When Bryn Tawe School IT teacher Rhun Llwyd booked the Technocamps team in to undertake STEM enrichment workshops with his pupils, little did he know that the sessions would inspire him into a whole new educational journey of his own. The school does run an A Level Computer Science Course, in conjunction with a partner school, but they were keen to develop their provision lower down in the pipeline. 

The workshops were set up for Year 9 MAT pupils at the school, and Rhun really hoped that the pupils would be inspired enough to choose the subject to enable to start running a GCSE course. Many of the pupils responded really positively, and they now have sufficient numbers to start teaching the course in September 2020.

The story does not end there, however. 

Rhun found himself sitting in on the workshops with his pupils and was blown away by what they were learning. “The workshops gave me a number of ideas on how to teach Computer Science in a cross-curricular way. This made the lessons very interesting, particularly for the girls. I also got a taste of using Greenfoot for the first time.”

His experience led him to apply for the Degree Apprenticeship programme at Swansea University, where he is completing his BSc in Applied Software Engineering. “The course has improved my programming skills and increased my confidence and understanding in teaching the Advanced Level course. When discussing the concepts of Computer Science with the pupils I now have more in-depth ideas and experiences to share with the pupils.”

More information about Swansea Uni’s Degree Apprenticeship programme