MP for Cambridge, Julian Huppert, visited the city’s only all-through girls’ school this week to find out how schools 
in his constituency are responding to statements made by the government last year calling for a major overhaul of ICT teaching.
Julian Huppert visit to St Mary’s School, Cambridge on Friday 22 March gave him the opportunity to see the work being done to promote computer science in action.
He spent a morning with the school’s .NET Gadgeteer group [1] and participated in various activities, including an IT demonstration of the work produced and a series of group discussions.
Mr Huppert commented: ‘I am delighted that St Mary’s has taken the opportunity to stretch and inspire its pupils beyond the traditional IT classes to teach more sophisticated computer programming, electronics and computer-aided design.
This is just the type of forward thinking we need from school staff to encourage youngsters to use their imaginations to be creative and learn more about the science behind computers. This opportunity will stand them in good stead for the future as they look towards university and beyond.’
Charlotte Avery, Headmistress, said: ‘We were delighted to welcome Julian Huppert to St Mary’s to show him how computer science is developing in exciting and innovative ways at St Mary’s.
Our .NET Gadgeteer club has grown in strength and popularity and we have recently introduced a computer science GCSE. Next year we are introducing Computer Science in Year 7 and additionally an A Level in computing. Our Junior School is additionally running a club to look at basic programming.
As headmistress of a girls' school, I cannot stress enough how important it is to have more female role models in computing but unless we supply our students with the opportunities at school then they will not feel confident to pursue a career in this industry.
To that end we have a female teacher of computing science with a background in engineering, as well as opening up opportunities for our girls to study computing across the age range.”
[1] Developed by Microsoft, the .NET Gadgeteer programme is an open-source toolkit for building small electronic devices.
The scheme was first piloted by Microsoft Research last summer to help promote computer programming in schools. St Mary’s is the only school in the city to have participated in the scheme from its launch.
Photo caption: Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge, Julian Huppert, together with Eleanor Jones, Hannah Billingsley-Dadd, Charlotte B, Maeve McLaughlin and Catherine Evans, members of St Mary’s .NET Gadgeteer club.
1) St Mary’s School is an independent girls’ day and boarding school educating students from age 4 to 18.
For further information: Cheryl Westley, Communications Officer, 01223 224177, cwestley@stmaryscambridge.co.uk