Supporting Teachers with Computer Science
Our Education Team are proud to be supporting the Barefoot Computing project, a national initiative supporting primary educators with computer science. 
Established in 2014 by the Department for Education following the introduction of the new Computing curriculum in England, the programme is now funded by BCS and supports primary teachers across the UK with the provision of free resources and volunteer-led workshops. Our team work closely with BCS to support teachers and volunteers through the delivery of these free workshops.
What is Barefoot?
If you’re a primary educator looking to develop your confidence in teaching computer science, and want to help your pupils become budding programmers, Barefoot is perfect for you.
Created by a team of practising primary teachers, Barefoot’s high quality, cross-curricular activities help bring computational thinking concepts and approaches alive in engaging and practical ways. There are clear definitions, examples and progression across all primary school age and ability ranges, all designed to help you deepen your understanding of computational thinking and computer science topics. All made more accessible through free volunteer-led workshops.
Whether you’re creating your own algorithm for drawing something, exploring logical reasoning through number patterns, or tinkering with code in Scratch, Barefoot will help you realise that computing is not so scary after all – in fact, you’re already teaching it!
How can I find out more?
You can access all of the resources, lesson plans and self-teach materials by going to the Barefoot website and signing up for free. Once you’ve signed up, a free online CPD workshop, led by a trained industry volunteer, is the perfect way to get started and will give you and your colleagues a hands-on introduction to what Barefoot has to offer. Choose between Computational Thinking, Early Years or Programming in Scratch.
Book a Workshop
Barefoot workshops instantly bring the resources to life in an interactive session, demonstrating just how uncomplicated bringing computing to all aspects of the curriculum can be. Our trained Barefoot volunteers host free 90 minute online sessions, provide an introduction to the Barefoot website and resources, discuss how the resources complement the computing curriculum and then demonstrate a range of the activities.
Access Resources
The exemplar Barefoot primary computing resources have been created by a panel of expert primary computing teachers. These free to use, creative resources illustrate how computing can be integrated into the primary curriculum in cross-curricular ways, enabling primary teachers to deliver the computing curriculum with confidence.
Become an Advocate
Help to support Barefoot by raising awareness of our programme in your own community and networks.
As a Barefoot Advocate, you’ll receive email updates from us about our latest plans and be able to download our Advocate Support packs to help you spread our message.
