Christmas Capers!

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December is very nearly upon us, which means it’s about time we re-released Christmas Capers – a special festive-theme Scratch project! Many clubs had great fun with this last year, and some of you have already got in touch requesting it so we thought we’d dig it out of the deep digital vaults here at CC HQ.

Download the Christmas Capers project here.

Croydon’s Future Tech City

We love Croydon Tech City. They are a growing community of software developers, venture capitalists, technologists, startup founders and creatives who are passionate about the next generation’s skills. They love Code Club as they know how much it will help children in their area learn such skills and kick start a passion for technology to last them a lifetime. They were one of the first groups in the country to decide that all their schools needed a club and have been working tirelessly to spread the word and make this happen.

On Saturday 30th November at 10am at the BRIT School, Croydon Tech City will be holding its first Future Tech City event – a drive to get a Code Club into every primary school in Croydon; and prepare South London secondary schools for the exciting world of computer programming. We think you should all go because over the course of three hours, you will learn:

  • Why young people should learn coding skills
  • The benefit of coding for youth employability and personal development
  • How Croydon Tech City could deliver a Code Club in your primary school.

The event is open to all South London primary AND secondary teachers, Headteachers, governors and parents and you do not need to know anything about computers to attend!

To register to attend, please email Croydon Tech City with your name and the South London school you are affiliated with.

Speakers on the day include:

John O’Donovan (CTO, Financial Times)
Matt Gaunt (Google Chrome Developer)
Debbie Forster (MD, Apps For Good)
Emma Mulqueeny (Founder, Young Rewired State)
Theo Blackwell (Councillor, Camden Labour Party)

Code Club and Google go on the road!

 

This week we packed our bags and headed up to Scotland for the first of a series of workshops in schools that we are doing with our pals at Google.

AuchinairnOver the next few months we’ll be travelling all over the UK to different primary schools and showing a group of 9-11 year olds how to make a fun game using Scratch. As if this wasn’t cool enough, we are also going to be hosting a local MP at each workshop too! We’re hoping that they’ll be impressed when they see a Code Club in action and will help us with our mission to find more volunteers to run Code Clubs.

The first workshop was today at Auchinairn Primary in East Dunbartonshire. The students loved making our game Whack A Witch and impressed us all with their quick pace of learning and positive attitudes. Jo Swinson MP popped in to say hello as well; we think she was impressed as we saw her tweet this later on:

Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 14.42.52Whilst we’re heading to all these schools we’re taking the opportunity to hold a meet-up for current/potential volunteers and teachers the evening before. Check out our events list for more information about these. Let the roadshow commence!