Awarded to the educational establishment in the UK that can demonstrate innovation in its approach to teaching and deploying Information and Communication technologies that further the learning experience of its students.

2024 Winner: Thomas Tallis School

Based in London, in its second year of delivering the CyberEPQ qualification, the impact on students at Thomas Tallis School has been dramatic. A number from its first cohort have already secured highly competitive places. Last September, students visited the International Cyber Expo at Olympia to kick start their journey. This year they will also get access to six refurbished desktops running Kali Linux, which will allow for more experience of real-world tools. Cyber security awareness and skills development is now embedded in lesson planning from year 7 to year 13.

Commended

Barrow CVEC Primary School, Suffolk
Chase High School, Essex
Skipton Girls High School, North Yorkshire

2023 Winner: Fulford School, York

Fulford School’s computing curriculum is exemplary and designed from the ground up to provide pupils with the skills required to crack the digital jobs market. Led by Head of Computing Pete Dring, the recent work of students in developing Hydroheat - a prototype system which re-uses the heat produced by data centres - has impressed the CEO of Microsoft UK.

Commended
Sherborne Girls, Dorset
St Swithun Wells Primary School, Middlesex
St John's CofE Primary School, Hampshire
Duncanrig Secondary School, Glasgow

2022 Winner
Kentmere Academy and Nursery, Rochdale

Commended
Croassgates Primary School, Fife
Alderley Edge School for Girls, Cheshire

2021 Winner
Highgate School, London

The CyberFirst Girls Competition provides a fun, challenging environment to inspire the next generation of young women to consider a career in cyber security. A team of four girls from Highgate School were crowned the winners after beating more than 6,500 rivals in a nationwide competition - which was held virtually and saw teams of 12 and 13 year olds from 10 schools participate in a series of cryptography, logic and networking challenges to work through a fictional scenario where a number of internet of things (IoT) devices, including smart kettles and mirrors, were infected with malware.

Commended
Repton School, Derbyshire 
Maidstone Grammar School for Girls, Kent  
Beamont Collegiate Academy, Cheshire 
Bohunt School, Hampshire

2020 Winner
Dartford Grammar, Kent

Dartford Grammar is part of the network of 34 Computing Hubs across England which provide a focal point for computing education for primary and secondary schools, including providing training for teachers. It has been a Computing Hub since July 2019 and, as well as being a centre for local computing training for schools, the hub also has links with industry and universities. The School had been quick to switch to remote delivery of courses following the impact of coronavirus. Minister for School Standards Nick Gibb has recently praised its ambition and work with the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE).

Commended

City of London School
Reading School, Berkshire
Park House School, Berkshire

2019 Winner
St Swithun Wells’ Catholic Primary School, Middlesex

Pupils at St Swithun Wells in West London, which became a designated NCTL Teaching School in 2014, have demonstrated superb coding progress by designing and sharing more than 2,900 apps last year. Coding accounts for half of the Computing programme of study and the school is proud to be placed in the top 3 coding schools nationally. Talented pupils use their ICT skills to create imaginative computer games, using different programming languages and featuring characters including dinosaurs, princesses and even The Queen. The school has been recognised as a UK Coding Champion by Discovery Education, which provides digital and coding resources to primary schools. It has received a gold award in recognition of its achievements, along with a Makey Makey coding kit – an electronic invention tool which connects everyday objects to the internet.

Commended

Holy Name School, Pembrokeshire
As early adopters of the Welsh Government provided Hwb digital platform, Holy Name School has been instrumental in leading the way with development of pupil and staff digital skills. Examples of this include the strategic day to day management of the school which uses software to enable real time staff collaboration. Teaching staff also use an online Office tool Planner to track and manage the School Development Plan. This means the development plan has changed from being a static paper document to being a live, interactive entity where progress is clearly tracked, evidence collected and there are clear lines of accountability. Using the digital platforms in this way has helped raise staff confidence and ICT capabilities. Pupils confidently demonstrate a wide range of digital skills including collaborative working, coding and video editing.

Tiffin School, Surrey
Jamie Frost from Tiffin School uses technology to positively impact a wide audience of students and teachers all over the world. In 2016 he received a grant from the Mayor of London’s Office, via the Shine Trust, to produce a free online maths learning platform – www.drfrostmaths.com. The website offers an excellent collection of free teaching resources, videos, and a bank of exam questions, all for free. So far, the platform is used by over 2000 schools internationally, and his teaching resources have been downloaded over 1.5 million times. The website is currently being updated to adapt to changing technologies (such as smartphones and tablets), and the level of detailing in the coding is second-to-none. The platform has already sparked national attention, with Jamie featured as author of the month in the Times Educational Supplement (TES).

2018 Winner
Open Academy Norwich

Open Academy’s ‘Project Refurb Club’ involves students refurbishing old PCs to distribute throughout the local community, a cause close to the hearts of both students and staff. The idea was devised by students in Years 7, 8 and 9 and championed by students in Years 10 and 11, who study Creative Media and Computer Science. This was achieved by integrating the project units. ‘Project Refurb’ is currently managed by ‘Digital Ambassadors’ in Years 7 to 13, whose roles are diverse and include mentors who teach at ‘Codeclub’ an after-school club to learn how to programme.

Commended

Ashmead Primary School, Buckinghamshire
Plashet School, Newham, London
Southlands School, Hampshire

2017 Winner
Deighton Primary School

Deighton Primary School treats ICT as a core subject. 2017’s ‘Overdrive’ project with Cardiff Met’ University involves pupils working with students from the education and animation departments in developing a computer game based around driving. Next is a plan to build a working car with an electric motor. The project work this year has seen real-life working situations become part of the children’s school experience.

Commended

Rendcomb College
Moredon Primary School, Swindon
The Queen’s School, Chester
Heathfield Knoll School, Kidderminster

2016 Winner
Studio Schools, Merseyside

The Studio focuses on developing students’ skills and the knowledge that students require to pursue a career in the digital sector, hosting a monthly series of Coder Dojo events working with primary aged children from across the North West. An industry mentor link shares real world experience and gauges students on a level that the curriculum doesn’t, and a monthly masterclass provides career possibilities.

Commended

Bolsover Church of England Junior School, Derbyshire
Shrewsbury High School, Shropshire
Westmorland Primary School, Lancashire
Plymouth School of Creative Arts, Devon

2015 Winner
Teesdale School, County Durham

Teesdale is a lead school in the Computing School’s Network. As the curriculum changed from ICT to Computing, Teesdale took the opportunity to share expertise with local students at the primary level, hosting computing days to help year 5 and 6 pupils with sequences of instructions and Scratch software.

Commended

Sandymoor School, Cheshire
Loughborough High School, Leicestershire
Boundary Oak School, Hampshire
Wick High School, Caithness, Scotland