The document discusses the state of computing education in the UK, highlighting the necessity for a robust curriculum that covers computer science, ICT, and digital literacy. It emphasizes the achievement gap in education linked to socio-economic backgrounds and the importance of engaging students with practical programming skills. The national curriculum encourages understanding of fundamental computing principles, problem-solving through programming, and responsible digital citizenship.

1. Computing in
English Education
Oliver Quinlan
nesta.org.uk
oliverquinlan.com
@oliverquinlanCC BY NC
celesterc

2. England

3. (C) Google Maps

4. (C) Google Maps
Pupils: 8.2 million
State: 93%
Private: 7%
‘Free School Meals’: 18%
‘Minority Ethnic’: 24-29%
‘English 2nd language’: 13-19%
http://bit.ly/schoolscensus

5. “The achievement gap between
pupils of different socio-economic
backgrounds is larger in the UK
than in most developed countries
in the world”
Wigdortz (2012) (Source: PISA data)

6. Pre-School Under 4
Nursery EYFS 4-5
Primary Schools 5-6
KS 1 6-7 SATs
KS 2 7-11 SATs
Secondary
Schools
KS 3 11-14
KS 4 14-16 GCSEs
(6th Form) KS 5 16-18 A Levels
University /
College
F.E. / H.E. 18+ Various

7. History

8. bit.ly/nestabbcmicro

9. CC BY SA Gisela Giardino
theguardian (2011), Eric Schmidt’s McTaggart Lecture- Full text. Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/interactive/2011/aug/26/eric-schmidt-
mactaggart-lecture-full-text (Accessed 25th September 2012)
“You invented computers in
both concept and practice [...]
Yet today, none of the world's
leading exponents in these
fields are from the UK.”

10. Nesta ‘NextGen’ Report
NESTA
“Shut down or restart?”
The Royal Society

11. “We’re not
going to tell you
what to do.”
CC BY NC ND Conservatives
DfE (2012) Michael Gove speech at the BETT show 2012. Available at: http://
www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/speeches/a00201868/michael-gove-speech-
at-the-bett-show-2012 (Accessed 26th September 2012)

12. Computing
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 4 :

13. The Curriculum

14. C O M P U T E R S C I E N C E
( U N D E R S TA N D I N G T H E P R I N C I P L E S O F
C O M P U T I N G & P R O G R A M M I N G )
I C T
( H O W T O U S E D I G I TA L T E C H N O L O G Y &
H O W I T W O R K S )
D I G I TA L L I T E R A C Y
( B E I N G A C A PA B L E & S A F E D I G I TA L
C I T I Z E N )

15. The national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that
all pupils:
• can understand and apply the fundamental
principles and concepts of computer science,
including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data
representation
• can analyse problems in computational terms, and
have repeated practical experience of writing computer
programs in order to solve such problems
• can evaluate and apply information technology,
including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to
solve problems
• are responsible, competent, confident and creative
users of information and communication technology

16. 5-8
•Understand algorithms
•Create & debug programs
•Use technology purposefully, safely and respectfully
9-11
•Design programs with goals, including decomposition
•Work with variables & various forms of input & output
•Understand computer networks
•Identify ways to report concerns about content
11-14
•Design, use and evaluate computational abstractions
•Use 2 or more programming languages (1 text based)
•Understand how data of various types can be
represented and manipulated digitally
•Protecting their online identity and privacy

17. The English National Curriculum for Computing
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-
curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study/
national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-
of-study
bit.ly/computingengland

18. Successes

24. iDHSB.co.uk

25. R A S P B E R RY P I

26. computingatschool.org.uk

27. http://code-it.co.uk/

28. Challenges

30. Why it matters

33. bit.ly/digitalmakers

34. Digital Making

36. “In the LOGO work we have invented versions of such
machines in which powerful ideas from physics or
mathematics or linguistics are embedded in a way that
permits the player to learn them in a natural fashion,
analogous to how a child learns to speak.”
Seymour Papert, Mindstorms

37. Certain ideas can be used as tools to think with over a
lifetime.
One learns to enjoy and to respect the power of powerful
ideas. One learns that the most powerful idea of all is the
idea of powerful ideas.
Seymour Papert, Mindstorms

38. slideshare.com/oliverquinlan
Oliver Quinlan
nesta.org.uk
oliverquinlan.com
@oliverquinlan