Free literature / resources to help you deliver the computing curriculum

This post is another information post for the Shropshire Computing Conference, in case I don't have time to say everything I want to. I'm saying thanks to all the folk mentioned at the start of this post, in case they don't scroll down to the end! Your hard work saves us time and energy - and for that I would imagine there are many grateful people as grateful as I am. So, some freebies ...

Miles Berry is a king in the computing world. If you don't believe me, check out his blog where you will see that he helped write the curriculum for primary. He has also written the CAS Primary Computing in the National Curriculum: A guide for teachers

What Miles does well is remind us that the new computing curriculum is not so different from the old ICT curriculum. Don't forget all the lovely creative things you have been doing with open ended projects and collaborative work, using all sorts of resources.

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The BSC, a key partner to CAS (computing at School) has created a computational thinking framework and a computing progression pathways chart.

The former is structured in the following helpful areas:

Stage 1: Definition 

Stage 2: Concepts 

Stage 3: Classroom techniques 

Stage 4: Assessment

With the progression pathway featuring in the assessment stage.

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Barefoot computing is part of CAS, aimed at primary aged children. It has some brilliant free resources to help you plan, learn yourself and teach computer science. Take a look at this fossil animation algorithm that they have created.

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Rising stars have been good friends to me in my previous role as an AST and in producing my Getting Started with Digital Leader leaflets. They provide a huge amount of free resources to support teachers and are currently offering free computing webinars. Rising Stars have also published a free CPD toolkit - Quickstart Computing. Last year, every school received sample units for KS1 and KS2 Switched on Computing, written by the aforementioned Miles Berry. Finally, they also provided a free computing with Microsoft taster pack (see image) with 6 units that cover the new curriculum program of study.


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Last, but in no way least, Simon Haughton produces a huge amount of free resources for ICT and computing, for which we are very grateful. His booklet, Computing Theory for 7-11 year olds, will come in very handy for many educators.