Computer Science outside of school? (Leaving Cert)

Maybe they are but the word we have from in-service is that it all needs to be signed off as work done in front of the teacher, to even be wary about letting them work on it for homework and certainly not large chunks, like ok to edit a section but should be appearing with large tracks of code without us seeing the progress. I knew of a a couple of situations last year where the dept refused to allow the signoff, the school still facilitated the rest but just best to be sure given it's worth 30%

I had a scan at the website, it wouldn't fill me with confidence....the bit about the complicated way it's uploaded sounds like nonsense, it's a portal only registered teacher have access to run by the SEC. Worth having a look at the academy of code site too, they pulled out of offering after this year and have a fairly adament warning to check the principal will sign off on the project......and in that position, given I have no guarantee it's the students work, I wouldn't.

If I were you I'd go looking for guarantees, in writing, from kilmartin, the principal, and the SEC. Like if a student rocked up with a bunch of beautiful oil paintings and a project to sit the art history exam I wouldn't sign off on it if I've never seen the kid paint. I'd really struggle to see that the spirit of the course could be taught this way either, it's very interactive and being able to code is one component but one of many

If the work is coming from outside I think it's the principal who has to sign off, how on earth could they? I. Some schools they'd have never spoken to the child, nevermind knowing what their level of ability is in a subject they are more than likely not familiar with.

Personally I'd be very against this. It would open a door to paying a programmer to do it or a college students ect. There would be no way to ensure its a level playing field and would undermine work being done very honestly in schools.

To put it bluntly, there are also teachers out there who will not check if it is the students work and do not care. So if it is not checked then it creates an advantage to the students who had help v. the students (and teachers) who did everything by the book.

It won't be accepted by the SEC if there is no teacher to sign off on it.

Can the principal sign off instead?

I'm not so sure, there are plenty of unqualified teachers in other subjects signing off on projects.

My point being, it may say that the project must be signed off by a 'qualified teacher'.... But then again, needs of the school, extenuating circumstances might override this.

Going by the example above anyway, there is a principal signing off!

Of course they'd say that.

Just like our minister says that all teachers teaching maths should be qualified. Or every child has access to an SNA.

But of course if your VP is going to tow the line then that's that I suppose.

If there isn't a teacher supervising the project (qualified or not), then it's open season for any student to rock up to school with any project and ask the principal to sign off on it. Students are supposed to be doing this project under teacher supervision. It would be unfair on the students who are sitting in classes under the supervision of a teacher if another student can just circumvent that rule and get a sign off without any supervision.

Unqualified and unregistered are two different things. There is no recourse if an unregistered teacher is not following the guidelines or has lied ....there is for a registered teacher. The guidelines are a registered teacher not a qualified one strictly, essentially their teacher signs the P2 form.

The outside groups are also working for profit making it all the more appealing to sign off on anything. The main issue with signing off on the comsci is the coursework brief and instructions are very clear......it must be done in school in front of the teacher, the structure of the projects make this very sensible. I could knock one out for someone in a few hours and get full marks, but so could anyone with a decent working knowledge.

But yeah, we have more unqualified maths teachers than qualified in the country, mostly teaching JC and the majority will be science/business teachers with maths in their degree. Most of the people doing the Com Sci professional development had been teaching coding in the school anyway, either JC or TY, and would have had some exposure in college. I don't know any schools offering it where the teachers are not engaged with the PDST and aren't attending several traing days a term. It'll be hard to ever get enough comsci teachers any other way unfortunately.

It's so hard to get those teacher to Leinster where you have the real shortages. I'll be interested to see if it'll go the way of the Home Ec course in Angelas, with a significant proportion going to private industry. Maths and programming are very in demand skillsets, a smart IT heavy company might come poaching.

Hopefully not though. It's a brilliant course, a dream to teach and very well thought out and resourced. Students really enjoy it too, even the ones who won't use it later get their teeth into parts of the course. Great example of scrapping the old plan and introducing a well thought out course with projectwork, group work and practical exams along with a written one.......and then delivering excellent cpd

They'll have you straight in a maths class, I wouldn't worry about that!

The teaching council are a distaster, lots of people with a substantial amount of maths or computer science like engineers would be more than capable of teaching the com sci course, and be great teachers but the hoops and time make it difficult. Fair play for sticking with it!

Glad its working out for you, but why would the SEC have access to the account? That is absolute nonsense. That grinds school are going to tell you whatever you want to hear so you won't question anything. The SEC have nothing to do with student accounts. When the project is finished the class teacher uploads them to an SEC portal for when they are going to be marked. The teacher signs off to say they have supervised the work.

I'm not trying to pick a row with you, it's just not how the SEC operate. There would be questions to answer if someone in the SEC had access to your child's account. What account, something like office 365? What if they went in to have a nose, and deleted work by accident. Do remember, grind schools are a business, their aim is to get bums on seats and charge you for the service. No more than the 'I only get H1s comment', they will tell you whatever you need to hear to get you in the door.

There is prep work to be done before the exam, setting up files on USB keys etc for the students. Correct software installed on computers, computer science teacher on hand if a computer crashes etc. There is paperwork to be signed off. Will the teacher travel to Dublin to sign that off for your child. There are solid reasons for having the teacher in the school.