This course is delivered as part of the National Centre for Computing Education, and forms part of the Computer Science Accelerator programme. The level of programming skill required for GCSE becomes demanding, and may seem daunting for those without a programming background. This professional development aims to take you from novice programmer to competent teacher of Python programming. You’ll be walked through the fundamentals of programming, with lots of hands-on experience under the guidance of highly successful teachers of computer science. You’ll find out about writing easy-to-understand code to collect, process and display data. Develop your knowledge of data types, and how data structures are manipulated in python programs. Become confident in using logic and arithmetic to write efficient code to execute algorithms. New program code almost always contains errors; you’ll become adept at identifying and correcting them, and testing the functionality of your code.

The course will highlight the key skills for delivering the A Level, plus the progression of techniques from GCSE Computer Science. It aims to give teachers the confidence to program solutions for past A-Level questions, and to provide an awareness of the skills required for the successful completion of an A-Level programming project.

An overview of - and techniques for teaching - the most challenging topics in the linear A-Level Computing programme. This course is ideally suited for those who have been teaching GCSE Computing for some time. We will focus on the core theory common to all boards. Lots of resources to help you teach the two years.

This course is delivered as part of the National Centre for Computing Education, and forms part of the Computer Science Accelerator programme. The level of programming skill required for GCSE becomes demanding, and may seem daunting for those without a programming background. This professional development aims to take you from novice programmer to competent teacher of Python programming. You’ll be walked through the fundamentals of programming, with lots of hands-on experience under the guidance of highly successful teachers of computer science. You’ll find out about writing easy-to-understand code to collect, process and display data. Develop your knowledge of data types, and how data structures are manipulated in python programs. Become confident in using logic and arithmetic to write efficient code to execute algorithms. New program code almost always contains errors; you’ll become adept at identifying and correcting them, and testing the functionality of your code.

This course is delivered as part of the National Centre for Computing Education, and forms part of the Computer Science Accelerator programme An understanding of algorithms is fundamental to success in computer science. To reach their full potential, students of GCSE computer science need to be confident in using decomposition and abstraction to solve problems.

Overview and techniques for teaching the most-challenging topics in linear A-Level Computing, ideally suited to teachers who’ve taught GCSE Computing for some time. We’ll focus on core theory common to all boards. You’ll leave with lots of resources to help you through the two years of teaching the course.

This course is delivered as part of the National Centre for Computing Education, and forms part of the Computer Science Accelerator programme An understanding of algorithms is fundamental to success in computer science. To reach their full potential, students of GCSE computer science need to be confident in using decomposition and abstraction to solve problems.

DAY 1 Session 1: Fundamentals of Programming and Computational Thinking Computational thinking; Standard and complex algorithms; Efficiency of different algorithms; Standard and complex algorithms – algorithms for Quick and Merge Sort. Session 2: Data structures Trees, stacks and queues; Graphs, linked lists, intractable algorithms, and Dijkstra/A*. DAY 2 Session 1: Object Oriented Programming Classes, objects, attributes, methods; Encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, aggregation, composition, overriding; Unified Modelling Language (UML); Practical coding examples and exam questions. Session 2: Maths for Computer Science Data representation – floating point arithmetic, addition and subtraction, normalisation, masking and shifts. Session 3: Review of exam questions A look at selected topics from various boards.

This course has been designed to not only teach the fundamentals of programming but also to focus on how these can be delivered in the classroom. There will be two workshops: one aimed at beginners, and the other at intermediate and more-advanced programmers.

We are running two separate workshops covering the theory aspects of the GCSE and A level Computer Science courses. We recommend that delegates have already attended the GCSE Theory course or have previous experience of teaching Computer Science to GCSE.

Covers the challenging content pupils struggle with: the computational-thinking and algorithms paper of any examination board. Focusses on the teaching strategies for the technical topics involved in the new specifications. Shows how algorithms can be approached with confidence, working through all key programming constructs. Also covers other material such as Boolean logic, programming techniques and methodologies. Ideally suited to those who have taught GCSE Computing or who are considering doing so for the first time. Lots of resources to help them through the first year of teaching the course.

A CPD course for ICT teachers of all abilities, this will equip you with the skills and confidence to teach, in an interesting and engaging way, the GCSE CS curriculum, including the programming content and skills required for approaching examination questions as well as the non-examination assessment. Subject to sufficient interest, there will be an A level parallel workshop covering more advanced concepts. IF BOOKING FOR ONE DAY ONLY, THE CHARGE IS £150 (TWO DAYS = £270)