When you join CAS you join a community of over 16,000 professionals. We are teachers, academics, industry professionals, school governors, parents etc.. CAS does not have bright shiny offices with staff. We are reliant on the many committed professionals who run regional hub meetings, deliver local CPD courses, contribute to the online forum and post their teaching resources to the community site. There is no them - only us!

The CAS community has been instrumental in the development of the new curriculum and are 100% committed to supporting all teachers as they engage with computing, and in particular computer science, when the new curriculum is introduced in September 2014.

CAS Survey - can you help?

Just one week to go to complete the CAS survey. Can you help? The survey is open to all and gives us key ammunition that we use when making the case for funding, talking to companies, or just deciding how best to allocate scarce resources. The survey closes at the end of February 2015 - Can you help?

Quickstart Computing

"QuickStart Computing is an important national programme that will help all computing teachers to confidently plan, teach and assess the new computing curriculum. We value the funding that Microsoft has provided and it’s essential that we work in partnership with industry and teacher networks like Computing At School.” (Nicky Morgan, Education Secretary)

Computing At School has produced a new resource to help primary and secondary teachers in England get to grips with the new computing curriculum which was introduced in September. Funded by Microsoft and the Department for Education QuickStart Computing is a comprehensive, national programme designed to help primary and secondary teachers to plan, teach and assess this brand new subject. Find out more and download ALL resources

Watch the launch video:

Some feedback from primary school teacher:

"Quickstart has provided a no-nonsense approach to the computing curriculum that has changed the attitude of the teachers to one of  "can-do". The well-written guidance has provided the reasurrance that much of what teachers already do (in all the other curriculum areas) supports the thinking required for computing as well giving expert tips and ideas for teaching the knowledge that is specific to computing.
"Since starting with the Quickstart materials only 6 weeks ago, students have quickly become adept at using tools such as Touchdevelop, logo and Scratch and are swiftly catching up with their year group expectations of the new computing curriculum. Demand has become so great that current computing lessons are not enough for some of the students and now a Coding Club is starting this Friday 28th February for those students who want to take computing beyond the requirements of the curriculum."

The CAS Newsletter - Spring 2015

There is something of interest to all CAS members and the wider teaching community. Resources and ideas shared by teachers, both primary and secondary. There is also a section on the Network of Excellence for those new to CAS who aren't familiar with current developments.

Download Spring 2015 issue We continue our exploration of pedagogy in this term’s issue with a special focus on the ideas of Seymour Papert, father of Logo and remarkable educational visionary. Packed full of articles written by teachers in both primary and secondary sectors, plus a roundup of news about the many initiatives now promoting the development of Computing in schools. Lots of practical resources to use in the classroom and help enhance your understanding of the new curriculum. Many thanks, as always, to all contributors. This is your newsletter, and your submissions make it what it is. If you have things you would like to share in future issues, please don’t be shy - get in touch: newsletter@computingatschool.org.uk   Previous issues

CAS Wins "Best Practice in Education Award"

In recognition of its initiatives promoting computing in primary and secondary schools, Computing At School (CAS) has won the 2014 Informatics Europe Best Practices in Education Award.

The award is a prestigious recognition of a world-class initiative in computing education and is presented by Informatics Europe, the association of computer science departments and research laboratories in Europe.

Informatics Europe commended Computing At School for its  

"outstanding achievements which resulted in computing being officially established as a mandatory subject for primary and high schools in the national curriculum of England". 

Read on ...

News from Barefoot Computing

The Barefoot Computing project has been making great progress in helping primary teachers deliver the computer science elements of the new computing curriculum.

Barefoot resources

There are now 24 self-teach computer science concept resources on the website and 22 exemplar activities to help KS1 and KS2 teachers get started with computer science (and more being added each week).

In November alone there were 1500 registrations on the Barefoot website, taking the total to over 5000 registrations since the April launch of Barefoot. The resources have been downloaded over 10,000 times.

Barefoot Workshops & Partners

By the end of November Barefoot volunteers had delivered workshops to 2500 teachers representing 820 different schools. These workshops will continue to be delivered throughout the spring term by our 14 regional partner organisations now in place around England.

At the moment we can still offer Barefoot workshops to schools in the areas below. The number of these workshops are limited and available on a first-come-first-served basis. So if you know an interested school, they should get in touch ASAP by emailing info@barefootcas.org.uk .

Computing At School North Leicester Primary hub launch

Jo Badge runs the newly launched North Lecister Primary hub and writes about their first meeting:

We had a wonderful first meeting of the new CAS North Leicester regional hub with 62 attendees. It was fantastic to see people making connections and sharing ideas already.

At least 12 schools were represented, including some of our secondary colleagues and representatives from the University of Leicester School of Education and our current student teachers.

Yvonne Walker gave an introduction to CAS and showed some of the superb resources available for free on their website.

Phil Bagge did an outstanding job of presenting via Skype giving a lively and engaging presentation without the benefit of the obvious engagement of the audience as he couldn’t see or hear us from his study at home in Hampshire! The lesson ideas he showed us are available on his website which is a fabulous resource for anyone wanting some well tested lesson plans to get started with the new computing curriculum. He managed to make understanding how Google actually works understandable and showed how it could be taught to children in KS2.

Hopefully attendees will sign up to the CAS community to become members and join in the discussions on our regional forum. Feedback was very positive, although it is clear that we need to make space in future meetings for more time to network with and learn from each other. Another clear request was that for EFYS and KS1 ideas and for teaching the new computing curriculum, so we definitely make sure that these areas are catered for in forthcoming meetings.

I am very much looking forward to strengthen the connections made at the launch between the people that attended at our future meetings.

The next meeting will take place at Rushey Mead Primary School near the February half term. Please remember that these meetings are free to attend and are open to any educators that can get us. They are not restricted to only city or county schools! We also do a good line in biscuits and tea, coffee or fruit juice :-)

Other Hub News

• Computing really is OK! A lovely blog post describing a first visit to a CAS hub
• Barefoot at Reading University CAS Primary Hub

Computing in the national curriculum: a guide for secondary teachers

This free guidance has been developed by Computing at School to help secondary school teachers get to grips with the new curriculum for computing. The guide demystifies the programme of study and gives easy to follow support for planning, teaching and assessing computing. Printed copies will be arriving in schools towards the end of June (so look out for them!) but please freely share this digital copy with colleagues. We hope you find it useful as you prepare for September!

Click the image to download!

BCS Certificate in Computer Science Teaching

Computing At School offers a unique accreditation for teachers of Computing, providing professional recognition offered and accredited by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

There is now a considerable amount of CPD available to teachers through the Network of Excellence (master teachers and universities offering low-cost training) and other providers. Teachers of Computing who have previously taught ICT are undertaking significant amounts of CPD to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to teach the new curriculum. It is important to acknowledge and recognise the significant amount of professional development that teachers have been engaged in in order to be able to deliver the new Computing qualifications and the new curriculum. Teachers need professional recognition that they are competent teachers of the the computer science elements of Computing and this certificate provides that.

• Read more ...