You know those awful television documentaries in which the presenters (it’s usually a double act) continually display their inability to ask interesting questions and probe beneath the surface? While they exclaim “Wow!” at the start of every sentence, we learn the what, but never the why or the how.

I thought it might be fun to imagine an inspection of a Computing department conducted as one of those documentaries. What might it look like?

Hi there! Amanda and I are here at the Gasworks Lane Academy, looking at their Computing.

Yes, we’ll be interviewing kids as well as teachers, and we’ll both be in different parts of the school. Right, Hugh?

That’s right, Amanda! So, I’ll just slope off and see if I can find the Computing teacher, and leave you to it.

Great! Well I’m going to talk to Janice here. So Janice, you’re in Year 8, right?

Yes.

Fantastic! So what are you doing here Janice? It all looks very complicated.

I’m writing the code for this Arduino-connected walking stick so that if the person using it falls down the stick will call an ambulance and send the ambulance crew the precise co-ordinates of the person’s location.

Wow! Let’s go over to Hugh now.

Wow! That’s amazing! I can’t even program my microwave. Now, I’m talking to the Head of Computing. So, James, tell us about the computing set-up at Gasworks Lane Academy.

Well, we have 500desktop computers, an interactive whiteboard in every room, 27 laptop trolleys, plus Arduinos and other devices.

Wow!

We teach the kids coding from their very first day at school, and we teach them two programming languages and HTML.

Wow! Now I believe that Amanda is going to try out that walking stick. Amanda?

Wow! That’s amazing!

etc.

Fortunately, such an inability to explore interesting and sensible questions would not be found in a real inspection.