Why we exist
We exist to help schools create relevant and meaningful education by providing a complete DigiTech pathway for all secondary students, developing teacher confidence to teach digital technology, and through creating industry connections with schools.
We provide free professional development to teachers and support to school executives to transform digital technology education in schools. We do this using our strong partnerships with industry.
We support schools and teachers with:
- Innovative lesson materials. The materials are open and free, perpetually available, and always up to date. Visit our courses page: https://csinschools.io
- Access to a network of expert volunteer computing professionals to support teachers in developing the skills needed to become confident in teaching digital technology
- Training through workshops, and ongoing online support through email and Slack to build community, engagement, and provide help to teachers
Who is it for?
We work with secondary schools and teachers in Australia.
We support schools from all sectors and states, with a bias towards supporting girls’, rural, and regional schools. We support teachers with any background, not just those who’ve taught digital technology previously.
We usually begin our partnership with a school with our Introduction to Coding programme, and together we build a pipeline of students who are interested in digital technology and help schools build follow-on programmes.
In-classroom professional development experience
We share free and open teaching materials, built by computer science and teaching experts. These include teacher training videos, lessons plans, student videos, and complete lessons that meet the Australian DigiTech curriculum requirements. Our course resources are here: https://csinschools.io
We offer industry-based teacher support, run workshops, and provide support through an online community.
We tailor our support of schools and teachers to suit their needs. For example, we’ve worked with schools and teachers in the following ways:
- Partner mode. A volunteer computing professional partners with a teacher in the classroom to build the capabilities to independently teach coding
- Mentor mode. A volunteer computing professional regularly meets a teacher
- Online mode. A teacher downloads and uses our materials, and receives occasional, ad hoc support through our online communities
- Training mode. A teacher attends our free training workshop and then delivers our materials without hands-on support
World-class teaching materials
CS in Schools materials are designed to help teachers confidently deliver a fun, engaging, and industry-relevant DigiTech programme.
The materials include videos for teachers and students, lesson plans, slides, worksheets, online exercises, and other materials. All materials are provided under the relaxed Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Industry support
We provide access to a network of volunteer computing professionals.
Volunteers help teachers succeed in the classroom. Volunteers have basic training in classroom scenarios, and can explain coding concepts to students with support from the schools’ teachers.
The two companies with the most volunteers in our programmes are SEEK and Carsales.
Pre-programme workshops
We provide a free, compulsory training workshop to all volunteers and teachers that have been accepted to participate in CS in Schools. Our workshops are typically at the end of the calendar year.
The workshops are designed to be fun and engaging, and aimed to help everyone have the best experience in the CS in Schools programme.
Industry projects
Once schools have developed a pipeline of students with coding experience, we offer schools the opportunity to participate in pilot and advanced courses. For example, in 2021, we partnered with Carsales and Domain to offer students the chance to solve a real-world industry challenge.
FAQs
We work with secondary schools and teachers in Australia.
We support schools from all sectors and states, with a bias towards supporting girls’, rural, and regional schools. We support teachers with any background, not just those who’ve taught digital technology previously.
Teachers should have at least three years of teaching experience and at least one year of experience in their current school. Teachers with any background are welcome.
We established CS in Schools to transform Australia schools so that they can address the IT skills gap.
There will be hundreds of thousands of new tech jobs by the end of this decade, but Australia only creates around 7,000 university-qualified IT graduates each year. We believe that university entrants aren’t choosing IT programmes because many don’t get the opportunity to study engaging digital technology courses at school. It’s critical for Australia’s future that we address this problem.
In 2022, schools we worked with included:
- Victorian schools
- Aitken College
- Bialik College
- Camberwell Girls Grammar School
- Catholic College Sale
- Cornish College
- Flinders Christian Community College – Carrum Downs Campus
- Genazzano FCJ College
- Gippsland Grammar School
- Greensborough Secondary College
- Haileybury Berwick
- Haileybury Brighton
- Haileybury City
- Haileybury Keysborough
- Colmont International School
- McClelland College
- Mount Eliza Secondary College
- Mount Erin College
- Newhaven College
- Noble Park Secondary College
- Parkdale Secondary College
- Springside West Secondary College
- St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School – Traralgon Campus
- St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School – Warragul Campus
- St. Leonards Catholic Parish Primary School
- The Hamilton and Alexandra College
- Toorak College
- Wesley College – Elsternwick Campus
- Woodleigh
- Dromana Secondary College
- Western Port Secondary College
- Queensland schools
- Albany Creek State High School
- Caboolture State High School
- Indooroopilly State High School
- Malanda State High School
- Narangba Valley SHS
- The Gap SHS
- South Australian schools
- Horizon Christian School
- Kildare College
- St Michael’s College
- Torrens Valley Christian School
- West Australian schools
- Governor Stirling Senior High School
- Northern Territory schools
- Nightcliff Middle School
- Tasmanian schools
- St. Mary’s College
- Australian Capital Territory
- Melba Copland Secondary College
We welcome all schools and teachers in all Australian states to our programmes, but we have a bias towards helping rural, regional, and girls’ schools.
Beyond motivated teachers, students, and a scheduled class, we only need a computer and an Internet connection to get started.
Schools need to provide each student with a computer with a modern web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge. We recommend against using tablets because they are difficult for typing and cutting and pasting text.
Schools must also provide reliable access to the Internet. It’s sometimes required that schools make changes to their firewall setup. For example, we’ve worked with schools that have a default configuration that doesn’t allow students to watch our lesson videos.
Signup for student resources is anonymous, that is, students do not need to provide their name or email addresses to use our resources.
If the school is unable to provide computers, CS in Schools may be able to help.
The next intake for CS in Schools is for the 2023 school year.
We usually begin by helping schools add a coding course at Year 7 or 8, and then build towards Year 12 in subsequent years. If you’re interested in having CS in Schools support teachers at your school in 2023, you need to be able to:
- Find timetable space. Our Introduction to Coding programme is approximately twenty hours in length and is typically taught at around two classroom hours per week for ten weeks. CS in Schools can share timetabling models that have worked for other schools, and help with ideas on how to create timetable space
- Find teachers. Find motivated teachers and give the teachers the opportunity to teach the course at least twice within a calendar year. We then work with you to determine what support mode is right for each teacher. Note that teachers need to be able to attend a training workshop and study independently. We encourage schools to put several teachers in the programme at the same time!
- Provide students with computers and Internet access. Ensure each student who will take the subject has access to a computer with a modern web browser, and Internet access
If you’d like to learn more, please email hello@csinschools.com.
If you’re ready to apply, click the apply button below.
Get involved!
If you’re ready to build capabilities for a digital future at your school, please apply now for the 2024 intake.