Simon Peyton Jones
Microsoft Research
An amazing
year...
...a rapidly evolving
landscape, and a lot
to do
 2008 CAS starts
 2008-2011 chug chug chug
 And then...
"I was flabbergasted to learn
that today computer science
isn't even taught as standard
in UK schools," he said, "Your
IT curriculum focuses on
teaching how to use
software, but gives no
insight into how it's made.“
August 2011
We’re encouraging rigorous
Computer Science courses
“The new Computer Science courses will reflect
what you all know: that Computer Science is a
rigorous, fascinating and intellectually challenging
subject.
Long after today’s pupils leave school and enter the
workplace – long after the technologies they used
at school are obsolete – the principles learnt in
Computer Science will still hold true.”
CAS founded 2008
RS founded 1660
“Every child should have the opportunity to
learn Computing at school, including exposure
to Computer Science as a rigorous academic
discipline.”
 2010: zero GCSEs in Computer Science
 Sept 2010 OCR introduces pilot GCSE in
Computing
 We have been meeting with all the awarding
bodies regularly for some time; they have been
supportive and welcoming... but non-committal
 Jan-Mar 2012: announcements from




AQA (launch Sept 2012)
Edexcel (launch Sept 2012)
WJEC (launch Sept 2012)
CIE (launch Sept 2013)
Amazing
media coverage
e.g Observer
1 April 2012
“So I am also announcing today that, if new
Computer Science GCSEs are developed that
meet high standards of intellectual depth and
practical value, we will certainly consider
including Computer Science as an option in the
English Baccalaureate.” Michael Gove Jan 2012
Big Deal: Head Teachers
(well my HT anyway) pay a
lot of attention to EBacc
 ICT PoS will be dis-applied. Our submission gave
evidence that this might lead to schools
withdrawing from ICT & Computing.
 Monday of this week: “As a clear statement of
the importance that it attaches to ICT
education, the Government has decided that
ICT will continue to be a National Curriculum
subject, with new statutory Programmes of
Study at all four key stages, from September
2014.”
 Contrary to the Report of the Expert Panel on
the National Curriculum
What has CAS
been up to?
 Now 30 hubs
 40 meetings/training sessions since Jan;
over 900 teachers involved
 New Primary School Task Force
 Recognised by Council for Subject
Association as the subject association for
computer science.
 ...zillions more things I don’t know about
 There are hundreds of IT professionals, who
WANT TO HELP. (Goldman Sachs, Ocado...)
 Do you want them?
 How can they help you?
 Can you give me some examples of how
working with a non-school-teacher
professional has worked out for you?
 Send a substantial Strategic Information Pack
to the Head of every state secondary in
England. www.bcs.org/csteachingexcellence
 Wales soon; independents by email; further
education colleges soon; Scotland using it for
raw material.
 Big effort to get it written and sent; please use
it!
 Main “ask”: join the Network of Excellence.
This is our Big Push for the coming year.
Apps for
Good
Hack to the
future
Young
Rewired
State
YouSrc
Technocamps
cs4fn
Code
Clubs
Coding
for kids
Codeacademy
Games Britannia
NextGen
skills
campaign
 Situation unrecognisable compared to 12
months ago. The ice has melted. Everything
is in flux.
 The DfE is treating ICT/CS as a guinea pig.
They are consciously “standing back” to allow
“the community” to sort it out. (PS: that
means us.)
 National impact. CAS has moved from
being a guerrilla group to an organisation
with national impact.
 DfE, Ofsted, Training Agency
 Awarding bodies
 BCS, IET, RA Eng
 Grass-rooted. All this is only possible
because of the innovative teaching that you
are doing in your classrooms
 Opportunity: to make a decisive lasting change that
establishes computer science a proper school
subject, on a par with maths or chemistry.
 Danger: raised expectations not met, enthusiasm
leaks away
It’s not enough to hope that someone else will
do it.
Start a hub. Run a hack day. Upload a scheme
of work. Join the Primary Task Force.
Whatever. But something.
There is only us.
 Goal: to equip you and your colleagues to teach brilliant
computer science at school
 The need: a national programme of CPD for computing
teachers
 The means:
 Universities deliver CS CPD to their local schools
 Master teachers develop classroom materials, to help other
less confident teachers
 Share through hubs, web site
 Coordination: Simon Humphreys, Mark Dorling,
Tom Crick
 Work with new Teaching Schools initiative
 The challenge: to keep the excitement, commitment, and
fun, while scaling up to national scale