Code Club team

Meet our new Participation Manager!

Hi there, good to meet you folks!

My name is Sarah and I am the new Participation Manager at Code Club. Some of you might have already met me as I’ve been developing training materials and helping to deliver training sessions for volunteers across the UK.

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So, what does this marvellous new Participation Manager do, I hear you ask? Well, training for volunteers is a part of my job, but my main mission is to onboard and reward volunteers. In other words, to make sure that if you want to volunteer for Code Club the process of signing up is as easy as possible, and that once you are volunteering you get looked after nicely and get all the support you need :)

The first thing I want to do is find out how our volunteers use the resources we already offer and what we could add or improve upon to make your experience as part of Code Club even better! I’ve set up Google Hangouts at different times over the next few weeks so we can chat.

If you can’t join me on the hangouts, feel free to drop me a line instead with thoughts or ideas about how we can improve the experience of volunteering with Code Club. Just send me an email: sarah@codeclub.org.uk

Also, if you’re coming to the Code Club Birthday Party in London on 30th April do come and say hi – I’ll be the one in charge of the cake.

Farewell to a fantastic Community Manager

We’re sad to be saying goodbye to our Community Manager Michael Mentessi as he moves on to pastures new. Michael has been a fantastic Community Manager and I’m sure many of you will have met him at various events over the last year. He’s worked tirelessly to organise meet-ups all over the UK, support our ever growing volunteer community, and kick started our team of amazing Regional Coordinators. We thank him for his hard work, dedication and ability to bring people together.

We’re now looking for a new Community Manager to help us grow and support our community of volunteers here in the UK. Please help us spread the word about this role – if you know an enthusiastic community builder with an aptitude for strategic leadership then send them our way: http://codeclub.workable.com/jobs/46865/candidates/new

New Coordinators: East Midlands & South West!

The Code Club team has grown again! We now have 3 more regional coordinators joining the others already working their socks off to support and grow our community around the UK.

Katharine Childs is our coordinator for the East Midlands, and Seemah Burgess-Nahome will be looking after the South West.

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Hi, I’m Katharine, and I’m the new East Midlands Code Club regional coordinator. My first encounter with computers was playing Hunt the Wumpus on a BBC Micro then going on to code my own simple games in BASIC. Ten years later I went on to study for a BSc (Hons) in IT & Computing.  My career history is a mixture of private sector IT work, managing volunteers and projects in a community group and, most recently, working as an ICT Technician in primary schools.

I am involved in a few Code Clubs in my local area in eastern Derbyshire and am also a Code Club Pro trainer. I love facilitating opportunities for kids to code and learning from their enthusiasm, logic and creativity.

I am looking forward to travelling around the East Midlands meeting existing Code Clubbers (watch this space!) and also to expand the network of Code Clubs over the coming months. Whether you’re new or have been code clubbing for a while, you can get in touch with me via email at eastmidlands@codeclub.org.uk or tweet me: @primaryicttech. It would be great to hear from you!

Seemah

Hey there, my name is Seemah and I am the new South West Coordinator for Code Club.

When I think back, I remember having an Atari game console and playing with my sisters at home on a box like TV. Today, now I watch my son swipe his finger over an Ipad with endless amounts games on hand. My 3 year old has learnt to play Minecraft too. I still find it hard to get my head around that! With playing games and the growing reach of the internet into kids lives, we need an understanding of how it works and I am so excited to help be a part of our kids future learning.

After setting up a Code Club in my son’s school, I am intent for more schools to start and create a buzzing community here.

I am also a mum of 3 kids, get involved in voluntary projects in my community, like to run and try to balance my kids tech interests with getting stuck into nature and the outdoors.

You can get in touch with me at southwest@codeclub.org.uk, or on Twitter @seemahb. :)