Volunteers Week

Volunteers Week: Meet one of our student volunteers…

Continuing our Volunteers Week blog series, we hear from Abbas Tutcuoglu, an Aeronautical Engineering student from Imperial University, who runs a Code Club in London. Abbas filled us in about what inspired him to get involved:

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Where I grew up in Germany, I experienced the uneven chances in education based on different financial backgrounds from a very early age. I felt that many of my friends who ended up in Hauptschule (secondary school with lowest future job prospects) actually had the potential to make it to Gymnasium (secondary school with highest job prospects), but simply haven’t received the necessary support during their time in primary school.

Often, this is because both parents have to work and don’t understand the local school system, which makes it difficult for them to provide any useful help to their children. In other cases, they underestimate the myriad opportunities that a good education can provide.

I therefore got involved with Code Club because I felt that sharing my own knowledge might help other disadvantaged students to receive the support that some of my peers growing up lacked, and it might help grant them equal chances of success in their future.

I really enjoy being part of Code Club because I get the opportunity to share my knowledge with others. I didn’t know any HTML before I started running my club, so I actually got to teach myself something useful as well! As a busy student, volunteering with a club gives you the chance to leave work aside for a moment, and work on your communication skills, patience and social engagement.

One of my best Code Club moments came during one of the last sessions in December, after having covered all topics in the Scratch-section, we decided to let the children choose one of the games uploaded by other developers, in order to see how far they can take programming with Scratch. The great thing about this was that all the corresponding code to the game was available as well and so students would simply change them as soon as they got stuck. So basically, without having our instructions in front of them and without anyone urging them to use Scratch, they would use their skills to simplify and circumvent problems.

Volunteers Week: Meet one of Code Club’s longest standing volunteers…

Adam Cohen Rose is one of Code Club’s longest serving volunteers. He is involved with running his own Code Club, as well as helping with teacher training through Code Club Pro.

As part of our Volunteers Week blog series celebrating the work of our volunteers, we asked Adam to tell us a bit about his experiences, and what motivates him to be part of Code Club:

IMG_4830_2“I work with computers every day and I can really see the impact made by being able to understand computers and make them work on your behalf. I want to make sure that the next generation has the skills to reach behind the smooth interfaces of their smartphones and take advantage of the technology inside.

I started volunteering for Code Club when my son was 8 and only learning office skills on the computers at school. At the same time the #codingforkids movement started, so I pledged to approach the headmaster of my son’s primary school. I offered to start a lunchtime computing club for the children – I’m still running a Code Club at that school over three years later. My son told me that the thing he most enjoyed about school was Code Club — two years running.

Because I run a lunchtime Code Club at my local primary school, it’s very easy to run every week without taking time off work. My company gives me two days a year of volunteering time, which I’ve agreed to take spread out across an extra 30 minutes for three terms of 12 lunchtimes.

Code Club makes it easy to volunteer — there’s so much support that I pretty much just need to turn up and help the children through whichever project they are working on that week. It provides great projects that get children excited about starting to program — learning almost without noticing they’re doing so — and crucially bringing in just as many girls as boys.

For Code Club Pro I support teachers with the new curriculum. I help the teachers that are struggling to understand the computing environment to feel less scared and more empowered so they can help hundreds more children.”

If you’re interested in getting involved in starting a Code Club like Adam, or volunteering with Code Club Pro, then you can find out everything you need to know about getting started on our website.

Volunteers Week: Celebrating Your Hard Work & Successes!

This week is Volunteers Week, and to celebrate, we want to highlight some of our amazing volunteers and recognise all the hard work they do as part of the Code Club community. Every day this week we’ll be profiling one of our volunteers, all of whom are involved in Code Club in different ways.

volunteers-week-web-logoWe’ve also got a whole array of meet-ups happening across the country, our chance to thank our volunteers in person, meet potential new recruits, and have a good catch up!

We always want to hear about our volunteers’ stories and celebrate your successes, so if you would like to be included in a future blog post, please do get in touch at support@codeclub.org.uk.

OSally Jordanur first fantastic Code Club volunteer we want to introduce is Sally Jordan, who is a teacher at Acacias Community Primary School in Manchester, where she runs her own club once a week.

What inspired you to volunteer for Code Club?

I got involved because I wanted to encourage children to become enthusiastic about computing in a really fun way.  I also wanted to develop my own knowledge, and it was a great opportunity to learn along with the children.

What has been your best ‘Code Club moment’?

There have been lots of great moments in which children have grown more confident in their own abilities – the thrill of completing a project is great!

What would you say are the benefits of volunteering for Code Club/ volunteering in general?

Volunteering provides a great opportunity to work with children and see how they quickly develop skills.  Additionally, you also get to meet other volunteers and learn from their experiences.

Why is Code Club important to you?

Code Club has become part of what I do and I feel it is a really valuable asset in our school.

How does volunteering fit into your schedule/daily life?

I run a Code Club after school at my school so that works well. Also, I recently volunteered at a Code Club event for World Scratch Day, on May 9th at the National Football Museum, which was great fun!  It is important that you have an understanding family who support you in volunteering.