Month: January 2017

Thanks for joining us at Bett 2017!

Last week we had a very busy few days at the Bett Show, the EdTech event which is held annually in London. For those of you who came along, we hope you had a great time, and to all our amazing volunteers who helped us at our stand and in workshops, we wanted to say a BIG, BIG thank you for all your hard work.

For those who couldn’t be part of the fun, we thought we’d give a quick roundup of some of the highlights of the show…

Poster giveaways

Lots of people who came to see us picked up a copy of one of our snazzy coding posters!

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One of our posters, modelled by the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s CEO, Philip; volunteer & Code Club Champion, Jon; Code Club Participation Manager, Sarah and Code Club International’s Programme Manager, James.

When we announced the poster giveaway, we also got a number of enquiries from members of the community who were keen to get their hands on some, but were unable to attend the show.

We agree that they should be available for all active Code Clubs to download for free. Therefore, we’re currently in the process of making this happen – and our aim is to get the posters uploaded to the Club Hub in the coming weeks.

We’ll also be giving away a number of the posters each month in competitions on Twitter and Facebook – so keep an eye out!

The launch of Hello World Magazine

On the first day of Bett, the Raspberry Pi Foundation started things off with a bang by launching a brand new, free magazine for educators called Hello World.

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Hello World is a magazine about computing and digital making written by educators, for educators. With three issues each year, it contains 100 pages filled with news, features, teaching resources, reviews, research and much more.

The magazine is available to download for free to anyone around the world. Educators in the UK, including Code Club volunteers, can also subscribe to a free print version.

Awesome Code Club workshops

Our resident Scratch wizard (yes, that’s an official title), Rik Cross, ran a daily workshop showcasing how to build a Scratch controller. Code Club’s amazing Regional Coordinators, Dan Powell, Katharine Childs and Tim Wilson held sessions showing how to start a Code Club at schools and Dan Elwick was also joined by a number of volunteers from The Challenge, who helped him run a hands on Code Club drop in session on Saturday afternoon, where participants made some great things with code!

We had a fantastic time, and hope you did too. Thanks again to everyone who joined us, it was an amazing team effort!

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Thanks from the whole team at the Raspberry Pi Foundation! :)

Join us at Bett 2017!

Next week brings another opportunity for educators to visit Code Club and the Raspberry Pi Foundation at Bett 2017, the huge annual EdTech event in London. We’ll be at ExCeL London from 25-28 January, and we’ll be running more than 50 workshops and talks over the four days. Whether you’re a school teacher or a community educator, there’s something for you: visit our stand (G460) to discover ways to bring the power of digital making to your classroom and beyond.

BROWSE OUR TALK AND WORKSHOP TIMETABLE

Find us at our STEAM Village stand (G460) to take part in free physical computing and STEAM workshops, as well as talks led by Code Club staff, and members of the Code Club community. The Raspberry Pi Foundation have a huge range of workshops running for all levels of ability, which will give you the opportunity to get hands-on with digital making in a variety of different ways.

Below are some of the Code Club workshops you may be interested in joining:

Date Time Session Name Location
Wednesday 25 January 12:30 How to start a successful Code Club in your school G460
15:30 Build a Scratch games controller with Code Club G460
16:45 Computing Playground with Raspberry Pi and Code Club G460
Thursday 26th January 11:45 Build a Scratch games controller with Code Club G460
12:30 Adventures in Primary Computing G460
16:15 How to start a successful Code Club in your school G460
Friday 27th January 13:00 Build a Scratch games controller with Code Club G460
16:45 Computing Playground with Raspberry Pi and Code Club G460
Saturday 28th January 10:30 Build a Scratch games controller with Code Club G460
12:30 How to start a successful Code Club in your school G460
13:00 Code Club Primer Session HE Summit Space
14:15 Computing Playground with Raspberry Pi and Code Club G460

Additionally, our CEO Philip Colligan will be launching an exciting new free initiative to support educators, live in the Bett Show Arena at 13:25 on Wednesday 25 January. Philip will be joined by a panel of educators who are leading the movement for classroom computing and digital making.

We’re looking forward to the opportunity to speak to so many different educators from across the world. It’s really important to us to spend time with all of you face-to-face: we want to hear about the great things you’re doing, answer your questions, and learn about the way you work and the challenges you face so we can improve the things we do. We really do value your feedback enormously, so please don’t hesitate for a moment to come over and ask questions, query something, or just say hi! And if you have questions you’d like to ask us ahead of Bett, just leave us a comment below.

See you next week!

Applications now open for round 2 of our BBC micro:bit giveaway!

Last summer we gave away free BBC micro:bits to active Code Clubs across the UK. We’re really pleased that applications are now open for our second micro:bit giveaway!

How to qualify for our micro:bit offer:

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How the application process works:

The applications open on 11 January 2017 at 12pm, but you don’t need to rush. You have until 12pm on 1 February 2017 to apply. The devices will be sent out after the application deadline.

How to apply:

  1. Log in to the Code Club website to find your micro:bit voucher code. You can find this in the same place as you find your Club ID and PIN .
  2. Click the ‘apply for micro:bits’ button, which will take you to the website of Pimoroni (who are helping us send the devices). You will enter your voucher code and pay postage and packaging there via PayPal.
  3. We would like you to read the full details of the offer here, please make sure you have done so before you apply.

Hints and Tips

Please remember that you will only receive one voucher code per active Code Club, so if you have multiple volunteers at your club, you’ll need to decide who is going to apply for the micro:bits. The package will be delivered after the application deadline so think about what the best delivery address will be.

Don’t worry, even though we are asking you to apply, we have enough to go round! Each active UK club (and remember your club had to be active on 14 December 2016 to qualify) that applies is guaranteed to receive a minimum of four micro:bits. Once the applications are in, we will assess demand and if we can send you a few more, we will!

Finally, we’ve made some Code Club projects for the micro:bit for you to use to get started. Happy coding!

If you have any questions about applying for micro:bits, you can drop us a line at support@codeclub.org.uk or check out our FAQs.