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It has become apparent that increasing numbers of students arriving into undergraduate computing and engineering degree programmes in Irish 3 rd-level institutions have prior experience of computer programming. As the extent of this prior exposure as well as its nature, origins, and usefulness is not known beyond anecdotal evidence, an annual survey of prior programming experience of freshman undergraduates who study programming as part of their degree has been designed and administered. This paper reports on the first two years of this survey in 2015 and 2016. It found that around one third had some prior experience of programming with nearly half of that group reporting a reasonable level of fluency in one or more languages. The authors expect that the effect of proposed changes to primary and 2 nd-level curricula alongside the increasing popularity of informal programming clubs will be increasingly felt in coming years and therefore plan to continue and extend the survey in order to clarify the effect of such developments. The results should be of interest to 3 rd-level educators in the planning of curriculum and teaching practice.

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In view of the current focus on computational thinking in schools, professional development is needed so that teachers can help students acquire the requisite skills. Enhancing teachers' confidence is one important aspect. This article describes a project which offers teachers a playful, supportive introduction to computer programming, using the language Scratch. The project, CTwins (“Coding Twins” or “Computational Thinking wins”), entails teachers working in pairs called ‘twins' to produce an artefact, by communicating and reflecting in an online environment. The theoretical framework uses research on pair programming and working in online communities. An evaluative action research approach in two cycles was undertaken, the first being a pilot. For each cycle, teachers completed surveys to measure confidence pre- and post-participation, posted to the online environment, and participated in a focus group. The article then outlines implementation of the CTwins strategy, presents the findings – teachers' confidence showed gains overall-– and discusses possibilities for future work.