Month: July 2014

Croeso, Craig!

Hello Code Clubbers! We hope you’re enjoying a very sunny and happy July. It’s all things go here at HQ and around the UK; Wales’ first Code Club meetup is next week, so we thought it would be an excellent idea to introduce you to Craig Thomas, the new regional coordinator.

Craig’s meetup will be on Thursday 31st July (that’s next Thursday!) from 18:00 – 21:00 at FoundersHub in Cardiff. It’s a thank you for anyone currently involved in Code Club in the area, but it’ll also be a great chance to have a chat with Craig about what we do and how you can help. There’ll be pizza, beer and soft drinks, so there’s no excuse not to pop by. :)

You can book your (free) tickets here, and check out Craig’s hello below!

Hi! I’m Craig, Code Club’s regional coordinator for Wales.

Keeping it short and sweet, my background is mainly as a web developer with 10 years experience in personal, open source, and voluntary projects in and out of industry. I’d say I’m a good example of where coding as a skill can take you as I’ve held many cool titles and regularly travel for hackathons and digital events.

Other than industry, I also run an initiative called “Silicon Valleys” aimed to improve digital literacy, as well as my own business in Cardiff Bay which I absolutely love! All this is made possible through my ability to code, and a passion to learn. I’m extremely eager to coordinate Code Club in Wales as not only do I appreciate coding as a skill, but more importantly, I wish something like this existed for me when I was in school. For that reason, I essentially see my job title as “Don’t let Welsh children grow up wishing they had a chance to learn code in school” and that’s what I’m going to do!

What I’m looking to do now and in the near future is fully audit where we are in Wales in regards to clubs and volunteers and begin to reach out to you all. If you’ve had any Code Club involvement and registered with us in Wales, you should have received an email from me recently (and if you’ve not registered yet, go for it now: https://www.codeclub.org.uk/register – you’ll be on my radar!). Other than that, I’m also in the midst of setting up what I believe to be Wales’ first Code Club meetup – so keep an eye out for that too.

If you’d like to meet up for a chat and have any involvement (or would like to get involved) with Code Club in Wales, drop me an email at wales@codeclub.org.uk or tweet me @tinybigideas – I’d love to say hello!

Year ends and new beginnings

Hello world! This is Ros, Code Club’s new Operations Assistant, checking in & giving you an update on things here at HQ.

Thank you volunteers, thank you teachers, thank you thank you co-ders!

Thank you with robots!

Your work this year has made such a difference to coding in the UK — and across the world! We hope you’ve had a wonderful time, and are looking forward to starting up again come sunny (we hope) September. Please remember we’re here for you: if we can help you in any way, don’t hesitate to get in touch. And do share your stories and hijinks with us; there’s not much that makes us happier here in HQ than hearing about the awesomeness of our clubs!

Technology Will Save Us

One of the first things I’ve been involved with since arriving has been our giveaway of DIY Gamer Kits with our friends at Technology Will Save Us. Everything got allocated at lightning speed! It’s been really wonderful hearing about your plans for the kits, and discovering for myself the enthusiasm of all our volunteers and teachers. I can’t wait until we have more shiny things to give away again, and if you’ve been lucky enough to be allocated with kits this time do please send us your pictures and stories!

Regional Coordinators

A couple of weeks ago we welcomed three of our first group of wonderful Regional Coordinators to almost-sunny London for an intense day of training where we brainstormed the best ways to support and grow our regional communities throughout the UK. There are lots of exciting plans in the works for the North East, North West, South East and Wales — keep an eye on the blog for introductions to our coordinators and their plans. :)

We want to spread our coordinators all across the UK, to give our network of volunteers and clubs the best possible support. If you think you’re the right person to help us, take a look at the coordinator vacancies we currently have open, and do give me a shout if you have any questions or need a bit more information.

Star Clubs

star clubs logo

There’s a star cluuub waiting in your school! Whether or not you appreciate the delightful tunes of the semi-official Code Club Office Choir, we hope you’ll be tempted by the opportunity to become one of 20 Star Clubs: amazing clubs with sky-high ambitions, which are able to welcome visitors and show them how wonderful Code Club is. Our Star Clubs will be showered with love (of course), but there’s also some excellent swag on offer; applications close on Wednesday 13th of August, and you can find all the details over here.