Events

London Technology Week

This week was London Technology Week, and across the capital events have been taking place to celebrate the city’s rapidly growing technology sector and all the awesome stuff that’s happening with it.

What we’ve been up to this week:

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Photo Courtesy of @Dragonhall’s Twitter

On Tuesday we joined a lot of eager young coders, as well as their parents and teachers, at #TechDay at Dragon Hall in Holborn. We had a lot of fun demonstrating some of our Scratch projects, and seeing some great ‘wow’ moments as kids and adults alike tried their hand at some coding!

We were also invited along to an event at Croydon Tech City, to learn more about the vibrant emerging tech scene in the Croydon area. They are helping us to spread the word about Code Club through their Future Tech City strand and have set themselves a target to have a Code Club in every primary school in the borough – hooray!

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Superstar volunteers Marc Grossman, Paul Sinnett and Saleha Salahudin were running a stand talking to people about the awesome club they run in a local library – and they were drawing a big crowd with some Makey Makey banana pianos!

We still need more London volunteers!

Code Club’s history is well rooted in London – it’s where many of our longest running clubs and volunteers are situated. However, there’s still huge demand for more volunteers to start new clubs in and around the city (as well as many other areas of the UK as well). In fact, right now, within 5 miles of London City Hall, there are 61 venues looking for volunteers to run a Code Club.

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So, if you’re based in London, and think that you can spare 1 hour a week to share your passion for technology with the next generation – then check out our website to learn how you can start your own Code Club.

Coding for all ages at the Leeds Google Garage!

Last week, as part of Volunteers Week 2015, Code Club took part in a very special inter-generational Code Club session at Google’s Digital Garage in Leeds.

We were joined there by students from a local Code Club at Little London Primary School, alongside members of AGE UK’s Silver Surfers programme, which aims to help those aged 55 get to grips with digital technology.

Together, the two groups focussed on some Code Club projects, with Leeds-based company The Test People, who run the Little London Primary club, there to help teach the kids their first lesson of Python.

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Lewis Prescott, a regular Code Club volunteer from The Test People, told us about his involvement:

“The Test People are involved in volunteering with Code Club with the aim of helping to teach coding skills to a new generation. Code Club gives students an opportunity to learn about coding in a fun, creative environment where they are able to use their imaginations and skill to personalise what they are working on. This event at the Google Garage was a fantastic opportunity for the children to showcase their talent and all they have learnt.”

Meanwhile, Code Club’s Head of Education, Rik, assisted the Silver Surfers in their first taste of coding with Scratch!

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The event was also attended by some Leeds City Council Apprentices, accompanied by chief executive of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan, who recognised the importance of volunteers in facilitating these kind of opportunities for local people of all ages.

Mr Riordan said: “Bringing two different generations together like this is a wonderful way to celebrate the amazing contribution volunteers make helping people of all ages living across Leeds.”

We want to thank everyone who attended last week for being part of a really fun day of coding – and to Google’s Digital Garage for hosting the event!

Code Club #ScratchDay activities

This Saturday is Scratch Day, when people all around the world come together to celebrate Scratch and the people who use Scratch.

As you probably know, here at Code Club we love Scratch – it’s the first tool we use in our projects, and most of our volunteers, Code Clubbers and parents are well aware of how awesome it is for making animations, games and all kind of creative projects.

We’re keen to join the Scratch Day party, and have created a brand new project – (starring Scratch the cat and some evil space junk!) which can be used in the classroom, Code Club or at home. Click here to check out the project.Screen Shot 2015-05-01 at 11.05.04 In Manchester, we’re also taking part in some Scratch Day activities, as local Code Clubs will be heading to the National Football Museum to take part in some awesome football-themed coding workshops. T

here’s also a chance to have your Scratch games displayed at the museum – it just has to be footy themed and uploaded to https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/1112522/ – and if you made it in a Code Club, then be sure to note that down!

Scratch Day is all about sharing our enthusiasm and passion for Scratch, so be sure to tag us @CodeClub on Twitter & Facebook with any updates on your activities! You can also use #ScratchDay to join the conversation worldwide! For further information about Scratch Day, visit http://day.scratch.mit.edu/host/