CAS Regional Community: West Midlands
Welcome to your CAS Regional Community!
Keep an eye out here for upcoming regional events and opportunities.
Got a question or suggestion? Reach out via the community leaders listed at the top of the page or email compatsch@bcs.uk.
We also encourage you to join the conversation: post your thoughts, ideas, resources, or any local teaching vacancies on the Discussion Board at the bottom of the page to share with the community.
Regional Communities bring together local groups from across a wider area, creating opportunities to connect, collaborate, and share ideas beyond your immediate network. These overarching communities are designed to support and strengthen Local Communities by hosting regional events and encouraging cross-community connections.
Cyberfirst
CyberFirst is a government-backed outreach and education programme designed to create opportunities for talented young people in future-focused tech careers. CyberFirst supports students from all backgrounds to consider a career in tech – including cyber security, AI, quantum computing, software, data and more. Over the next few months readers will notice an increase in the use of TechFirst as CyberFirst remit is expanded.
BCS Branches
As part of its commitment to building a strong professional community, BCS supports a network of regional member branches across the UK. These local groups provide opportunities for members to connect, share knowledge, and get involved in events and activities relevant to their area. Whether you're looking to expand your professional network, attend local talks and workshops, or contribute to the wider digital community, your nearest BCS branch is a great place to start. You can find more information and explore the full list of BCS member communities here.
If you'd like to view existing files or upload a new one, please log in below.
Log inMap
Explore the map
Communities
Community Notice Board: CAS Regional Community: West Midlands
Please login to post a comment
Hi all,
Chris Swan here, PGCE Secondary Computer Science and IT lead tutor at Birmingham City University. I’m currently seeking school placements for my wonderful and super-keen trainee teachers. I am in my 9th year working at BCU and this has been the most challenging year for getting all trainees placed. We have had many schools withdraw placement offers - recently, one the night before the trainee’s induction. As you can imagine, this has caused huge disappointment.
I have made it my recent mission to fill up local schools with enthusiastic, committed, CS teachers, and it is an absolute pleasure to meet so many of them in their schools years after they trained at BCU. I also have another motive, and that is that this is the right thing to do. We need Computing to grow in schools and to be offered more widely. Currently, according to the latest Royal Soc. report, only 51.9% of Birmingham schools offer GCSE CS. We also need IT to be valued as a subject of its own value (bring back the GCSE!!), as it engaged more young people from under represented groups.
Back to my immediate pressing mission, if you teach in a Birmingham school, or southern area such as Redditch or Bromsgrove, and you could host a trainee placement, please, please drop me an email christine.swan@bcu.ac.uk Thank you for reading this and I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Hello everyone
It was great to see so many familiar faces here at Bromsgrove School at the end of October for the CAS National Conference!
Please do sign up for our next Secondary Leads meeting on 11/11/2025 here
We have many more events scheduled in the region including
a) CyberFirst meetups / activities
b) a F2F OCR Computer Science Network meeting at Bromsgrove School on 24/2/2026 - book here
c) And, just like last year, there will be a F2F CAS West Midlands Regional meetup at the Festival of Computing here at Bromsgrove School on 1/7/2026.
More info to follow…
Best
Johnny Palmer
CAS Board Member
CAS West Midlands Regional Lead
CAS Midlands West Computing Hub Lead
Welcome: It is terrific you have found us and can now ask questions or collaborate on exciting projects to support both staff and students. My name is Richard Smith and I am one of the community leaders. The first event I am running is an online event to explore the exciting possibilities of using the Micro:bit as a sensor for magnetic forces (link above). We hope to also hold some face to face events so any ideas you have would be welcome. You can contact me directly via amazingict@icloud.com