Month: December 2020

Amazing #MyCodeClub moments from 2020

We asked educators, volunteers, young coders, and the Code Club team across the world to share their #MyCodeClub moments from 2020, to mark the incredible work that has taken place during this unprecedented year. 

Loving their coding lesson

St Patrick’s Primary School based in Troon, Scotland shared their #MyCodeClub moment on Twitter:

Fifty children coding in one session

Vasu, Club Programme Coordinator in India, remembers a highlight from the year:

Coding from home 

Liz, a parent of a Code Club member, shared her gratitude towards volunteers who moved their sessions online in 2020:

“A highlight for me was sitting at home with my son and coding along to the Code Club videos created by Wirral Libraries volunteers and Code Club members. Living 40 miles away from the library, it’s not a club we could have attended without the move online. We’re so grateful they took the time to create the YouTube videos.” 

Empowering #RealRoleModels 

Ali, who coordinates Coding for Kids in Iraq, shared a recent #MyCodeClub moment with us on Twitter: 

The sheer joy! 

Matt from RGS The Grange in Worcester shared his #MyCodeClub moment:

“One moment is restarting our club and welcoming all of our fabulous students back at the start of this academic year! The energy in the room was like nothing I’ve ever experienced — just the sheer joy of collaborative projects, risk-taking, and so much fun!

Life is too short — live for the moment! Immerse your students and watch them grow!”

Hearing your great coding ideas

We spoke to Kat Leadbetter, Code Club Global Programme Coordinator, and asked her to share a personal highlight from 2020: 

“A highlight for me was connecting to the community through co-hosting a series of community calls. We’ve run sessions on a variety of topics, from best practice for online sessions to developing your skills in Scratch. We were able to share amazing examples from clubs and volunteers around the world, support you with your questions, and hear your great coding ideas!

Seeing my friend at Code Club!

We asked young coder Ed to share his best coding moment from 2020:  

Missing the great moments

Like many of us, Yakub in India is missing the great coding moments from the start of 2020. We hope your club will be able to meet again safely soon! 

Share your Code Club moments from 2020 with us on Twitter at Code Club UK or Code Club World and use the hashtag #MyCodeClub. 

Coding through science — how Code Club India is supporting young coders

The team at Code Club India are always working on new ways to make coding accessible and relevant for students and educators in India. 

Vasu shares how Code Club is helping to enrich the New Education Policy with their new ‘Learn coding through science’ resource, which was designed to support cross-curricular links for educators and students. 

New Education Policy 

After 34 years, the Ministry of Education in India has introduced the New Education Policy (NEP), which aims to break from traditional teaching approaches to provide a comprehensive programme of learning for students across India. 

The NEP will set up classes on coding for students from Grade 6 onwards, allowing students to develop their coding skills and learn about advanced technologies.

Vasu, Club Programme Coordinator, said:

“We are excited that this development will provide students across India with greater flexibility in their learning, as well as the opportunity to develop their skills for the future. So we asked ourselves — how could Code Club best support the NEP?”

Linking coding to the curriculum

At Code Club, we work with schools across India to support young people to learn to code. To help our club leaders and students, we created a resource that links the topics in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) science curriculum to projects in different programming languages like Scratch, HTML, Python, and more.

Learning coding through science

You can use these resources in a variety of ways. For example, if you are an educator who would like to know if there is a coding project that is directly relevant to your student’s schoolwork, this is a great resource to try in your classroom. Or if you are a student who is interested in exploring both science and computer science, this resource is perfect for you! Use this resource to experiment and explore computer science while following the instructions on the projects. You can also make it more exciting by trying the projects at different levels!

The resource has been shared with our existing Code Club community members, who were asked for their feedback. From the responses we’ve received, it’s clear that the community has been wanting a resource like this and that it has helped them to explore cross-curricular links further. 

How you can help

If you run a Code Club in India, try our ‘Learning coding through science’ resource with one of our  FREE coding projects and share how you got on in our feedback form. Your feedback is key to help us improve and offer the resources you need.  

Want to find out more about Code Club in India? Contact Divya and Vasu, who are always happy to chat to you about the Code Club community in India.

How your voice has helped shape Code Club in 2020

This year, we asked the Code Club community to take part in two polls to help the team understand how the coronavirus pandemic was impacting clubs around the world.   

Dave Hazeldean, Code Club’s Data Analyst, shares why answering the polls was so important, how they gave us a better picture of how clubs were running, and how we adapted the programme to support educators to continue to inspire the next generation of digital makers.

Countries and territories of volunteers who responded to our poll in green

What we have learned 

This year we ran two polls, one in May and one in September. More than 3000 Code Clubs from 82 countries and territories participated and shared if their club was running sessions, planning to run sessions, or their club was paused.

As we expected, activity in Code Clubs has been severely disrupted by the pandemic, with many clubs forced to pause their sessions, however Dave shares that there has been some positive news: 

“What I found most encouraging is the increase in the proportion of clubs that were running or planning to run in September when compared with the results that we found in May.”

“Of the clubs that are running or planning to run, almost half will be running their sessions online. We are working hard to provide all of the guidance, resources, and support that clubs need to make the transition to online sessions.” 

“In a recent blog post, we heard from members of our community who are now running their Code Clubs online, which I found particularly inspiring.” 

What support is available to Code Clubs running online or in-person sessions? 

There are some great resources available to support you if you are looking to move your Code Club sessions online, or restart sessions in person. 

To help make the transition from running in person to online, we have created a guide for online sessions that provides a great overview of what you may need to consider. 

If you are eager to run your Code Club online, read our guides for parents supporting young people and young people attending online sessions for additional tips before you get started.

If you’re looking to restart your in-person sessions, take a look at our safety guidance for in-person sessions, and this blog post on clubs who have gone back to in-person meetings. 

You can also join us on a regular community call with the clubs team or listen back to previous calls.  

What’s next? 

The pandemic continues to affect our daily lives, but we are adapting to the new learning environment and hope to continue to give young people the space to thrive. 

From Dave and everyone at Code Club we want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to inform us about their Code Club by responding to our polls this year. Your voice continues to inspire us to move forward.

Your participation in our campaigns is integral to helping us shape our planning and identify the support you need to run your clubs safely. We will be running more polls, and encourage you to take part and give feedback over the months ahead. 

We are always here to support you and if there is anything you need, contact our friendly support team at support@codeclub.org.