Code Club Iraq is helping learners dream big with code!

Dr Nadia Al-Aboody is the driving force behind Code Club Iraq, she’s been empowering Code Club children and educators since 2016. 

Educator Zahraa and young coders Alaa, Haneen, and Yusuf tell us about the positive impact that Nadia and Code Club has had on their lives.

Dr Nadia Al-Aboody

Dr Nadia Al-Aboody is a lecturer of computer science in Maysan, Iraq, a dedicated Code Club leader, a Raspberry Pi National Partner for Iraq, and an advocate for women and girls in STEM. She tells us:

“When I was a little girl I didn’t find a mentor to help me with electronics, I only heard voices saying I won’t make it. This is why I now mentor girls and female trainers in our Code Club. I want to give them a chance to grow.”

Nadia has been involved with Code Club for five years and is a real role model for many girls and women in Iraq. 

Alaa is dreaming big through code! 

Meet Alaa, aged 10! Alaa joined Nadia’s Code Club in 2020 when she started to dream big with code!

“I want to be famous when I grow up, the skills and knowledge I’ve gained from being a Code Club member will help me achieve my dreams!” 

Code Club is a great space to spark the imagination of young people, to encourage them to explore ideas that interest them, whilst developing their skills. This was one reason why Alaa wanted to join Code Club: 

“At the end of the project, I will see something I have made and it will help me make other projects with new ideas!”

If Alaa was to offer any advice to new club members, she says that you should give it a go as you are guaranteed to have a “really fun time there” — thank you, Alaa! 

Alaa at Code Club

Developing transferable skills 

Zahraa is an electrical engineer and is currently studying for a Master’s in computer engineering; she is affectionately called Nadia’s ‘right-hand woman’! She has been a Code Club volunteer for two years. Zahraa tells us: 

“What attracted me to Code Club is that the team supports children of different ages, and teaches them how to rely on themselves, as well as the basics for programming and logical thinking. 

The training from Nadia has helped me a lot, even outside of club-based activities, and I have been able to use the skills I developed from volunteering at Code Club in other areas of my life too, like public speaking, delivering training, communications and public relations, logical thinking, and of course, coding! 

I would really advise anyone who is thinking about getting involved with us at Code Club to absolutely do it. It’s one of the most rewarding things I have done.” 

Code Club educator, Zahraa

Code Club is supporting future career paths 

Nadia and the team have created safe spaces where children are able to explore coding and discuss future career paths. 

Haneen (14) and Yusuf (10) are siblings who attend Code Club. Haneen has always been excited by programming, but since coming to Code Club, she is now thinking about choosing it as her field of study at university. 

Yusuf wasn’t sure what he wanted to be when he grew up, but his Code Club experience has made him sure that he wants to become a games programmer. 

Haneen shares her coding skills in this Code Club Scratch project; have a go and see how you get on! 

Code Club Iraq

To find out how to start your own Code Club, head to www.codeclub.org if you are based in the UK, India or the USA or to www.international.codeclub.org if you are based outside the UK. 

Meet the young designers who won the first Code Club T-shirt competition!

This spring we asked young people at Code Clubs across the UK to grab their pens and pencils, put on their creative hats, and design the next Code Club T-shirt!

Children from Cheam Code Club wearing the winning T-shirt design.
Cheam High School Code Club and the winning T-shirt design.

A new challenge

Coding is about creativity and design as well as logical thinking. That’s why our latest competition for young people attending UK Code Clubs was the first-ever Code Club design competition.

The task? To create a design for the next Code Club T-shirt, inspired by what you love about coding or Code Club.

The prize? T-shirts with the design for all Code Club attendees and volunteers of the winning club, and the design on a shirt in our official Code Club online shop

The result? 104 children from 72 Code Clubs across the UK made amazingly creative, clever, and fun designs! 

Over 100 designs

More than 100 young people sent us their designs, and from robots and computers, to Scratch blocks and messages in binary, we were blown away by how amazing the designs looked.

We got together a team of judges from across Code Club and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, who put together a longlist of our 18 top favourites. Head to the end of this blog to see our galley wall!

And the winners are… 

The final task of picking the winning design went to Philip Colligan , our CEO at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It was a tricky decision for him, but he finally chose the design of Sophie, Arani, and Emily from Cheam High School. 

Here’s Philip on why this became the winning design: 

I love this design, particularly the use of binary to say “hello world”. It’s a great way to start a conversation about how computers work, and a reminder that however complex the computing system, it all comes down to zeros and ones.

– Philip Colligan, CEO at the Raspberry Pi Foundation

The image on the left shows the worked up design from Cheam High School Code Club. 

What happened next?

Alex, one of our designers, worked up the design Sophie, Arani, and Emily had created to make it ready to be printed onto T-shirts. 

With the T-shirts hot off the printing machine, our Programme Coordinator Zoe headed to Cheam High School to personally deliver them and say a huge thank you to Sophie, Arani, and Emily and their whole Code Club for taking part.

Sophie, Arani, and Emily told Zoe what inspired their design: 

We wanted to show what we like about coding, and how fun it is. We used part of the original Code Club T-shirt design and used binary to say “hello world” to show how computers work.

– Sophie, Arani, and Emily from Cheam Code Club 

The three designers said they felt happy and proud when they saw their design on the T-shirts for the first time! And for anyone entering a Code Club competition, this is their advice:

Go for it, you never know if you’re going to win or not. If you try hard enough, you might!

– Sophie, Arani, and Emily from Cheam Code Club 

Sophie, Arani, and Emily with their teacher Ms Pizzorni and Zoe from Code Club.
Sophie, Arani, and Emily with their teacher Ms Pizzorni and Zoe from Code Club

Get your own T-shirt

To get your own T-shirt with the winning design, head to our official online shop. You’ll also find lots of other fun Code Club swag there. All proceeds from the shop go to Code Club, allowing us to continue creating resources and supporting you to help young people learn to code!

The gallery wall

Take part in our exclusive competitions

This competition and others like it are only available to registered Code Clubs.

Looking to start a Code Club in the new academic year? Register on our website today to get exclusive access to unique competitions and more Code Club resources. 

Girls leading the way

In early January we were introduced to a group of inspirational young female Code Club ambassadors who are making a difference at their primary school, RGS The Grange in Worcestershire.

Millie, Daya, Lily and Rosie are all aged 11. They talked to us about how their club is encouraging more girls into coding.

RGS The Grange

RGS The Grange is a Code Club Star Club and runs a well-attended club on Thursdays working on projects ranging from Scratch, Robotics, Python, Makey Makey and lots more!

Millie, Daya, Lily and Rosie were regular attendees at this club, but they wanted to encourage more girls to get involved and learn how to code.


The Thursday Club was packed full of boys and we thought we needed more girls to learn how to code.

– Rosie, a young Code Club ambassador

Let’s start our own club!

With the girl’s imagination sparking, they approached their teacher Matt Warne about starting a girls-only Code Club.


The girls came to me with this idea of launching their very own Code Club, without hesitation, I gave them a lunchtime slot which I could help facilitate, we then planned the logistics behind launching a club.

– Matt Warne, Head of Computing & IT, RGS The Grange

The launch of the new Code Club

With support and guidance from Matt, the girls launched their new Code Club, which they called Girls Can Code. The club was aimed at young girls from years three and four, and takes place on Friday lunchtimes led by the female Code Club ambassadors. The girls are working through Code Club projects and are currently looking at Lost in Space.  


We hoped girls would give up their playtime to learn to code.

– Daya, a young Code Club ambassador


It inspired me to help other people to code. People are looking up to me, I like helping people and that’s a good feeling.

– Lily, a young Code Club ambassador

Matt Warne shared this:


The girls who lead the club have developed fantastic social skills and support our year three and four pupils incredibly well within the session.

– Matt Warne, Head of Computing & IT, RGS The Grange

When I grow up…

We wanted to know if the young ambassadors had thought about how they could use their coding experience in their future career:

Rosie wants to be a Computer Scientist and knows that this coding club will really help her achieve this – “Code is part of my life. I like to Code, I do it as a hobby and it’s fun!”

Millie said that coding is fun and that she going to carry on learning so she can get better.

Daya shared that she knows that her coding experience is something that she can take with her into other industries.

Having girls like Millie, Daya, Lily and Rosie leading the way for other young female coders, the future is in safe hands. We can’t wait to hear what they plan to work on next – whatever it is we know they have the determination and drive to succeed!

A final comment from the school


This club has been a huge success and is a testament to the art of empowering pupils. They have learnt as much as the pupils they inspire within the session.

– Matt Warne, Head of Computing & IT, RGS The Grange

We love to celebrate our young female role models. Are you working with inspiring young female coders or female volunteers? Share their achievements with us by reaching out to us on Facebook and Twitter or email us at support@codeclub.org.