Craig ‘n’ Dave
About Craig ‘n’ Dave
Our history
Craig has a degree in Computer Science and spent time in the
industry as a programmer for the Ministry of Defence. Later, he discovered a passion for inspiring young people and became a teacher, going on to lead Computer Science in his school, in addition to being a Computing at School Master Teacher.
Dave also has a degree in Computer Science and worked as an
analyst programmer for an aircraft manufacturer, but he had always wanted to be a teacher, having been inspired by his own teachers at school. Dave also became the leader of Computer Science at his school and went on to be subject leader at the University of Gloucestershire for initial teacher training.
Today our YouTube videos have attracted over 16 million views, Smart Revise, our course companion has over 110,000 users and our classroom resources are used in over 1000 schools, but it hasn’t always been that way.
In 2014, the world of computing education in secondary
schools was changing. A new national curriculum said goodbye to ICT and introduced Computer Science. Teachers who had previously not needed to teach their students how a computer works or how programs are made were suddenly expected to become educators of this new discipline.
In January 2014, the then-Secretary of State for Education
said, “Our new curriculum teaches children computer science, information technology and digital literacy; teaching them how to code and how to create their own programs – not just how to work a computer, but how a computer works and how to make it work for you.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/michael-gove-speaks-about-computing-and-education-technology
Through the University and local networking, Craig and Dave became friends. They both shared a passion for wanting to deliver the very best
lessons and often traded resources they had created. In 2014, not only was the national curriculum changing, but A Level specifications were too. Having attended an exam board training course together, Craig and Dave both recognised the substantial amount of new content that now needed to be delivered to students and thought, “if this is all new to us with our backgrounds, how will new teachers with a background in ICT cope?” So, one afternoon waiting at London Paddington for a train to take us back to Gloucester, Craig ‘n’ Dave was born.
Launching our business created a golden opportunity for us to
find new ways of teaching too. Dave recognised that his learners were becoming bored with traditional teaching styles. Coupled with the fact the new specifications included significantly more knowledge to teach, he felt there simply wasn’t enough time in the curriculum to deliver the course content effectively. On the lookout for new ideas, Dave researched contemporary teaching practices from around the world – and discovered the flipped classroom.
The flipped-classroom approach requires students to watch videos for homework, so armed with an iPad and the Explain Everything app, we
divided up the content and created a video for every bullet point of the new specification. These were an instant hit with our own students, and since we had shared them on YouTube to help other teachers, they rapidly became popular all over the country too – much to our surprise!
New classroom activities were required to support the new learning style, so during evenings, weekends and holidays, we set about creating a suite of teaching resources to support our videos. It was hard work. Teachers began asking for our resources, and we gladly shared them. Over time, we began to realise we were spending every waking hour making materials primarily for the benefit of other teachers, so we started selling them instead as compensation for the time we were investing.
Following the success of our videos and classroom resources, students were enjoying our lessons again. However, we realised we could still raise attainment further – if only we could solve a few basic classroom problems.
Then Smart Revise was born.
Meet the team
Craig Sargent
Dave and I were both heads of department in comprehensive secondary schools, and we would meet from time-to-time to discuss what we were teaching and what resources we were using.
The more we explored this together, the more we wondered why we weren’t just sharing our lesson plans with each other and reducing our workload, so we did and began attending CPD courses together too.
I’ve been teaching for 14 years. During this time I was one of the pilot CAS master teachers and worked with BCS and DfE on the new Computing national curriculum. My background includes a degree in Computer Science, freelance contracting for Lloyds TSB and 6 years at GCHQ. I wrote my first computer program in primary school!
David Hillyard
I can’t believe it was five years ago that Craig and I sat in Paddington station waiting for the train home having attended a CPD session on the new 2015 A level specification. There was lots of new content that we hadn’t even studied on our degree courses and we thought, “if this is new to us, it must be frightening to the community, how could we help?” From that seed, CraignDave was born and we set about creating videos for every bullet point of the specification to help students and teachers. At the same time we discovered the flipped classroom and that breathed new life into our teaching. Our students were now more engaged and more independent than ever before.
I’ve been teaching for 22 years with a degree in Computer Science and Business information technology. I have industry experience as an analyst programmer in the aviation sector. I got my first computer at 9 years old (Amstrad CPC464) and by the age of 10 I had written my first computer game!
Mark
Technical Director
Writes lots of code for Smart Revise that nobody else understands, not even Craig and Dave!
Mark
I’ve been in the IT industry for over 20 years in various sectors, from family-run businesses through to the NHS and software houses. I have a degree in aquatic biology from Aberystwyth University, but as it turned out, I was better at coding algorithms than exploring the lifecycles of various aquatic fauna.
Craig was my daughter’s computing teacher when he approached me to ask if I was interested in a little free-lance project – saying yes was one of my better decisions!
Sam
I’ve been with Craig ‘n’ Dave since the very beginning. In fact, they came up with the idea for Craig ‘n’ Dave while sat in Paddington station on their way back from a course in London. I had the first mock up of the website done before they had even arrived back home! I’m very much involved with the customer service and community side of the business. Craig and Dave have the ideas and I make them happen!
Andy
I first joined the company in 2019 as a freelance contractor working up to 10 hours a week. What began as a little admin support quickly become a full-time job, and here I am now as the Business Manager.
My main duties include oversight of the customer experience and front-line support, as well as our CRM and finance systems. I also have a background in professional writing, graphic design and audio production, so I’m often helping to put a little extra polish on our resources before we release them to our customers.
Essentially, there isn’t a lot that goes on with the day-to-day running of the business that I don’t have a hand in, so if you have questions, I’m probably the one to ask!
Andy
I first joined the company in 2019 as a freelance contractor working up to 10 hours a week. What began as a little admin support quickly become a full-time job, and here I am now as the Business Manager.
My main duties include oversight of the customer experience and front-line support, as well as our CRM and finance systems. I also have a background in professional writing, graphic design and audio production, so I’m often helping to put a little extra polish on our resources before we release them to our customers.
Essentially, there isn’t a lot that goes on with the day-to-day running of the business that I don’t have a hand in, so if you have questions, I’m probably the one to ask!
Andy
I first joined the company in 2019 as a freelance contractor working up to 10 hours a week. What began as a little admin support quickly become a full-time job, and here I am now as the Business Manager.
My main duties include oversight of the customer experience and front-line support, as well as our CRM and finance systems. I also have a background in professional writing, graphic design and audio production, so I’m often helping to put a little extra polish on our resources before we release them to our customers.
Essentially, there isn’t a lot that goes on with the day-to-day running of the business that I don’t have a hand in, so if you have questions, I’m probably the one to ask!
Creators
Content creators
Adam, Aimee, Alan, Debbie & Gavin. All experienced teachers/examiners help us make high quality resources.
Andy
I first joined the company in 2019 as a freelance contractor working up to 10 hours a week. What began as a little admin support quickly become a full-time job, and here I am now as the Business Manager.
My main duties include oversight of the customer experience and front-line support, as well as our CRM and finance systems. I also have a background in professional writing, graphic design and audio production, so I’m often helping to put a little extra polish on our resources before we release them to our customers.
Essentially, there isn’t a lot that goes on with the day-to-day running of the business that I don’t have a hand in, so if you have questions, I’m probably the one to ask!
Registered in England and Wales: 10442992
VAT Number: 290 9845 58
Telephone: 020 4519 3010
Email: admin@craigndave.co.uk