Question reference: S6W-27321
- Date lodged: 8 May 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 May 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government in what ways it supports (a) local authorities and (b) schools to encourage young people to learn coding.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the significance of learning coding skills as part of the wider technologies curriculum, with a range of specific Experiences and Outcomes under the heading “Understanding and analysing computing technology”.
The Government has supported the teacher led body, Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS), since 2020. STACS is an organisation supporting computing science in schools, run by teachers in partnership with Glasgow University, and is a one stop shop for computing science teachers to access high quality teaching resources and professional learning. One of the key aims of STACs is to promote computing science as a desirable career option to young people and their parents/carers. Over 83% of Computing Science teachers are involved in the STACS initiative across all local authorities.
Education Scotland (ES) also offers a range of support to schools in encouraging pupils to code. For example, they offer one hour “Curriculum live” lessons which teachers can download and deliver using a smartboard, including lessons on coding. They have also supported the expansion of the First Lego League in schools which inspires young people to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills by providing programmable robotic equipment, and ES run Computing Science Scotland Week which last year reached 365 schools, 384 educators and 9,658 learners.