Latest news with #NationalProgressionAward
The Herald Scotland
21-05-2025
- The Herald Scotland
How one Glasgow school used new courses to open pathways for pupils
In an effort to open up the options available to young people, staff at Hyndland decided to introduce a new qualification: a National Progression Award in Computer Games Development. The experience with that course was largely positive. The lack of an exam at the end of a NPA was a key benefit for many, and the school found that young people taking part were more engaged because they were being permitted to focus on and pursue a really specific area of interest. So when a new NPA in Cybersecurity was introduced in 2015, the school once again decided to give it a go. But even with their existing experience of these courses, and a committed Computing Science department, this new programme seemed daunting, with students to be given the chance to explore areas such as data security, digital forensics and, most worrying of all, ethical hacking. Fortunately, the department's earlier work paid off at this point when a former student now working in the field offered to work with the school to establish the programme. 'I thought it sounded really interesting,' explains George Mullin, a computing teacher at the school, 'and one of my ex-pupils had gone on to study cyber security at Glasgow Caledonian University. We were still in touch with each other so I mentioned it to him and he was really generous with his time. He was showing me the systems that the university used and I thought that looked fantastic.' Despite the enthusiasm for developing the course, the technical logistics were still an issue – but when the university agreed to allow teachers and pupils to use their software, the possibilities really opened up. 'We became a pilot school to basically get this up and working, and obviously we had to configure that to match the needs of the NPA course that we're delivering. So there was a lot of work done around that and ironing out the kind of technical issues, but once we had that proof of concept we thought we could roll that out to other schools in Glasgow that are looking at deliver the NPA.' CyberFirst lead teacher at Hyndland Secondary George Mullin (Image: Gordon Terris) Today, schools across Glasgow benefit from this relationship with Glasgow Caledonian University, allowing many more young people to pursue a course that may otherwise have remained too difficult to deliver. Mr Mullin is also keen to highlight the support of Education Scotland, which in recent years has provided access to a platform called TryHackMe. The support they have received, combined with the hard work of staff, has helped to ensure that these new courses can offer real value for students at Hyndland: 'We could do the bare minimum and just get through the course but because we've got these toys, for want of a better expression, to play with it makes it a much richer learning experience for the kids.' That is clearly beneficial for those completing this particular programme, but the school has also seen wider benefits. Some of those completing NPA courses in the school's Business and Computing Faculty have used them as a bridge between National 5 and Higher qualifications, and broader interest in Computing Science as a subject also seems to have improved. And benefits go further still. The success of these innovations has helped school to develop other NPA offers and even inspired more options for BGE. One example of this work has culminated in Hyndland achieving the Gold Award in the CyberFirst programme, which has been developed by the National Cyber Security Centre in GCHQ, and coming first in Scotland for the recent Cyberfirst Girls' Competition. According to headteacher Louise Edgerton, the success of programmes like Cybersecurity the NPA show the importance of opening up 'pathways' for students in schools, and working to ensure that as many options as possible are made available to them. And for the computing department, the results are clear: 'We've get kids in our department now that we probably wouldn't have if we weren't offering these opportunities,' Mr Mullin says. 'That's the bottom line.'
BBC News
01-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'I study esports at school - it's not just playing games'
At well over six feet tall, you might think that Alfie would be more at home in the forwards pack on the rugby pitch when it comes to the 16-year-old Selkirk High School student is standing next to a bank of computer screens in front of hundreds of screaming fellow pupils crammed into the lunch part of a small team running an inter-house school competition for the modern age - an esports part of the new esports qualification that he and another six other pupils are studying at Selkirk, one of the schools piloting the new qualification. The new National Progression Award (NPA) in Esports, which is equivalent to a Higher, provides an overview of the esports serves as a starting point for learners who want a career in the sector, which is growing rapidly with increasing employment opportunities."When I first looked at the course I thought this was a strange course I wouldn't expect to be at school," says Alfie. "But then I thought wow, this is really exciting."Alfie stresses that the course is not about playing video games. It's about studying the background and history of esports - and exploring the opportunities of the multi-billion pound global didn't realise that people could make a career out of gaming."We've learnt about the history and the business side and how people make money," he said."I didn't know this but you can be a nutritionist for players."The tournament is the culmination of months of work and planning for the team."It's been quite hard because you had to find out where can you plug stuff in, how do you actually get enough people that actually want to play and getting all the equipment sorted," Alfie said. Paul Graham, an education development officer who specialises in digital education with Scottish Borders Council, said there was some initial scepticism when the esports qualification was introduced."I think when you talk about esports and you start to highlight the strengths and the skills that young people can get from it, the passion they have for it and the learning that can come alongside, it starts to really make sense when they start to hear what those opportunities are," he added that actually playing games is a very small aspect of the course which he says teaches the pupils a range of valuable and transferable skills in a bid to inspire the next generation of creators, developers, and entrepreneurs."We want every school to have an opportunity to run these esport courses and gain qualifications up to the equivalent of Higher but then also allow young people to take that to college courses and then on to university level if they want to," he said. The tournament is a big success as far as the teachers are concerned, the deafening noise from the cheering crowds of pupils a sure sign they enjoyed in the classroom the esports class is already breaking down what worked and what didn't, how they could have made more from it and how to tackle the technology problems they de-brief is being led by the course teacher Richard Willan, the principal teacher of creativity and enterprise at Selkirk High. He is impressed with the effort the pupils have put into the tournament, not least the amount of their own time out of school."This course actually puts all the learning into context." he said."They develop research skills, teamwork skills, interpersonal skills, but also the literacy and numeracy skills that they have had to use, all based within the esports context, on something they are actually engaged and interested in. "The learning has just happened. From a teaching perspective it's amazing because esports is just the vehicle for them learning and its a nice neat package and that means that we are not having to push the learning, they are driving it themselves."After the tournament Alfie says he has loved being part of the organising team, he's already full of ideas for another one. He has clearly taken a lot from the event and says he is definitely interested in a career in esports or the gaming when I asked him would he rather a career in esports or a rugby cap for Scotland, there's not a moment's hesitation: "Play for Scotland".
