Dear Members,
Please find a communication below from the DfE for providers delivering Computing ITT.
I work in computing policy at the DfE. Currently we are funding a computing education programme across England led by the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), to upskill existing teachers and provide them with expertise to teach the computing curriculum and the computer science GCSE with confidence.
The offer of support has now been extended to trainee teachers and those who are not currently teaching computing, but may wish to teach computing in future. You can find out more about the NCCE’s offer here.
In the meantime, I would love to hear from you about the computing teacher supply picture and any feedback or reflections that you have from a school perspective about teaching computing in general. I am interested in all aspects of pre and in-service computing teaching. It would also be useful to understand any reflections or observations you have on girls engaging with computing, or females applying for teacher training, and any challenges you may have come across.
If you would like to offer your thoughts or feedback, please email me at Samina.Kiddier@education.gov.uk or feel free to pass my details onto your school colleagues. Alternatively, if you would prefer to speak over the phone I can be contacted on 07384 872 516.
Samina Kiddier
Computing and Digital Skills Policy Team Leader
STEM Education Division
Hi Samina,
As a secondary School Direct provider we at Essex School Direct have struggled to recruit Computing ITTs in recent years – however this yeat we have managed to recruit 5, which is amazing for us. The subject knowledge they bring to us is quite varied and all have begun the TES SKE in Computing.
Any funded programme for up-skilling existing teachers would, I am sure, be welcomed by my 20+ partnership secondary schools who are often faced with non-specialists having to teach the subject especially in KS3. I would welcome the opportunity to promote the NCCE programme. We also work with primary schools were often no-one has computing skills/confidence.