What is TEALS?
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, is delighted to be working with Microsoft and The Hg Foundation to bring TEALS to secondary schools in the UK. The program helps teachers, particularly non-specialists, by pairing them with volunteers from industry who can boost subject knowledge in the classroom, enrich student learning, and accelerate the professional development of computing teachers.
TEALS has been running in the United States since 2009 and has helped over 100,000 students receive computer science learning pathways. It is also operating in Canada, Mexico, Israel, Colombia, Kenya and India.
Volunteers help departments to increase their computing capacity and advance teacher’s subject knowledge and capabilities, creating a lasting impact. The support volunteers provide is planned and under the direction of the teacher with each volunteer supporting a class, each week, across a school year.
We're currently working with 17 schools and 49 volunteers across England – Manchester, Walsall, Reading, London, Southampton, Merseyside, Oxfordshire, Leicester, Sheffield, Bedfordshire, Gravesend and Torbay. The insights we gained during the first year of the programme has supported our expansion of TEALS to more schools, volunteers, locations, and regions of the UK.
We've built a community of TEALS teachers and volunteers and we’re always looking to welcome more schools and volunteers who are passionate about computing to the programme, helping to extend the reach and impact of TEALS in the UK.
TEALS for schools
BCS supports schools participating by helping to recruit volunteers from industry, conducting Enhanced DBS checks and training to prepare volunteers to go into schools, and assisting you and your volunteers to work as a team for you and your students.
Benefits to schools include:
TEALS for volunteers
Volunteers are the backbone of TEALS. They enrich students’ understanding of computing, provide real-world context for learning, and bring to life a range of career possibilities.
Benefits to volunteers include: