Last Friday, our Year 13 Computer Science students swapped their usual classroom for Little Redding Primary School, where they delivered a coding workshop to the Year 5 pupils.
As the head of Computer Science at Bushey Meads, I was delighted to be there, and I can say without hesitation that our sixth formers made us very proud.
From the moment the session began, the Year 13s were professional, confident and highly engaging. They moved around the room to support every pupil, explained concepts clearly and led the session with a skill that many experienced teachers would admire.
The room was full of energy and excitement from start to finish.
The workshop challenged the Year 5 class to create their own Cookie-Clicker-style game in Scratch.
The pupils learned how to earn points by clicking an object, then spend those points on upgrades that helped them earn more efficiently. They chose their own sprites from the Scratch library, with many opting for animals and foods, and themed their games with real creativity.
As soon as their point-scoring function was working, the clicking began in earnest. Friendly competitions broke out across the room as pupils raced to see who could rack up the highest score. It was wonderful to see the class having so much fun while learning.

The Year 5 pupils were wonderful, welcoming, attentive and keen to learn.
They listened carefully to instructions and worked together brilliantly. At the end of the session, they thanked the Year 13s, and when prompted with “What do we say?”, the whole class replied, “Come back!” It was a heart-warming moment for everyone in the room.
The workshop was just as rewarding for our sixth formers, who thoroughly enjoyed teaching and supporting the pupils on their programming journey. They were a credit to the school, and we could not be prouder.
A special thank you goes to Ms Bragg for giving us the opportunity to deliver this session.
We are excited that this is the first of many cross-phase STEM projects to come, and we look forward to continuing to inspire young learners together.