Author: Martin Coutts

Digital Skills Development Officer

Ada Scotland Festival 2025

Welcome to the Ada Scotland Festival

29 September – 10 October 2025

The Ada Scotland Festival champions gender balance in tech and computing, providing inspiration for our young people and to build a stronger, fairer, more diverse work force of the future.  

An innovative and representative workforce will develop systems for all genders as end users.  In Scotland, building a diverse talent pipeline is critical as female learners are underrepresented in Computing Science education at all levels – it’s time to shift the dial.

Ada Scotland Festival 2025 Schools Programme

For Teachers

Thursday 25 September 4:45 pm

Tech She Can hosts Teacher CPD Webinar
https://ada.scot/cpd-webinar-inspiring-the-next-generation-into-the-stem-careers-of-the-future/

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Tuesday 7 October 4:00 pm

Raspberry Pi Foundation CPD Webinar – How do Digital Images work?
https://ada.scot/cpd-webinar-how-do-digital-images-work/

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For Primary Schools

Tuesday 30 September 9:00 am

Tech She Can hosts Tech for Sustainable AI Live Lesson for Primary Schools
https://ada.scot/live-lesson-tech-for-sustainable-ai/

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Tuesday 7 October 9:15 am
My WoW Live: Live Lesson for Primary Schools – Games Design
https://ada.scot/live-lesson-games-design/

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Wednesday 8 October 10:00 am

Barclays host Games Design Workshop for Primary Schools WAITLIST
https://ada.scot/games-design-workshops-for-primary-schools/

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For High Schools

Tuesday 30 September

9:30 am Ada Scotland Launch Glasgow WAITLIST
https://ada.scot/ada-scotland-2025-launch/

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Wednesday 1 October

9:30 am Schools Hub Event Dundee
https://ada.scot/dundee-schools-hub-event/

10:00 am S2 STEM Inspiration Day Edinburgh
https://ada.scot/s2-stem-inspiration-day/

2:00 pm  Tech She Can hosts Space Tech Live Lesson for High Schools Online
https://ada.scot/live-lesson-space-tech-for-navigation-and-communication/

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Thursday 2 October 5:30 pm

Career Compass: Navigating Early Careers Together
https://ada.scot/futures-in-tech-after-school-what-parents-carers-and-teachers-need-to-know/

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Friday 3 October 11:00 am

Tech She Can hosts Tech for Learning Live Lesson for High Schools
https://ada.scot/live-lesson-tech-for-learning/

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Saturday 4 October 10:00 am

Ada Scotland x Teach the Nation: Introduction to Web Development
https://ada.scot/ada-scotland-x-teach-the-nation-introduction-to-web-development/

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Monday 6 October 10:00 am

RGU Hosts Aberdeen High Schools Hub Event WAITLIST
https://ada.scot/aberdeen-schools-hub-event/

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Tuesday 7 October 9:30 am

Early Careers Assessments Workshop – Top Tips on how to Succeed
https://ada.scot/early-careers-assessment-process-workshop/

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Thursday 9 October 10:00 am

Inverness Schools Hub Event WAITLIST
https://ada.scot/__inverness/

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Full festival Programme
Contact the Team at hello@ada.scot

Innovation Week 2025

Scotland’s first National Innovation Week will take place later this year, Business Minister Richard Lochhead has announced today.

Taking place from Monday 22 September to Friday 26 September, it will celebrate Scotland’s proud legacy of innovation while showcasing the country’s global leadership in pioneering the transformative technologies and industries of the future.

The week will highlight events and roundtables happening all over the country, celebrating the very best Scotland’s technology ecosystem has to offer – from groundbreaking work in AI and fintech to leading innovations in health tech and climate tech.  ScotlandIS have reached out to their partners to offer opportunities for schools to take part in live lessons to spark innovation in learners and in the classroom!

 

Join In – LIVE LESSONS – 23rd September 2025

Join one or more of the live lessons for innovation week with your class on Tuesday 23rd September

10am Design a Pet Supplies App

In this interactive workshop, Mark Rodger from Telefonica Tech will work with students to understand some of the roles and methods used in designing an app, inviting the students to brainstorm and come up with some great ideas for their very own pet supplies app.  This workshop is based on identifying the concepts and considerations for an app and does not include any technical coding or actual creation of the app itself.  This makes it easy for anyone to get involved and only requires the following resources:

  • A4 Paper (one or two sheets per student)
  • Flipchart/A1 sheet of paper (one per team)
  • Coloured pens/pencils
  • Blu-tac or Sellotape

 

 

This workshop is best targeted at P6/P7/S1/S2 students.  Please note that students should be split into teams of 3 or 4 where possible and that teacher interaction will be required during the workshop, to support the students as they will be asked to perform some activities in the classroom as part of the workshop.

This session will be interactive and pupils will need:

  • A4 paper and pens to support a class discussion and writing their answers to the career quiz.
  • A paper copy of the quiz will be available for teachers to support the pupils locally.

Register for Design a Pet Supplies Live Lesson

11am Tech In Finance

Join Mags Moore from Sopra Steria for this informative session (aimed at P5 and up) pupils on Tech In Finance. In this session pupils will learn:

  • What FinTech is and discuss where technology is used to save, move and manage money
  • Explore potential careers and via a fun quiz learn which career they might enjoy
  • Learn about the use of AI in FinTech
  • Have the chance to ask questions

 

This session will be interactive and pupils will need:

  • A4 paper and pens to support a class discussion and writing their answers to the career quiz.
  • A paper copy of the quiz will be available for teachers to support the pupils locally.

Register for Tech In Finance Live Lesson

2pm Tech In Finance

Step into the world of coding with a fun, hands-on session designed especially for curious minds aged 8–12. In just 30 minutes, you’ll learn how to turn simple ideas into real mini-apps that run on your phone or computer. No heavy setup, no boring theory — just creativity, play, and instant results!

We’ll build exciting projects like a Drawing Pad where you can sketch with your finger and save your artwork, and an Emoji Story Generator that sparks your imagination with random emoji prompts. By the end of the session, you’ll not only have your own apps to share with friends but also the confidence to see coding as a tool for creativity and fun.

✨ No prior coding experience needed — just bring your imagination and a sense of play!

Register for Vibe Coding Live Lesson

 

More Events for Innovation Week

The centrepiece will be a Summit taking place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Thursday 25th September, in parallel with ScotlandIS’ ScotSoft Conference, and bring together industry and academia to drive forward shared ambitions and achieve global presence.

As the delivery partner for the Summit and Innovation Week, ScotlandIS CEO Karen Meechan stated: “Scotland has all the ingredients to be a global technology leader – a rich heritage of innovation, a culture that embraces bold thinking, and academic firsts in cyber and technology-related university degrees. We’re not always the best at shouting about how good we are but Scotland’s first Innovation Week and Summit is a chance to change that, to shine a much-needed spotlight on our world-class ideas and capabilities, and to attract the investment and talent that will power our digital future.”

Scotland’s National Innovation Strategy sets out four key areas to capitalise on competitive advantage:

  • advanced manufacturing
  • energy transition
  • health and life sciences
  • data and digital technologies

The Business Minister visited ONE BioHub in Aberdeen, which aims to double the number of life sciences businesses in the north east by 2028.

Mr Lochhead said:

“Scotland is a nation of inventors, creators and problem solvers. We invented the steam engine and the television, and discovered penicillin. Today we stand at the forefront of the next wave of transformative technologies which not only offer immense potential for economic growth but also powerful tools to tackle the global challenges of our time – from healthcare and energy to climate change.

“Companies across Scotland are speeding up the development of new drugs and medicines through automation, pioneering the energy systems of the future and developing the space and satellite technology to help tackle climate change – to give just a few examples.

“It is essential that we seize these opportunities to benefit both our economy and society. Scotland’s first National Innovation Week marks a pivotal moment to turn ambition into action and cement our place as a truly global innovation nation.”

More details via the National Innovation Week website coming soon. Find out more about ScotSoft 2025 here

Digital Creators Week 2026

Digital Creators Week is an opportunity for learners to put their digital skills to use and create content in a variety of media forms. This week of action packed live lessons will run during the week of 11th May 2026.

The week will be a mixture of sessions delivered by our partner providers and digilearn.scot team members.

Specific sessions are TBC and we will share updates as and when they become available.

Cyber Scotland Week 2026

CyberScotlandWeek invites individuals, organisations and communities across Scotland to raise awareness of cyber security and strengthen our collective cyber resilience. It is organised by CyberScotland Partnership, who are a collaboration of key stakeholders brought together by the Scottish Government’s Cyber Resilience Unit, with the aim of raising cyber security awareness and building Scotland-wide cyber resilience.

This year’s theme will be shared in due course.

Through a series of curriculum live lessons, sharing practice, and professional learning sessions during the week, CyberScotland Week aims to educate, support, and empower schools, educators, learners, and organisations with the knowledge and tools to stay secure online.

Scottish Games Fest 2025

We are excited to be supporting Scottish Games Fest throughout September 2025.

There will be a range of sessions from ES and partners each week, including:

  • game playing
  • game making
  • esports
  • learning with and through games
  • careers
  • resources and training for educators

There will be regular updates as dates are confirmed.

Select an event on the calendar to find out more about it or scroll down the page for links to each event page.

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These videos have been created and shared by partners in addition to LIVE lessons and webinars. They can be used with children and young people or as CLPL by educators.

Test themed wee example 2

AI in Schools Week 2025 – Catch Up Resources – CLPL and Live Lessons

April 4, 2025

Welcome to out Catch Up Gallery of recordings from AI in Schools Week 2025.  You  will find recordings of CLPL sessions and live lessons on this page. Check out our dedicated AI page >  Artificial Intelligence in Scottish Education: What you need to know – DigiLearn You can access the… Read more

AI CodeAlong – Control A Fish With Your Voice – Recap

March 28, 2025

This is a recap for you and your class to follow along to that will show you how to create a voice recognition AI using https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/ and connect that to a simple Scratch project where you can use your AI to control a fish sprite! Based on the activity done… Read more

Scratch CodeAlong: Build A Language Translator – Recap

March 27, 2025

This is a recap for you and your class to follow along to that will show you how to create a multi-language translator tool in Scratch! Based on the activity done as part of the code along during AI in Schools Week 2025. The video takes you through how to… Read more

Password Generator – Scratch Code Along Recap and Resources

February 27, 2025

Cyber Scotland Week 25 – Scratch Code Along Recap and Resources Create a strong password generator using Scratch as part of Cyber Scotland Week 2025! In this session, you and your class will learn to use lists and random numbers to generate and store random strong passwords using three random words as advised by… Read more

image showing different types of code

Code your own computational quiz

December 3, 2024

Can you beat the quiz? Got what it takes to beat our Very Computational Christmas Quiz? 20 questions, no time limit.  Try it on your own, as a group or as class!  Let us know how you do @digilearnscot TRY THE QUIZ Too easy?  Looking for a different challenge? Why… Read more

Curriculum Review CompSci

Computing Science Review – Workshop 1

December 3, 2024

Provocations There were a number of speakers during  the morning session to set the scene and provide stimulus for discussions. You can watch and / or download the presenters slides below. You are may wish to add your thoughts, individually, or from a group perspective to the discussion boards. The… Read more

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