Encouraging "teamwork, problem-solving, and innovation": What young people say about I Belong

At the National Centre for Computing Education, our priority is for every child in every school in England to have a world-leading computing education. We understand that every learner deserves access to high-quality education, and that teachers are instrumental to ensuring their students thrive. We offer initiatives to support SEND, neurodiversity, and gender in computing education.

I Belong came from the noticeable gender gap in computing. As an immensely popular and fast-growing STEM subject, girls are still consistently outnumbered by boys – a trend which can be traced back to gender stereotypes and expectations developed in the primary years. These stereotypes should be unlearned. Our evidence-informed programme aims to help teachers and leaders understand the barriers to girls’ participation in the subject through offering resources, training, and implementation support. We want to empower you to introduce high impact strategies for a more inclusive computing curriculum.

These benefits were exemplified at Pierrepont Gamston Primary School, where Crumble kits were used as part of a physical computing project. Working together with a local secondary school, Year 7 girls were brought in as enthusiastic near-peer role models, set to inspire the Year 5 and 6 pupils.

“It was an exciting, hands-on and creative project that encouraged teamwork, problem-solving and innovation” says Primary Teacher, Frances Connell.

Involving the Year 7 girls allowed for increased support with the primary pupils, as well as an opportunity for the girls to feel like role-models.

One student said “I really enjoyed going on the visits. It helped me build my confidence talking and helping children and seeing them understand”. The impact of being in a mentor position is great, especially for girls at this age. Another commented on how it “developed her social skills”, demonstrating the I Belong goal of empowerment and positivity towards computing. The project was a success, providing the primary pupils with positive female role-models to look up to, showing from a young age that they belong in computer science.

The I Belong programme targets teachers to encourage girls into computing, but we recognise there are other barriers to entry for many different students. We are proud to introduce our ‘supporting learners with SEND and neurodiversity’ initiative, providing a range of CPD opportunities and bespoke resources to support learners to thrive in computing education.

We also want you to join us at the inaugural I Belong in Computing conference, designed to bring educators together with passionate leaders and industry experts, exploring the future of computing as it relates to diversity, inclusion, and adaptive teaching. Learn more about the excellent keynote speakers and thought-provoking topics which will be covered.

Have you earned your I Belong certificate yet? Let us know what you did to pave the way for inclusive practice in computer science here.