Innovation in Computing and Electronics

SERVICES

We support you by becoming a partner in innovation. You transform the teaching and learning of Computing and Technology Enhanced Learning within the curriculum.

We help.

We work with schools across all sectors to share insight, build confidence and hands on expertise.

We advocate design-led, project and challenge based pedagogies, foster creativity and the ability to problem solve real world challenges.

We run the Sandbox Education Learning System with bite size videos and interactve tasks to flip or consolidate professional learning

We run a hack club on the North of England where youngsters 8- 18 code, build applications with open data, create the Internet of things and computational art.

We support communities of practice in partnership with Raspberry Jams, Computing at School, Naace, Mirandanet, MiT, Young Rewired State, Rewired State.

We curate instructional videos and infographics, about computer science and electronics for young programmers teaching themselves to code

“For most people on Earth, the digital revolution hasn’t even started yet. Within the next 10 years, all that will change. Let’s get the whole world coding!”

Eric Schmit 2013

Testimonials

Leadership
We provide thought leadership to schools on emergent technologies and strategies to deliver Computing.
Workshops
We run bespoke interactive workshops and courses that equip teachers to deliver the new computing curriculum.
Teaching & Mentoring
We run code clubs, lessons, run hackathons & mentor coders teaching programming and computational thinking.
Digital Curation
We create online tools to facilitate collaborative learning and translate professional learning into change in the classroom.
Webcraft
We specialise in building responsive, retina ready web sites for schools that look great and work perfectly on all devices!
Physical Computing
We research and supply low cost electronic kits to schools exploring programming with physical computing.
Open Source Tools
We provide advice on the use of open source tools user friendly tools to teach coding in the classroom.

Siobhan Ramsey

CEO

Computing Evangelist, Working Member & Official Partner of Computing at Schools, Naace PD Tutor, Fellow & Certified ICT in Education Professional, MirandaNet Fellow. Bsc Hons, PGCE, MSc

NAACE Impact Award Judge 2014

Web Developer & Technology Adviser to the Burma Education Partnership

FET, Nantes, France, European Hackathon Winner of European Commission Art and ICT Residency 2013 -2014 Art of the Deep

FET, Nantes, France, European Hackathon Winner of European Commission Art and ICT 2013 Open Cities Data.

Short listed for Naace Impact Award 2014 for Global Community Impact at BETT.

Recent Events include:

NEM, Brussels, 2014, presentation of Art of the Deep an STEAM educational application, NEM international residency.

Conference Speaker on behalf of Computing at School at the Association for Information Technology in Teacher Education (ITTE) Conference 2013.

Conference Speaker, "Hackathons, CodeFests and Hackdays" at the Education Innovation and Technology Conference, Manchester Central, Feb 28th 2014

Workshop Leader, Raspberry Pi Mastery Workshop Code & Canvas, Raspberry Pi annual Jamboree 2014,

AQA, NAACE ‘ Teaching Programming at Key Stage 2 ’ Manchester, July 2014.

STORY

Sandbox Education was founded in 2003 by Siobhan Ramsey an experienced teacher and education consultant.

Driven by a passion for innovation in education, web technologies and physical computing Siobhan forged bridges between schools across 35 + Local Authorities.

She built network of open source developers in the UK, India, Germany, Holland, Slovenia, Pakistan and USA.

Sandbox Education went on to design open source applications to podcast and audioblog and teach web technologies in UK schools. We set up web & digital agency for schools and built online applications to utilise open data.

Success within education led to commissions from Charities and Third Sector Organisations to design, build and host web sites and run a digital community of practice for 12 charities.

In 2013 Sandbox Education took part in the UK Festival of Code at Young Rewired State, mentoring teams of young programmers who were successful as runners up the national final.

This led to creation of regional hack club with industry partners for youngsters age 8-18 to learn to programme, code and build applications.

A working member of Computing at School, in 2014 Siobhan attended the CAS National Working Group and a member of the editorial team for ‘Switched On’ the newsletter of Computing at School.

In October 2013 Siobhan Ramsey was one of 50 Artists and Technologists invited to take part in an international Hackathon in Nantes, France and was successful in being awarded a team residency for 2013-2014 to build a gamified art and science web application.

She was also successful in winning the Open Cities Data European Commission award in collaboration with Benedict Allen. The applications were presented to the European Union Commission in May 2014.

In September 2014 Siobhan has been invited to work with the LSO Education team in London and to run youth workshops and mini-hack camps for Music Tech Fest at the Barbican.

Daniel Lopez

Developer

Daniel Lopez is a experienced and creative programmer with a longtime interest in music, games and the interplay between them.

Music HackSpace London residency 2013,
NEN Nantes, France, Hackathon Winner, EU residency 2014-2014

Matthew Hall

Intern

Back end developer working with Python and Django on bespoke applications for education and creative use of open data.

Young Rewired State 2012/2013

COMPUTING & EDUCATION PROJECTS

” If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein

All 6 /KEY STAGE 2 L 2 /KEY STAGE 2 U 4 /KEY STAGE 3 1 /KEY STAGE 4 1 /KEY STAGE 5 1

Programming

Scratch Workshop

UX Web Site Analysis

Web Development Workshop

Visual Programming

Meemoo hackable web apps.

Computer Programming

Finalists 2013 Young Rewired State

Web Design

HTML the language of the web.

Digital Animation

IPad & Apple TV

APPROACH

Simplicity

We convey complex ideas simply in intuitive guides and interactive workshops.

Creativity

We create and drive innovative works through research and direct experience.

Equality

Equality is our touchstone. We tackle disadvantage and barriers to inclusion.

Community

We ‘pay it forward’ in CAS, Young Rewired State and run a community hack club.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

TESTIMONIALS

Siobhan has delivered high quality CPD sessions for me into Primary schools based on the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning. Siobhan’s knowledge and commitment are exceptional. I have also used her skills to help develop lesson plans and schemes of work around Computing in the classroom. She is a committed individual with ties to educational developments in computing within the UK and internationally.

Michael AlgerNational Professional Development Manager at Education , Company of the Year 2014 Bett

Siobhan worked with pupils and staff at Summerfield Primary school on a number of projects including using new web technologies to inspire and improve learning. The ideas she introduced to pupils and staff were amazing and sparked lots of interest and learning not just in ICT and digital literacy but across the curriculum. Her knowledge was detailed and she was always able to suggest or find digital tools that we could use straight away.

Jon FarleyEducation Development Adviser Modern Technologies, North Yorkshire LA – northyorks.gov.uk

Siobhan of Sandbox Education, supplied an excellent service for our school – she is very knowledgeable and helpful. She was always on hand with support and provided useful training sessions. Her expertise was invaluable to us. I would be very happy to work with her again and therefore would definitely recommend her.

Claire CousinsComputing and Data Manager, Normanton Common Primary School – normantoncommon.wakefield.sch.uk

The new curriculum for Computer Science is exciting and challenging for educators and learners. Siobhan brings strong leadership, intelligent advice and rich innovation into any event or classroom with passion. I believe that computer programming in education is the most crucial subject in the curriculum today for the future economy. I recommend and value Siobhan’s help at the Industrial Centre of Excellence at Shipley College and as a Young Rewired State mentor. Working with Siobhan in the community coding clubs has introduced me to new ‘must have’ ways of using, enjoying and teaching computer science technology.

Martin CottrellSection Leader Media, IT & Business Coordinator of L3 Software Development & Games Programmer Shipley College

Advocacy United hired Siobhan Ramsey, Sandbox Education, to create a website for all the advocacy providers in the Bradford district. Siobhan was professional and consulted all service providers and produced an outstanding website.

David NaylorAdvocacy United – advocacyunited.org.uk

Siobhan knows more about web development and creating websites with schools and their pupils than anyone I have ever met! I could say that her abilities are scary for someone who lacks experience in this field but this would be completely untrue as she is able to break everything down to very small steps so that those involved, whether adults or children, understand the why as well as the how!

Julie FranklandDirector, The School House Partnership – shp-vle.com

Siobhan created an excellent website for our charity. Siobhan provided a high level of professional expertise being creative, innovative and very knowledgeable. Her sense of humour and commitment to the task make her a pleasure to work with.

Bob AndersonDirector, Burma Education Partnership – burmaeducationpartnership.org

“Siobhan is a real innovator with considerable expertise in developing exciting ways of teaching the coding aspects of the new Computing curriculum. Her work with the 2013 Festival of Code clearly shows that visual and text based programming can be both challenging and fun.”

Paul HeinrichICT Consultant, NAACE Board – Paul Heinrich & co

Siobhan was a massive help throughout the Young Rewired State week where she helped us on the design and architectural aspect of our project. With her help we managed for our project to become runner up in the Best example of Code category at the National 2013 Festival of Code in Birmingham.

Rafal ChmielRuby Developer, Young Rewired State Participant – rafalchmiel.com

Many thanks for your excellent input to our ICT work during the recent training session. We found your session inspirational, very relevant and informative.

Andrew PhoenixHead Teacher, Hampsthwaite Primary School – hampsthwaite.n-yorks.sch.uk

Siobhan responds to requests for support quickly and her advice is always well thought out. She is also sensitive to any issues surrounding the task in hand.

Rob EllisDirector, Southern eLearning Associates – southernelearningassociates.co.uk

Her approach displayed professionalism, integrity and good knowledge about accessibility issues. It was a pleasure working with Siobhan. Bradnet and I would highly recommend her.

Reem HamidPublic Relations and Communications, Bradnet – bradnet.org.uk

Siobhan is able to consult with a wide client group to achieve outcome focused results that are to a high standard and accessible. Siobhan has experience in producing complex information in an easy access format which is informed by equality of access principles.

Sharon CullertonBMHAG – bamhag.org.uk

Very creative in the use of ICT in education. Very experienced as a consultant and trainer. Dedicated to quality CPD and customer experience.
Enthusiast for all types of digital learning and technology. Wrote Espresso KS2 lesson plans for Espresso Coding product, which has been very well recieved by customers.

Andrew Wilkinson Professional Development Regional, Manager Espresso Education

Thank you for allowing Tom to attend your Music-fest 2014 held at LSO’s St. Luke’s, Old Street last weekend. Not only was he inspired on the day by the activities you organised, his enthusiasm has spilled over into this week with him wanting to continue to develop his thinking based around the discoveries he made at the Music Hack event.

I was so impressed by Tom’s response to both you, and the Music Tech Fest 2014 event that I approached Tom’s school’s Headmaster with news of the possibilities that Sandbox Education could introduce to his school.

As parents, we were impressed by the range of activities on offer to Tom combined with the variety of inspirational leaders that were present at the LSO for this music Hack, and would recommend whole heartedly the opportunities available through attendance at similar events. Music Tech Fest 2014

Nicholas Kirkman-Wood Parent

As a participant in music-fest 2014 I thought that Siobhan was very knowledgeable and was of great assistance on many occasions throughout the festival. With a wide range of skills Siobhan really managed to help our group with the projects that we were working on.

Thomas

ThomasYouth Hacker Music Tech Fest

GET IN TOUCH

We’re very approachable and would love to speak to you. Feel free to call, send us an email, Tweet us or simply complete the enquiry form.

01274 584662
info@sandboxeducation.co.uk
@sandboxeducation

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VIDEOS

Innovation in Computing and Electronics

SERVICES

Leadership

Workshops

Teaching & Mentoring

Digital Curation

Webcraft

Physical Computing

Open Source Tools