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Teach Computing in Schools: Creating a Curriculum for Ages 11 to 16

Create an inspiring and engaging computing curriculum for secondary school students, using freely available resources.

1,439 enrolled on this course

A image representing aspects of the course, including a teacher, grahs, childen working on code, a film clapperboard, and a bug and a lock
  • Duration

    3 weeks
  • Weekly study

    2 hours

Learn how to create a successful computing curriculum tailored for your setting

On this course, teachers can discover how to create a computing curriculum for pupils aged 11 to 16, using freely available online resources to complement your existing materials.

Explore how to use the Teach Computing Curriculum (TCC)

The TCC is a completely free resource, designed to help computing teachers plan lessons, homework, and assessments.

It contains everything educators need to teach computing and inspire pupils at key stages 1 to 4, with all of its content created by subject experts informed by the latest thinking.

Adapt the TCC for your computing curriculum

You’ll explore the underlying principles and pedagogical approaches used within the TCC, and understand how you can adapt it for use in your own setting.

As you learn how to integrate the TCC into your own curriculum to fill any gaps, you’ll discover how it can support you in your computing teaching.

Utilise the full range of teaching resources available to you

You’ll develop an assessment strategy that combines the TCC’s assessment materials with your school’s own system, identify how formative assessment can aid your pedagogy, and see how to modify resources to suit the needs of learners in your school.

Create a computing curriculum that suits you

Studying with computing experts at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, you’ll learn how to create a high-quality curriculum for your computing classes, in a way that fits your setting and with a minimal workload.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 3 seconds How can you create a successful computing curriculum for your school? A curriculum tailored for your classroom setting that also reduces your workload? A curriculum full of high-quality resources, lesson plans, and learning graphs, all completely free? This might sound too good to be true, but this free course will introduce you to the Teach Computing curriculum, which includes a full set of resources designed to meet the requirements of computing in the English National Curriculum. As well as learning about the importance of computing in schools, we’ll also consider effective pedagogy and get practical advice from teachers currently using these resources in their own classrooms.

Skip to 0 minutes and 45 seconds The three-week course also contains peer led discussions, trainer interaction, and practical activities to adapt resources, making them inclusive and accessible to your learners. So whether you’re a newly qualified teacher or the head of department, you’ll complete this course feeling confident in your abilities to create a fantastic computing curriculum. Sign up now at rpt.io/teachcomputing.

What topics will you cover?

  • Computing and its place in the Curriculum
  • Pedagogy
  • Adapting for your setting
  • Online learning platforms
  • Summative assessment
  • Putting it into practice

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Describe the importance of computing in secondary schools
  • Explain how the Teach Computing Curriculum can support you in your teaching
  • Evaluate how learning graphs are used as part of a progression model
  • Modify resources to include differentiation that suits the needs of learners in your school
  • Develop an assessment strategy combining the Teach Computing Curriculum assessment materials with your school’s own system
  • Modify your curriculum plans to integrate the Teach Computing Curriculum

Who is the course for?

This course would appeal to all computing teachers at schools teaching 11-16-year-olds, from those that are newly qualified to heads of department.

Who will you learn with?

Learning Manager (Secondary) at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. I have been a classroom teacher for over 15 years and specialise in Computing.

Ben is a Learning Manager for the Raspberry Pi Foundation making teaching resources for educators. When he's not spending time tinkering with his Raspberry Pi, he likes spending time with his family

Who developed the course?

Raspberry Pi Foundation

The Raspberry Pi Foundation works to put the power of digital making into the hands of people all over the world, so they are capable of understanding and shaping our increasingly digital world.

National Centre for Computing Education

This course is part of the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE). Funded by the Department for Education and partners, we aim to change the way computing is taught in schools across England, and enable more young people to benefit from studying this important subject.

If you are a teacher in England you can get free upgraded access to this course, and use it towards NCCE certification. To do this, you must join the course through the Teach Computing website

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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