Hello,
I am very pleased to let you know that in the next day or two a letter and information pack should arrive at your school to let your Headteacher know about the importance of Computing Science.  The pack has been sent by Computing At School Scotland with the BCS, the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), the industry body ScotlandIS, the universities’ Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) and NESTA.
In the pack is:
- Covering letter (Google Drive access required to view electronic version)
- Information sheet (on Google Drive)
- RSE exemplification pack leaflet (on Google Drive)
- What Is Computing leaflet
- CAS Scotland Newsletter (http://bit.ly/casscotissue2)
- NESTA One Day Digital event leaflet and letter
This week would be a great time to go and chat to your Headteacher about the importance of Computing to pupils and to our society. Â Discuss the barriers to improving CS in your school – whether it be time in the timetable, staffing, CPD, the image of Computing, or whatever. Â But also discuss the possibilities – what you hope to do in your school, what you could teach if you didn’t have just one period a week or the exciting jobs that are available in the industry (and the 40,000 jobs that will be created in Scotland over the next few years!)
Please encourage your headteacher to get in touch with us if he or she has any questions. Â And please encourage your colleagues to join CAS – it’s free and with more members together we can start to resolve the issues we have with teaching CS in Scottish schools and make it a fantastic subject to teach and learn!
Kate Farrell
Co-Chair, CAS Scotland
Hi Kate/Quintin,
Well done to everyone that that has contributed to getting the conversation this far advanced.
One thing did strike me as I checked out the resources was the mixed messages from some of the sources cited. For instance the whatiscomputing.com website has the following statement on its home page which I think undermines the main message of the importance of “computational thinking” and the careers it opens up:
Sounds good People
Just noticed this and will speak to my HT at some point only problem is our LA doesn’t allow access to Google Drive at the moment.
Hi Robert,
you can access pdf versions of the covering letter and the document that provides more detail about the importance of Computing in the documents section of the Computing at School Scotland group.
thanks very much charlie – most importantly has it been sent to the Directors of Education in each authority? – they may have influence wether computing depts should be shut down.