We are three

08 November 2021

Yesterday marked the third birthday of the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE). The NCCE, funded by the DfE, is made up of three programmes: Teach Computing, Isaac Computer Science and Gender Balance in Computing.

In this blog, we will look at how Teach Computing has contributed to our work with its extensive training, resources and guidance for teachers at key stages 1 to 4.

Our high-impact professional development courses (CPD) - delivered face-to-face, remotely and online - have improved teachers' subject knowledge, pedagogical understanding and confidence. Our courses lead on to three accredited programmes: the Primary Certificate, the Computer Science Accelerator (subject knowledge certificate) and the Secondary Certificate.

Our Teach Computing Curriculum - a comprehensive set of curriculum-linked free teaching resources - has added creativity and structure to lessons, and saved teachers valuable time.

Added to that, the development of 34 Computing Hubs has brought local, targeted school-to-school support to all parts of England. And our contributing partner programmes have added further exciting opportunities for young people to explore the power of computing.

There is another way in which ‘we are three'.

The NCCE is operated by a consortium of three organisations - STEM Learning, Raspberry Pi Foundation and BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. Our people collaborate in a common cause, deeply committed to making computing and computer science inclusive and accessible to all young people, so they can become informed, active citizens with a wide set of careers available to them.

We draw on our organisations' respective strengths in education and training, programme management, communications, digital making, network delivery, evaluation and certification. And we are guided by a clear and uniting vision: for every child in every school in England to have a world-leading computing education.

As we mark our third birthday, we wish to acknowledge the support of those partners who have offered us valuable additional support as we look to power up the digital generation.

We continue in our mission to transform the way computing is taught in schools across England, and to enable more young people to benefit from studying this important subject. There's more to come from us, with new initiatives in the New Year, and we'll be sharing details soon.

Here's to all the teachers of computing and computer science - your work for our young people is so very important and it's a privilege to work with you.