Year 5 Techathon

Shrewsbury High School host a Year 5 Techathon Challenge where pupils from different primary schools in the area come together to solve a series of puzzles using cyphers.

Throughout the event, pupils work on their cypher skills as a team (of up to 4 pupils with a minimum of 2 girls) competing against other teams to win prizes.

Aims

To provide the opportunity for Multi Academy Trust students to be stretched and challenged.

To promote coding and programming to Junior pupils.

Background

Our Computer Science Department developed the idea and activities following discussions with local primary schools about the need for such an event.

The first event was held in 2023 and was hugely successful with 20 teams taking part setting the benchmark for future events.

Resources

The event is held on the school site in our New Hall and is run by our Computer Science staff with support from our Sixth Form Digital Leaders.

The event is run over a two hour period and is provided free of charge to all participating schools and is funded from our Outreach Programme.

Impact

Feedback from the first event was overwhelmingly positive and lead to the development of the Coding Project (funded by HSBC).

Pupil Involvement

Other than our own Year 5 girls (two teams), the other teams are all from local state primary schools and contain a mixture of boys and girls.

Frequency

This event happens once a year in the Summer Term and is planned to continue indefinitely.