Computing At School North West (Manchester) was proud to be nominated and then shortlisted for the University of Manchester Making a Difference Award.

The shortlist for 2017 can be found here.

The team attended the awards ceremony on 11th May held at the beautiful Whitworth Hall.

It is with great pride that we received a Highly Commended Award for Outstanding Contribution to Widening Participation.

All winners can be found here.

You can read lots of Tweets from the evenings award ceremony #MaDAwards

Judging Criteria

Innovation: Evidence that the activity is an innovative response to a widening participation challenge.
Impact: The activity has demonstrable evidence of making a difference to the educational opportunities or outcomes of less-advantaged learners. 

The mission of Computing At School is to provide leadership and strategic guidance to those involved in Computing education in schools.  Excellence in the teaching of Computing can only be made by teachers through the way they deliver the skills, knowledge, understanding and attitudes associated with the curriculum. Through the participation of the wider community we seek to support and empower each other so that each child has the opportunity of an outstanding computer science education.

The University of Manchester in partnership with Edge Hill University run the North West regional centre supporting schools, Primary, Secondary and Sixth Form Colleges, with activities for pupils alongside continuing professional development for teachers.

This has been achieved through creating opportunities for schools to partake in activities at the university as well as the team working in schools. They have also been involved in initiatives such as ScienceX and the Blue Dot Festival in order to reach out to as many different audiences as possible. To widen the participation of Computer Science (CS) to under represented groups the team have developed specific programmes, such as Girls Computer Science Days both at the University and in local schools and Microbit challenge day in a local disadvantaged area. The team also co-hosted a SEN conference earlier this year with over 60 teachers from different schools in the region, to create opportunities for all students to enjoy CS . The conference offered expertise and resources to support teaching CS looking at issues such as gender, ethnicity, socio-conomic status, SEN and pupils with disabilities.

2016/17 saw a significant increase in the share of female undergraduate students in first year from about 17% to over 24%, and these school activities are one of the possible explanations for this development.

There are currently 2199 teachers registered as members of CAS Manchester. 

Example Feedback gathered

 It was very informative and helpful, THANK YOU VERY MUCH   

I really found this useful seeing it working and having a go myself thank-you very much for your time. It was really informative …

Giving me the skills and confidence to mark my students' coursework effectively.

This was a great workshop which helped refresh my knowledge and gain some fabulous ideas for lessons and teaching These are always fun and informative

sessions; they're invaluable to us teachers who have very little time to spend on our own CPD. Attending these events over the past two years has dramatically

reduced the pressure I have been under to deliver and assess the GCSE Controlled Assessments.

It was perfect in every way; pace, delivery and knowledge of the presenter.