BETT Show: UK Teachers To Be Helped Skill Up In ICT

Technology giants such as Google and O2 are to support a £3.6m drive to teach computing skills in primary schools in England,

New help for ICT teaching in schools was announced at the annual BETT education tech show today.

Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan told delegates about plans to a slew of IT-friendly initiatives, including help from firms like Google and O2, who have promised to supply expert help to skill-up Britain’s youngsters.

The speech concentrated on the new partnerships with tech firms and exemplar projects, as the bulk of the £3.6m matching funding Morgan’s department is offering to raise ICT standards has already been allocated.

“We are committed to supporting tech companies to connect with our schools - preparing young people to succeed in the global race,” said Ms Morgan, who went on to outline projects such as Queen Mary University London and Oxford’s Hertford College to link with Google to produce training materials for teachers to develop "computing-related thinking skills" and an O2 plan to open a new peer-to-peer training scheme to help teachers with the computing curriculum.

Still on the teacher training path, Oxford Brookes University is to develop an online training course in computing for primary school teachers, while Preston’s Our Lady's Catholic High School is to will work with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to support other schools with computer lessons.

Investing In Teacher Training

“Increasing the focus on subjects like computing is a key part of our plan for education - which is why we are investing in the latest training and support so our teachers are fully prepared to plan, teach and assess the new computing curriculum,” said the Minister.

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