Weeknote 24/2025: Adventures in educational ecosystem building
The power of stepping outside your usual circles
Hello!
This week felt like a masterclass in the richness that comes from stepping beyond the classroom walls. Between hosting networking events and welcoming teaching interns, conducting research with students at sports day, and taking in live performances that reminded me why the arts are essential, I found myself thinking about how much of meaningful education happens when connecting, reflecting, and watching.
Growing the Computing Science Education ecosystem
On Tuesday, I hosted the last Computing Science Education Network (CSEN) event of the school year, welcoming professionals from secondary, further and higher education, industry specialists and students from the University of Aberdeen. I’ve written about this already on LinkedIn but wanted to share a few snippets here in case you don’t use that site.
The gathering highlighted several key developments. There is growing interest in Teaching Experience Internship opportunities led by George Watson's College as part of an integrated pathway to increase Computing Science teacher numbers.
I met with Helen Boyd at the beginning of the year to find out more about this opportunity and, following our meeting and getting the chance to talk to university students about becoming a Computing Science Teacher, I was even more convinced that we all need to take practical steps to support those who are considering becoming Computing Science educators in the future.
While Klara and Oliver were selected to pioneer the internship programme at Albyn School, Helen and I interviewed many more who could become excellent teachers in the future, but couldn’t be placed due to a lack of partner schools. I aim to help grow this initiative in the North East of Scotland over the next session.
I loved that, at the CSEN meeting, there was passionate discussion around supporting a girls in STEM event, helping secondary school students understand the new HND Next Gen courses, resource sharing and even working together to create a winter event to entertain and inspire students, replacing a much-loved Cyber Christmas Lecture which used to be hosted by Robert Gordon University. If any of these interest you, please get in touch or join http://csen.csteach.uk.
Collaboration emerged as a central theme throughout the discussions. Participants recognised that local organisations need to support each other, identify opportunities to work together to increase their network reach and solve common problems.
Collaboration is a common theme in my weeknotes too, and recently I’ve been enthused by the growing number of specialised organisations that support and attend each other’s events and networking sessions. Recently, Pauline Cairns shared an event calendar designed to help organisations make those connections more easily while also drawing new attendees in from across the local area.
It was through in-person and online collaboration as well as attending the Unfiltered event earlier in June, that I was able to convince industry professionals to take time out of their busy schedules to support an event at Albyn School.
Inspiring students into the Computing Science sector
I was incredibly grateful to friends Koko Mbaram, Surya Ramesh, Darren Douglas and Pete Preston, who donated their time and expertise to speak to students at Albyn School’s careers event about working in the agri-tech, data science, artificial intelligence and software development sectors. Thank you!
There are many more who were not available on the day but kindly pledged support over the coming months. I’m looking forward to planning these events with them so that they align with the topics being taught, but also are of benefit to the visitors.
The benefit of real-world problems in Computing Science education
I worked with Klara and Oliver, taking part in their Teacher Experience Internship at Albyn School, to prepare new Advanced Higher students for a data gathering exercise at the school sports day.
The current sports day system for recording race results and calculating prize winners is impressive, but quite convoluted. A monster spreadsheet does the heavy lifting but comes with a seven-page instruction guide to allow staff to set it up correctly each year. As the event has grown, so has the need for a more flexible and accessible solution.
The Advanced Higher class took part in an agile exercise where we met for regular scrums and gathered data from students, parents, teachers and other staff as they fulfilled their roles. I also took on the boring but necessary task of mapping the Wi-Fi and mobile signal strength around the sports field.
As a team, we gathered excellent insights into what additional features would be beneficial in a replacement system and the current roles and methods of data collection we would have to be mindful of when creating prototypes in September. This data collection served as an important link to their curriculum, as fully understanding the problem from different user perspectives not only enhances the final product but also highlights empathy and listening as a critical skill when working in software development.
The option to take a lead on this project was offered to the students, as a small prototype could fit the requirements for their Advanced Higher project. However, if no one decides to work on this, it will make an excellent scenario for teaching throughout the year.
Watching the delight derived from performances
I wanted to ensure that Klara and Oliver experienced as much of the whole-school life as possible during their internship, so we took the opportunity to walk to Fountainhall Church during a lunch break to see part of Albyn School’s music concert. The choir, orchestra and soloists were excellent, and it was also nice to hear the cover band featuring a mixture of staff and student performers. The event ran smoothly, ably compèred by Owen, conducted by Karen and managed by Laura and Richard. It was lovely to see smiles on everybody’s faces, despite the huge amount of work required to put this together.
I also got the chance to see HMT Senior Youth Theatre’s production, part of the Light The Blue festival, this year hosted at the Music Hall in Aberdeen. The retro geek in me loved the Pac-Man theme, and I was very impressed by the way the actors confidently used the whole venue for their performance. I was left wondering if the grey ghost was just an urban myth or if they were in some way manipulating the world inhabited by the other characters.
As my son has been part of the HMT Youth Theatre for a long time, I might be slightly biased, but I feel that the soft skills developed when working as part of a small theatre group are invaluable: making friends, speaking clearly, and presenting confidently to a room full of near strangers. I wish I’d had the nerve to do this when I was younger.
Sometimes the most valuable learning occurs not when we're delivering content, but when we're building bridges with others, pausing to observe what's really happening around us, and opening ourselves to experiences that inspire and challenge us. Huge thanks to everyone who is helping build these bridges and, in turn, exposing themselves to new experiences, insights and friendships.
Take care and have a great week! xx