Mrs Inkson (Year 5 Teacher)

The Junior School Computing Club has been very busy this half term. The girls are spending the time learning about algorithms – the instructions or steps that a computer needs to follow in order to carry out a task.

During Tuesday lunchtime, the girls had to write a set of instructions on how to make a bowl of cornflakes – a task that would appear to be very simple! As it turns out, it is not nearly as simple as we thought. What happens if you forget to take the lid off the milk? Or if you forget to tell the person making it to pour the cornflakes into the bowl?  Or you forget to tell them to stop pouring?

What happens is a big MESS (and a lot of fun!)

The girls learned that you have to be very precise with your instructions. A computer will not do anything you don’t tell it to do – it won’t use common sense or assume that you meant to write that in the instructions.

The girls have also been practising giving verbal instructions to a partner in order that they can complete a treasure hunt to find the treasure. They recorded selfie videos tracing the route. The partner then had to watch the video, follow the instructions and find the treasure! Next week the girls will be programming Sphereo robots.