Port Ellen Primary School

Port Ellen Primary School on Islay will develop an afterschool robotics club where overcoming challenges and developing children’s’ resilience is a key aim. Learning programming and building robots requires key skills like tinkering, debugging and perseverance. Coding can be tricky, but when successful it is very rewarding; by coding robots in real life it provides a real-world link to more abstract coding. Children will learn through programmes such as Scratch and Python, and use them to build and code robots using Marty, micro:bits, Spheros and Lego Boost. They will follow instructions, generate algorithms, and use their skills creatively, developing progressively more complex ways of working with the robots – from simple exploring and programming of Spheros using apps, to building a responsive robot in Marty, to more creative programming of inventor projects in micro:bits. After a pilot phase at Port Ellen, resources and materials will be shared with other primary schools on Islay and Jura including offering teachers from the other schools further training as part of digital skills CPD twilights. This would enable them to run clubs independently using the resources on loan, ensuring sustainability of the project and widening access across the two islands.