Education experts launch pioneering Teach Computing Curriculum

The groundbreaking Teach Computing Curriculum has been launched this week by the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE). This provides a comprehensive set of free teaching materials covering all aspects of the computing curriculum in England, from primary through to age 16.

The high quality and evidence-based Teach Computing Curriculum, supported by the Department for Education, features over 500 hours of teaching materials to help teachers deliver the entire computing curriculum from Key Stages 1 to 4 in England.

The content is created by the NCCE’s expert computing teachers, and is based on extensive research and feedback from a wide range of practising teachers.

The Teach Computing Curriculum is designed to enable computing to be taught in an effective and engaging way. The units of work contain lesson plans, slides, worksheets, assessment, homework and progression mapping. The free teaching materials can be adapted by teachers to suit their own situation and learners.

Lessons can be downloaded from the NCCE’s website Teach Computing, and teachers can search for units of work by key stage or year group, via a content index designed to help teachers save time.

The impact of coronavirus has shown the importance of computing skills to education and to our future economic development and the teaching materials reflect the breadth and depth of the computing curriculum.

Professor Simon Peyton Jones, Chair of the NCCE Academic Board, said;

"This body of teaching resources is a landmark achievement of the NCCE. The Teach Computing Curriculum is grounded in educational research, and linked together with a clear "map" of students’ conceptual development through the subject from age five through to 16.

“It offers a concrete and tangible answer to the question; "what does a good education in computing look like?" Teachers who are new to computing can use these resources off-the-shelf while experienced teachers can use them as a source of breadth and inspiration.

"The launch of the curriculum is a landmark, but not a destination: the NCCE will constantly review, refine, and develop this programme, based on experience in the field."

Carrie Anne Philbin, Director of Educator Support at Raspberry Pi Foundation, led the team which designed and created the curriculum. She said;

“I am extremely pleased to launch our Teach Computing Curriculum, a complete curriculum programme for teaching computing from Year 1 through to Year 11. Over the past 18 months, we have developed a progression framework, and produced all the classroom materials to support it that a computing teacher might need.

“Its goal is to support, rather than replace, computing teachers' expertise. Schools can adopt what they need and what they believe to be suitable and combine it with their own resources to provide the right offer for their pupils, or use as is, off the shelf. We continue to rely on teachers’ experiences to help inform this work, and will be updating and improving the body of work over the coming years.”

Secondary school teachers can access units of work for each year group, which include lesson plans, homework, progression mapping, and assessment. The units of work are open and easily customised to suit all pupils, regardless of ability, background, and additional needs.

Primary school teachers and computing coordinators will be able to download everything they need to teach Key Stage 1 and 2 computing with confidence.

The Teach Computing Curriculum complements the support for teachers available through the NCCE’s network of Computing Hubs based in high-performing schools and colleges across England, an extensive suite of online courses, and opportunities to network with other teachers.The Teach Computing Curriculum can be accessed online here.