Secondary senior leaders

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We are committed to our vision for every child in every school in England to receive a world-leading computing education. And it's in secondary education that we build strongly on the foundations set in the primary years, and prepare students for further study, rewarding careers and citizenship.

Teach Computing offers a comprehensive range of support for secondary schools to develop inspirational computing teaching.

We help address a challenge faced by many senior leadership teams in secondary schools and colleges - recruiting and retaining teachers with the skills to provide high quality delivery of the computing curriculum.

Let's explore this in more depth:

School-level support and expertise

There is a great deal we can offer secondary schools throughout England at a whole-school level...

Assistance from our network of 34 Computing Hubs led by schools and colleges with excellence in teaching computing. Your local hub will work with you to identify your computing needs and provide a targeted programme of support to help embed this key subject in your school. Support includes high-quality CPD with generous bursaries; teaching and learning resources; and school-to-school support.

Our school engagement programme offers fully-funded consultancy and guidance to eligible schools and colleges, provided through a network of computing education specialists. Subject matter experts work with leaders and teachers to identify the needs of the school and then work with them to formulate an action plan to improve your computing offer and identify the most appropriate CPD to upskill your staff. You can contact a subject matter expert today.

The NCCE's new Computing Quality Framework offers a guided journey for schools to progress from basic provision to aspirational, innovative practice. Features include: (i) a process to identify strengths and development areas; (ii) links to impactful resources targeted on your school’s specific needs; (iii) opportunities for commitment and involvement from across the school and (iv) the opportunity to apply for an accredited Quality Mark to demonstrate their excellence in computing.

Our accredited Facilitator Development Programme is likely to be of interest to specialist leaders of education (SLEs) and leaders with CPD coordination responsibilities. It equips teachers with the skills to become effective facilitators of subject-specific CPD, exploring what makes CPD effective, how its impact can be evaluated, and the strategies and tools needed when leading learning with adults.

Another form of teacher-led support is our nationwide peer-to-peer network of over 300 local Communities of Practice for computing teachers, run by Computing at School (CAS). CAS offers locally-based meet-ups, events, online discussions and a range of over 3,000 classroom resources created by its 25,000 members.

We will be adding to our school-level support in the coming months, so watch this space!

Support for high-quality teaching

Support your computing lead and upskill other staff with continuing professional development to help you deliver the computing curriculum with confidence. We offer free and low-cost courses, tailored for secondary teachers, including self-paced and 'learn at home' options so that learning can fit around teachers' many commitments. Explore and plan your teacher CPD.

Our popular and flexible Computer Science Accelerator (CSA) professional development programme builds subject knowledge for teaching computer science up to GCSE level. Its range of pathways allow teachers - including those from other subjects - to engage from a start point which matches their prior knowledge. Read our guide to the CSA for secondary senior leaders.

CSA graduates receive a nationally accredited certificate, and can go on to further study through our certificated Secondary Computing programme.

Our CPD is high-impact, practical and proven to work in the classroom. We know that successful computing teachers combine their knowledge of the subject with evidence-based teaching practices. Our work is evidence-informed and underpinned by our 12 principles of computing pedagogy.

The bursaries we offer to support your teachers' professional development and your school's improvement of computing provision are an important aspect of our offer. We look to keep costs low for CPD participation. Our online courses for key stages 3 and 4 are free to all teachers. Face to face and remote courses are fully-funded or subsidised for teachers in state-funded education.

The Teach Computing Curriculum allows you to enhance provision and reduce workloads for teachers. It contains everything you need to teach computing at key stages 3 and 4, including time-saving lesson plans, slides, worksheets, homework and assessment. It is mapped to the national computing curriculum for England, so you can be confident that your teachers are covered for all required content. It's also completely free to access, and has been created by subject experts, based on the latest pedagogical research and teacher feedback.

To help us meet the emerging needs of computing educators, we work with a subject practitioner panel comprising teachers from a range of contexts to gather constructive feedback and ideas. Panel members bring a wide range of experiences to help us represent teachers across England in a variety of settings. Meet our secondary panel.

The NCCE also runs a free learning programme for GCSE and A level computer science teachers and students called Isaac Computer Science. This provides high-quality materials for use in the classroom, for homework, and for revision through an online learning platform and low-cost workbooks (£1 + P&P). Teacher accounts can be linked to student accounts, saving teachers valuable time in reviewing self-marking assessments. Isaac Computer Science also offers free teacher CPD events and student workshops.

Support for a broad and rich curriculum

Whilst we recognise that high-quality teaching remains the number one priority, we also recognise the importance of preserving the breadth of the curriculum while protecting its core, so young people get a rich experience which will help them develop their own identity and grow into informed, active citizens, with a sense of agency on computing matters.

In order to retain this breadth, we support schools and colleges to provide an appropriate range of computing activities and experience for young people, working in collaboration with our partners, and to help teachers to support this through in-curriculum and other extra-curricular activities.

Let's shine a light on three of the partners we work with at secondary level:

Code Club supports a global community of volunteers, educators, and partners to run free coding clubs for 9 to 13 year olds. Its free, step-by-step coding projects offer young people lots of opportunities to be creative and share their creations with each other.

STEM Clubs are out-of-timetable sessions that enrich and broaden the curriculum, giving young people the chance to explore subjects like science, technology, engineering, maths and computing in less formal settings. These are delivered locally and also through the online National STEM Club.

STEM Ambassadors deliver life-changing impact for young people - aspirations raised, careers illuminated and learning supported. Subjects including computing are brought to life by over 30,000 relatable STEM professionals across the UK free of charge - face-to-face or virtually - in classrooms and communities.