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Supporting secondary schools and colleges to teach computing

Funded by the Department for Education, the National Centre for Computing Education offers a comprehensive range of support for schools and colleges, including free resources and high-impact training, to drive school improvement and student outcomes.

Support for senior leaders

Prepare young people for the future by providing excellent computing education in your school. We are here to support senior leaders and their leadership teams to upskills your staff, incorporate good practice and bring the subject to life.

Growth begins with identifying areas for improvement and working on them. Our comprehensive offer and support will help identify your computing needs and provide a targeted programme of support to help embed this key subject in your school or college. The NCCE can help you with:

Curriculum design

Subject knowledge

Physical computing kits

Real-world contexts

Subject matter experts support

Computing Quality Framework

The Computing Quality Framework helps you and your leadership team assess your computing offer. Use our guided journey to:

  • identify strengths and weaknesses in your computing curriculum
  • gain feedback and suggested actions, including relevant resources
  • track progress towards achieving our accredited Computing Quality Mark

You can also join a Computing Cluster to work collaboratively with other schools to improve your computing provision.

Register now

Not currently offering GCSE Computer Science?

We have additional funding and subject matter expert support available to schools and colleges with an ambition to add GCSE Computer Science as an option to their students. Find out more

Guidance for offering computing

Our network of Computing Hubs is there to support you and your school to offer exemplary computing education for all.

I Belong: encouraging girls into computer science

Why do boys choose computing and girls don't? With I Belong we aim to support more girls into computer science qualifications and careers by providing your teachers with the tools to guide and inspire them.

Understand the barriers and develop strategies to overcome them with our curated resources, training and implementation support to empower you and your team.

Find out more

Invest in your teachers’ development

Invest in your teachers’ development

Develop outstanding computing teaching, build confidence and reduce teacher workload with our quality assured CPD.

All courses are delivered free of charge for state-funded education, with subsidies available to eligible schools.

Explore all courses

Nationally recognised certification

Nationally recognised certification

Help your staff attain their career goals and meet the rise in student demand by building your teachers’ skills and knowledge.

Our certificates are awarded by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, and provide a full programme of courses and activities to upskill your staff in various areas of computing teaching.

Find out more

Download our Secondary brochure

Download our Secondary brochure

Find out more about the full National Centre for Computing Education offer, including how our CPD can aid your teachers' development, the certificates they can gain, and all the programmes that would benefit your school in developing your computing provision.

Read our brochure

Inspire your students with Computing Ambassadors

Part of the STEM Ambassadors volunteer programme – Computing Ambassadors are people from a wide range of industries who can help bring your computing (and any other) lessons to life and provide real-world context, creating an invaluable link between schools and industry.

Computing Ambassadors can visit your school, introduce a topic, judge a competition or just show pupils who they can grow up to be in the future.

Find out more

Resources

Building young peoples’ skills is an essential part of our commitment to developing a world-leading computing education. We have a wide range of free resources available to help your team support student development and hone their computing skill and knowledge, effectively preparing them for the world of tech and computing career opportunities.

Curriculum resources for Key Stages 3 and 4

Free, time-saving resources to enhance provision and support planning across the computing curriculum.

It includes teacher guides, curriculum maps, lesson plans, worksheets, homework, assessments and more, in formats that make it easy to adapt it to meet the needs of your learners.

Isaac Computer Science

The free online textbook for GCSE and A level Computer Science teachers and students with resources covering the full English curriculum and all exam specifications.

Isaac Computer Science is great for supporting remote teaching, homework and revision sessions, and helps you to quickly identify areas where students can improve.

Enrichment

Encourage your students to develop important life skills through enrichment and engage with the wider community in practical, enjoyable, and meaningful ways.

Running an enrichment activity also supports teachers' progress through the Teaching secondary computing certificate.