The Computing at School North East Conference is back!

We will again be welcoming teachers from all over the North East to take part in a day of CPD activities. Working with Computing at School (CAS), the School of Computing will be hosting the CAS NE Conference for the 7th time. To keep up to date with the latest information, sign up to our mailing list below. 

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Outreach logo saying School of Computing Outreach into Schools

We’re here to help young people across the North East build essential digital skills. Our free workshops and activities are available to schools and colleges in the North East. They connect computing with real-world problem-solving and STEM learning.

Book a workshop

Why work with us?

  • Free workshops tailored to your students’ needs
  • Expert-led sessions from our friendly team
  • Bursary support for state-funded schools and colleges
  • Workshops hosted in the School of Computing’s £68 million Urban Sciences Building

Meet the team

With over 10 years’ experience in delivering workshops to local schools and colleges, our workshops are led by experienced staff and enthusiastic students from the School of Computing.

The team are led by Chris Napier and supported by Louise Talbot, Marie Devlin and other members of the School of Computing. The team continue the important work started by Dr Nick Cook, who retired in 2023. Without Nick’s effort and commitment to teaching of computing in the region, none of this work would be possible. 

Workshops

We offer free workshops for primary, secondary and further education students in the North East. All sessions are hands-on, engaging and designed to develop key digital and computational skills. Each session is tailored to the year group attending.

Bursary support: We can help cover transport costs for state-funded schools and colleges.

Group size: Up to 60 students per workshop.

Key stage 2 to 4
Length: 2 hours

mBlock is a free, extensible version of Scratch with blocks for connecting to and programming an Arduino.

It provides an accessible introduction to physical computing using a programming environment familiar to primary school students.

It also converts Scratch programs to their equivalent in Python.

In this session we will explore sequencing, patterns, repetition and abstraction through a variety of activities such as avoiding obstacles and following lines.

Key stage 4 and 5
Length: 2 hours

The world of driverless cars is coming. These systems are based on programming robots to sense their environment.

You’ll learn how to use C++ to program robots that can:

  • avoid obstacles
  • follow lines
  • sound warnings and flash lights when dangers are near

C++ is an industry standard programming language.

The Pibrella is a small circuit board that can be used on its own or with many other little projects.

Scratch programming

Key stage 2
Length: 1 – 2 hours

We’ll make sounds, flashlights and learn how to interface with Raspberry Pis!

Students will use Scratch GPIO to interact with the Pibrella, encouraging them to learn the fundamentals of programming. This session can also be delivered in Python.

Python programming

Key stage 3 and 4
Length: 1 – 2 hours

We’ll use the Raspberry Pi addon to make sounds, drive motors and learn how to interface with Raspberry Pis!

Students will be using Python to interact with the Pibrella, encouraging them to learn the fundamentals of programming.

Key stage 2 to 5
Length: 2 hours

Turing Tumble teaches a number of concepts and skills that are fundamental to computers, programming, and digital electronics.

In this session, we will use a Turing Tumble to understand how a computer works at a basic level.

Using switches and other connectors, we will solve different challenges that give you an understanding of some of the key Computer Science concepts and skills such as logic gates, binary, circuit design and computational thinking.

The concepts include:

  • logic gates
  • truth tables
  • conditionals
  • binary
  • binary operations
  • digital circuit design

It also builds skill in:

  • computational thinking
  • logic
  • algorithm design
  • critical thinking
  • debugging and troubleshooting
  • fine motor
  • spatial reasoning
  • persistence

Key stage 2 to 5
Length: 1 – 2 hours

The modern world is built on computer networks, from cloud computing to big data to social networking.

These systems connect many different types of devices and systems that all talk different "computing languages" over networks that can fail in many ways.

In this hands-on session, we will develop protocols to communicate with each other across a network and explore problems in networking and how to solve them.

Key stage 3 and 4
Length: 2 hours

Using a Minecraft world as a interactive environment, you'll learn key Python concepts such as:

  • data types and variables
  • loops
  • conditions
  • functions

Visit Bursary

Cost of travel into the University shouldn’t be a barrier for participation, so we offer funding to help state-funded schools and colleges cover transport or staff costs when visiting us. 

For more information on the visit bursary please see the central University web page. If the cost allocated by central University team does not cover the full cost of the visit, please get in touch with us and we will attempt to arrange further funding. 

How to book

Complete our online form to enquire about booking a workshop. A member of our team will be in touch as soon as possible.

For any questions, or more information, contact us at cs.outreach@ncl.ac.uk.