Classroom Changemakers will see 15 secondary school maths and computer science teachers awarded with £5000 to invest back into their departments, in addition to an expenses paid trip to a final awards ceremony in London. Not only will Classroom Changemakers celebrate the great work of teachers, but we will also be collecting these ideas into a final report which we will be sharing in the hope that it will inspire other teachers to develop their own innovative teaching practice.

The awards are open until Monday 2nd March and teachers should need a maximum of 30 minutes to complete a short application form on their idea, it’s impact on students and what inspired them to develop it. All the information you need to apply is available here.

Classroom Changemakers aims to address three things:

1. Teachers don’t get enough recognition for their work
2. Creativity and problem solving are key skills that young people need
3. Maths and computer science are subjects where more can be done to give young people from all backgrounds the opportunity to use these skills.

There is a growing consensus that creativity and problem solving skills will be vital in ensuring young people from all backgrounds are well-prepared for life and work in the 21st century. This is reflected in the recent Durham Commission report that makes the case for more support and funding for creativity in education, including for the digital creative skills that employers need. In addition, research by Nesta on collaborative problem solving has made the case for greater focus and more resources towards problem solving in maths lessons.

Many countries are finding innovative ways to give young people opportunities to use skills like creativity and problem solving, supporting teachers to test out new methods, build rigorous assessment tools and embed such work in the curriculum. We are concerned that the UK, particularly the English, education system is falling behind other systems in this respect and young people have limited opportunities to apply their learning from academic subjects to develop skills and tackle real-world issues.

Giving young people the opportunity to use these skills not only helps us to develop a broader education system, but a fairer one too. We believe that by encouraging diverse learning experiences which give young people the opportunity to apply their academic knowledge and be creative and solve problems, we can encourage a more diverse range of students to take maths and particularly computer science. This is absolutely vital, particularly in computer science, where recent analysis by Nesta shows an alarming lack of female representation at GCSE and A Level, which has barely improved over recent years in contrast to other STEM subjects.

Submit a short application form answering three main questions about your idea, its impact on students and your inspiration behind it here by 9am on the 2nd March 2020.

Want to find out more?

• Read the selection and eligibility criteria and FAQs
• Sign up to our webinar on the 6th February to find out more
• Email us at [email protected]