We are waking to news this morning that Education Secretary Michael Gove is being moved into the role of chief whip as part of the cabinet reshuffle. He will be replaced in the role by Nicky Morgan. There is speculation about whether or not she will attempt to ‘make peace’ with the education sector after Gove’s various reforms were widely criticised.

However, re-writing the computing curriculum, one of the main changes Gove made while occupying the role, has, in his own words, made it “much shorter and less prescriptive than the old, discredited ICT curriculum, allowing schools room to innovate, and be much, much more ambitious.”

The new curriculum teaches children computer science, information technology, and digital literacy: teaching them how to code, and how to create their own programs; “not just how to work a computer; but how a computer works”.

The issue is, terminology used in the computing curriculum is not overly accessible and the subjects (programming, coding, algorithms) do not come with a handbook. For this reason, Turn IT On has been decoding the new computing curriculum in training sessions for hundreds of teachers since its publication in September 2013. Our motivation is to enable teachers to do what they do best. By giving teachers the knowledge and resources needed in order to plan for and deliver computing with confidence, schools are able to make the most of the dynamic and exciting new curriculum. 

Read some of the feedback from teachers who attended previous Turn IT On Decoding the Computing Curriculum training sessions and take a look at some of the resources and presentations used.

To book a training session at your school in the summer holidays or for next term please email curriculum@turniton.co.uk.