MR JONATHAN Torbitt, of Rendcomb College, has been nominated for our Teacher of the Year competition.

Mr Torbitt, 36, currently lives in Swindon and has been teaching for six years.

He is head of Key Stage Four and director of IT and computing.

He has taught at Rendcomb College for four years and previously taught at a Bedfordshire comprehensive, Sharn Brook Upper School.

Mr Torbitt, from Northern Ireland, studied computer science at Queen's University Belfast from 1997 to 2000 through an army scholarship.

He went on to spend seven years in the army, during which he worked as a teacher in Afghanistan for a period, until he left in 20007 when he was 28.

After leaving the army, Mr Torbitt worked in business for several years before starting his PGCE teacher training in 2009 at the University of Bedfordshire.

He said: "It pays really well but it's not as rewarding as helping people, like what I did in the army, training soldiers.

"My then girlfriend, now wife, was a teacher. So I started a PGCE course."

With regards to his teaching, he said: "I try to inspire kids to love learning and to get them to realise they can be a lot more talented than they think they are."

Since starting out at Rendcomb College, Mr Torbitt has revolutionised the school's ICT curriculum.

Today, children at the school begin computing at six years old, learning how to solve problems outdoors, programming interactive robots and familiarising themselves with formulaes through scratch.

At 10, the children learn basic Python and Microsoft's Small Basic language, designed for young people to learn programming.

Those who pursue computing afterwards learn how to program using C# and Ruby.

Mr Torbitt said: "The earlier you start learning something, the easier it becomes.

"Our kids understand more than the average kid because we teach them.

"We rush kids into learning things, but in a fun way. We have brought in extracurricular activities like PC building and game design."

Speaking of the importance of technology, he said: "In any job the children end up doing, they will be using huge amounts of technology so they have to be able to learn quickly.

"I make sure that the kids have the skills they need."

Mr Torbitt also mentored three of his students to win in the £25k Longitude Explorer Prize in November 2015.

Would you like to nominate your favourite teacher for our Teacher of the Year competition? Just fill in our form printed in our paper and send it back to us.

Deadline for nominations is April 7. Find out more here.