is a plan for a full year of coding in the participant's own classroom.