Hours of computing
The DfE’s School Workforce Census gathers timetabling information from English state schools for a single week each November. The charts below use this data and it should be noted that the School Workforce Census does not record stats on independent school, some special schools, sixth form colleges and further education providers. Additionally, not all schools included in the census respond to the timetabling element of the census, with a return rate of around 70-80% - in 2023/24 the response rate was 83.3 %. The data here has been re-weighted by the DfE so that it is representative of the targeted state schools in each given year for the census period.
The census records separate timetabling for ‘ICT’ and ‘computer science’ lessons. The DfE specifies how a school should make the distinction between these two types of lesson, but as the curriculum area is computing, computing lessons might involve elements of both ‘ICT’ and ‘computer science’ as both areas form part of computing (Royal Society 2012). It seems likely that the non-exam topics taught in schools, particularly at key stage 3, might be using ‘ICT’ to define lessons that might be categorised as ‘computer science’ and vice versa. The below combines hours of ICT and computer science to give overall total hours of computing, providing an overall picture of specific digital skills focused education in schools, with the above caveats.
A separate report looking into teaching hours and school workforce can be found here.
- The overall number of hours of taught computing has declined substantially since the introduction of the new curriculum, now sitting at 58 % of total hours of key stage 3,4 and 5 provision in 2011
- The steepest decline has been seen in key stage 4 provision, which in 2023/24 sat at 41 % of the number of hours taught in 2011, now making up 2.17 % of all hours taught at this key stage, from a peak of 5.35 %
- The number of hours taught at key stage 3 and key stage 5 has increased in recent years from lows in 2019/20. This might be a reflection of the increase in A-level computer science provision and the reduction in the number of schools offering three year GCSE computer science that would have started at the end of key stage 3, i.e. a return to weekly computing lessons for the majority of year 9 students.
- Whilst methodologically flawed, as noted above, the percentage of hours of computing lessons dedicated to computer science has increased year on year across all key stages. At key stage 3, 60 % of lessons are now computer science, this might indicate the importance given by schools to this element of computing, and/or schools using computing time to prime children for the GCSE, as noted elsewhere (House of Lords 2023). The dominance of computer science at key stages 4 and 5 is likely a reflection of the introduction of the computer science GCSE and removal of GCSE and A level ICT, along with the reduction in qualifications covering other computing related areas.
1 Hours of computing
2 Percentage of all teaching hours that are computing
Given the population of students in schools changes year on year, it is useful to look at the percentage of all teaching hours that are computing. This is shown in the graphs below, and again shows a decline across key stages since 2011/12:
3 Lessons of computer science and ICT
