Events

Code Club and Samsung’s latest regional hub opens in Cardiff!

We hear from Code Club’s Craig Thomas on how the hub launch will help children in Wales…

Last Thursday, the Code Club team joined with our partners at Samsung to officially open Cardiff’s Code Club Samsung regional hub with the help of some incredibly enthusiastic children from two local primary schools. The event took place at the hub’s headquarters at the City of Cardiff Council Digital Showcase and was the fourth in a series of recent launches in London, Manchester and Newcastle.

What is a hub?
For those who don’t know, a hub is an accessible public place equipped with Samsung laptops which Code Clubs can come and use in weekly sessions. The hub also hosts training sessions throughout the year to train Code Club volunteers so that they can then run new Code Clubs for more children in Wales.

As the National coordinator for Wales, I found the launch on Thursday incredible – it was fantastic to see the corporate, education and public sector worlds come together for the greater good of Welsh children. I originally got involved for this exact reason. I truly believe we can do great things, but we need all the moving pieces to be in unison. Thursday was a great example of that for me.

We heard from students from Y Bont Faen Primary school (one of our Star Clubs – pictured) on the projects they’d worked on since their Code Club began and thirty students from Tredegarville primary school also took part in a live session whilst guests arrived.

230415_MH2_4716
These regional hubs allow Code Club to help kick-start a digitally literate generation in all areas of the UK. It’s great to be able to hear from enthusiastic Code Clubbers and know that that the creation of our regional hub in Cardiff will mean that more children than ever get a chance to experience coding for themselves.

To find out more about the Cardiff hub and Code Club in Wales, say hello on Twitter @tinybigideas

We are three!

Code Club is turning the grand old age of three this month and look how far we have come! We now have over 2400 clubs which means we are teaching 33,000 kids to code – pretty good going! Microchip - HappyAbsolutely none of this would have been possible without our volunteers: an army of awesome people who share our belief that every child should have the chance to learn to code.

Our volunteers contribute in so many important ways – helping children get excited about coding, translating our projects so we can expand Code Club to other countries, contributing via Github and spreading the word about our work.

We’d like to say a massive thank you, so we’re throwing a birthday bash and you are all invited! We guarantee balloons, beer and merriment :) Come along on Thursday 30 April to sing happy birthday and have a slice of cake! https://codeclubbirthday.eventbrite.co.uk

For those of you who cannot make it to London, we’re also hosting a couple of satellite parties on the same day in Cardiff and Dundee.

Hope to see you there! x

P.S we are looking to crowdsource some awesome Code Club themed stuff for the party. Are you a brilliant baker who can make us a robot cake? Are you a dab hand at making balloon animals? Send a message to sarah@codeclub.org.uk

A Star Club receives a special Ministerial visit!

Code Club’s wonderful Star Club at Barrow Hill School in St Johns Wood received a special guest visit this week from the Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson.

Mr Wilson was keen to see the progress the students have been making at their club, with the members of the class eagerly demonstrating their skills and the projects they have been busy working on this term.

Mr Wilson said the work of Code Club was important “because it supports talented volunteers in sharing their expertise with young people across the country so that they are learning the vital digital skills they need.” He added that “The rapid growth of the programme is evidence of its success and it’s fantastic that half of all primary schools in the UK will have access to Code Club by 2018.”

DSC00550

Thanks to funding from the Cabinet Office’s Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund, we’ve been able to expand our volunteer recruitment activities, and this means that we’re able to reach more kids around the country and get them involved in their own Code Clubs.

But without the hard work of all our fabulous volunteers, teachers and parents, Code Club wouldn’t be where it is today – at a current total of 2354 clubs in the UK alone!

Chris Sadler, who leads the Barrow Hill Star Club, is just one of those volunteers. He told us about his experiences; “I find it so rewarding to work with children who are genuinely excited to tackle new things. The Code Club projects are doing all the teaching – my job is to support the class as they explore and learn.”

So if you’re interested in being part of the Code Club movement, and inspiring more kids to get into coding, you too can arrange a visit to one of our Star Clubs like Barrow Hill School to see first hand what our after school clubs are all about.

Alternatively, you can also visit our volunteers page to see how you can get stuck in!