Ben Gristwood

I am a passionate programmer(React, C#, .net) and Scrum Master with strong inter-personal and organisation skills re-entering the IT industry in a role in software development. Previously a head of Computing teaching C# and VB programming up to sixth form level and after reaching my personal goal in teaching wish to return to my first love of programming. In my current role I am constantly looking for ways to improve the productivity of the company I work, coming up with new initiatives and looking for opportunities to allow the company to grow and develop a sense of community in an increasingly remote world. My experience in schools has kept my programming skills whilst also developing a number of “soft skills”, such as questioning, active listening, organisation and self learning, working under pressure and frameworks such as ofsted. Currently I am working as a Scrum Master, managing a team in agile, lean and LESS frameworks, being an ambassador for SCRUM within the organisation. My personal learning has lead beyond the normal hours of work day, developing resources in order to deliver concepts in different languages in ways others understand, providing training opportunities for developers within the company. When teaching I developed and implemented the computing curriculum, developing and building a team to take this forward. Ultimately this has led to me upskilling IT teachers and developers in the computing curriculum and programming concepts by mentoring and providing training opportunities to learn C#, React, Node, SQL and other programming concepts. I Am a National Computing Centre trained Facilitator, delivering training to non-specialists across the north west as well as a registered STEM ambassador.