BCS Scholars

Welcome to the BCS Scholars CS Community page – a collection of useful resources and support for your initial teacher training. This community is open to all BCS Scholars; for further support during and after ITT, join the Computing At School community here.

Preparing to start your ITT year

Training to teach is a big step and can be very challenging - your initial teacher training year is no exception.

We have put together some tips from some of our Computing At School (CAS) Community teachers to help you get prepared and start off on the right foot:

Ensure you have good working knowledge of Office 365 including Teams this is going to be essential for preparing lessons, resources and tracking process
Use a planner and look out for times that will be particularly demanding both personally and professionally, this will enable you to manage your time effectively. Be aware of the course start dates which usually follow a school year
Before you start, get as much information as possible from your provider. Highlight key dates such as assignment deadlines and school experience in your planner
Research key terms that you are not familiar with, look at example and consider how you could incorporate these into your own practise
Understand the curriculum and what will be expected of you to deliver - this will also help to identify potential areas within your subject knowledge that you may need to brush up on. CAS is a great place to look for free resources, attend some events and get some additional training
Undertake a skills audit to highlight the subject areas you need to focus on developing and look at the questions in a GCSE Computer Science paper to help you prepare
Get organised, prepared and start prioritising your workload - things will get very busy so being on top of it will really help.

New content coming soon!

Date/Time	Webinar Title	Session overview
Weds 23^rd Aug 10am – 5:30pm	Scholarships Summer Insight Day	Past event
Thurs 16^th Nov 5pm-5:45	Lesson planning - tips and tricks	This session will be led by experienced teachers who will provide some tips and advice on lesson planning to help you plan efficiently and effectively. Book your place
Weds 24th Jan 5pm-5:45	Behaviour Management – experiences and techniques	Join us for a panel discussion to hear from a range of current teachers on behaviour management advice, styles, classroom culture and how behaviour management in a computing classroom differs from other settings.
Tues 6^th Feb 5pm-5:45	Physical Computing	Join us for an interactive physical computing session which will be led by Pete Marshman, our secondary sector lead.
Thurs 14^th March	Balancing workload with an increasing timetable	Around Easter it’s likely that your timetable will be increasing – this session will help you to use your time efficiently and support you to balance your workload.
Wed April 24th	Interview tips	For those of you who will be moving on from your placement school to a permanent teaching position, this session will give you some insight into what interviewers are looking for in newly qualified teachers to help you prepare for your next steps.

Click the link below to find some recorded Webinars to help your application.

Recorded Webinars

Download and access the CAS Wellbeing Toolkit today, for access to mental health and wellbeing support, and useful links to external resources.

In this guide we consider how you can be the difference in changing the conversation around mental health by looking at:

The state of mental health in education.
What it’s like to be a teacher in the classroom today.

The importance of protecting your mental health.

6 ways to help you build resilience and promote good mental health.

Useful links and resources to provide ongoing support.

Wellbeing Toolkit

Being a BCS Member....

How does this help me take the next step in my career?

Continual Professional Development
New Skills to keep up to date with new technologies
Professional Registrations to demonstrate your competence

= a more skilled individual who is ready to take their next step

Click here to join

Shanthi Swaminathan - BCS Scholar

Teaching computer science can be a very rewarding career especially for those who already have a passion for the subject. Shanthi is a trainee teacher supported with a £26,000 scholarship through BCS

I'm so glad I was offered a BCS scholarship - I love being a BCS member and feel very valued. The support I get from BCS is tremendous. The webinars I’ve attended have helped me so much. The behaviour management webinar was particularly useful; I use the tips that I gained in that webinar every day in my lessons.

My calls with my coach, Nadine, help me to relax as she really understands my situation, concerns, doubts etc. and helps me overcome issues. We share our experiences and I receive so much feedback from Nadine, it’s helping me develop in my career. Thank you BCS for providing me with this opportunity.

Find out more about BCS Scholarships here