During the summer holidays, one of our Computer Science teachers, Ms Mogio, delivered a number of workshops to an international audience of academics for the British Council showcasing The Abbey School’s innovative pedagogy in the subject.

Ms Mogio tells the story:

‘For me, summer holidays are more than just a break from routine, they are an opportunity to reach out to wider communities and spread the ‘joy’ of Computer Science around the world.

Last summer, I had the privilege of working at Eton College in a Summer School teaching Computer Science to a diverse group of international students from over 50 countries. We worked together on several programming projects using Minecraft for Education and presented our programs to a wider audience. At the end of two hard weeks of work, we entered the ‘Time to Shine’ competition as a team and won the first award, which now sits happily on my desk in the Staff Room. The project combined collaboration, creativity and critical thinking to create a personalised story that solved a real-world problem.

This year, I wanted to continue in this journey and do something different. So, when I was asked by the British Council to deliver three workshops on The Abbey School’s pedagogy to an international audience of academics from 28 countries I didn’t blink twice. This was giving me the opportunity to talk about what I love the most, my subject and how we teach Computer Science at The Abbey to engage girls in Computer Science.

It is no secret that girls form their first stereotypes about Computing in their early years of education and they face challenges that are not as prominent for other genders, especially at a younger age. Research shows that girls often start Year 7 with a fixed idea of whether they want to pursue a career in Computer Science, and it can be difficult to shift this perception during their secondary school years. To address these challenges, I made some changes to our KS3 curriculum to get our students coding in Python every school year, using different environments to build confidence in their skills and prepare them for GCSEs. I am confident these changes are making a difference, as our current LVs have stronger coding abilities than any previous year group we have taught.

I am proud of what we do at The Abbey School and I believe the steps we are taking are helping to reduce the gap in women taking up Computer Science at university. The British Computing Society reports that the number of women starting Computing degrees is rising. For example, in 2024 there were 6,310 UK-based women beginning Computing degrees, out of a total of 32,710 entrants. We want to be part of this change and raise our own numbers, and we can confidently say we are one of the best schools for girls in our area to make this happen.

I can only be grateful for my job and for having the opportunity to share what I do with others, and I hope that collectively, as a society, make the changes that are necessary to get more girls into Computing degrees and balance the algorithms that will rule our future lives.’