Computing Support for Schools – So What Happens Now?

As you may have already heard, the computing education landscape is changing rapidly and is going through a stage of uncertainty. Teach Computing (NCCE) recently announced that the Department for Education has reduced funding as of 31st March 2025, meaning that all computing hubs will cease to function and along with them, most of the support they give to schools, which appears to include:

• Specialist roles (like mine – I am the National Specialist for Primary Computing Leaders)
• All face to face courses (except some pre-existing residential courses)
• All live remote courses
• Kit hire (Crumbles, Micro:bits, Data Loggers etc)

You can read more about it here on the NCCE Website: What support from the NCCE can teachers access this term? or here on the Gov.uk website: Subject Hubs Guidance or here in a School’s Week article: Labour scraps computing hubs, with languages scheme scaled back.

What’s next?

There are a lot of unknowns in the mix and no one seems to quite know what will emerge from the ashes. I would very much like to continue to support computing leaders nationally, and provide links to resources and support wherever I can, both free and paid for, so that teachers can make up their minds about how to best support the delivery of high quality computing in their schools.

The main headline for me is that CAS (Computing At School) which is, and always has been, a volunteer led, grass roots movement with plenty of free resources and support – is still going strong, and there for us when we need it. Also, the NCCE says it will continue to provide support in the means of free access to online pre-recorded CPD.

If you are in need of CPD immediately or want to plan live CPD in for the future, please see my updated offer of support for primary schools on my homepage: Run Don’t Walk – Primary Computing

10 minutes to save the world

However, I would like to know if schools, teachers and leaders would still prefer face to face or live remote CPD and if there is potentially a need for that even if it comes at a cost. To this end, I’ve create a short survey (I’m doing this independently, not in affiliation with NCCE). If you’d be kind enough to take part, it takes less than 10 mins, it would help me understand how best to support you in the future.

👉 Computing Support Survey

I would love to know your thoughts!

Newsflash: Although the Big Computing Leadership Conference was DfE funded, and therefore will no longer be supported, a group of us are working hard to maintain the momentum and find a way to bring you the conference again this year, hopefully at Oxford Brookes, hopefully in December, watch this space!!

If you found this blog helpful, why not buy Phil a coffee!!