Scratch, the free block-based programming environment from MIT, is one of the most effective ways to introduce computational thinking to primary school learners, and it fits naturally into the Competency-Based Curriculum's emphasis on problem-solving and creativity rather than rote instruction. The barrier for most schools isn't the tool. It's that teachers themselves haven't had a structured chance to learn it before being asked to teach it. This is the plan we run with teacher cohorts during school holidays, when a focused, low-pressure block of time is actually available.
Why Scratch, and why teachers first
Block-based programming removes the syntax barrier that makes text-based coding intimidating for a first-time learner, whether that learner is a ten-year-old or an adult teacher who has never programmed before. Dragging and snapping blocks together lets both groups focus on the actual skill being built: breaking a problem into steps, testing an idea, and fixing it when it doesn't work the first time. That's computational thinking, and it's a CBC competency regardless of subject.
Training teachers first, rather than running one-off sessions directly for learners, is deliberate. A teacher who has built their own three or four Scratch projects can adapt the tool to their own classroom and curriculum long after any external workshop ends. A learner who has only seen one demo cannot.
Week 1: Getting comfortable with the interface
The first week is entirely about removing fear of the tool itself.
- Tour of the Scratch interface: stage, sprite list, block categories, the block palette
- Basic movement and event blocks: making a sprite move when a key is pressed or the stage is clicked
- First mini-project: a simple animated greeting card with one sprite and background music
The goal for week one isn't a polished project. It's every teacher leaving comfortable enough to open Scratch on their own and poke around without anxiety.
Week 2: Loops, conditionals, and interactivity
- Introducing loops (repeat, forever) through a simple animation that runs continuously
- Introducing conditionals (if/else) through a basic interactive quiz: click the correct answer, get feedback
- Project: a simple multiple-choice quiz game covering a topic the teacher already teaches (times tables, capital cities, vocabulary)
This is usually the week where teachers start seeing direct classroom relevance: a Scratch quiz on their own subject material is something they can genuinely use, not just a coding exercise.
Week 3: Variables and simple games
- Introducing variables through a score counter
- Building a simple catch-or-avoid game: a sprite that moves with arrow keys, collecting or avoiding falling objects, with a score that updates
- Debugging as a taught skill, not an afterthought: deliberately breaking a working project and walking through how to find and fix the problem
Debugging deserves explicit teaching time. Most first-time programmers, teachers included, assume a broken program means they did something wrong in some deep way. Showing that bugs are normal, and that finding them is a specific, learnable skill (change one thing, test, observe, repeat) is often the most valuable single lesson of the course.
Week 4: A learner-facing lesson plan
The final week shifts from "learning Scratch" to "teaching Scratch."
- Each teacher plans a single Scratch lesson for their own class, tied to a real CBC learning outcome
- Peer teaching: each teacher runs a five-minute version of their planned lesson for the group
- Feedback and refinement based on that peer session
By the end of week four, every teacher leaves not just knowing Scratch, but holding an actual lesson plan they can run in their own classroom in the following term.
What this needs, practically
A holiday-timetable course like this needs working computers or tablets (Scratch runs in-browser or as a desktop app, and works acceptably even on modest hardware), a stable internet connection or offline Scratch installation, and roughly three hours a day across the four weeks. It does not need specialist equipment beyond that; part of the point is that this is achievable for a school without a dedicated computer lab budget.
If you'd like to run a cohort like this for your school's teachers, or want the lesson plans adapted to a specific CBC subject, get in touch and we'll help you plan a cohort. You can also see how our STEM workshops and teacher training work.
