We love to hear about our volunteers’ experiences running Code Clubs across the country – we spoke to Evan Cusick, who ran a club at a school in North Belfast. Though Evan’s club was small, he had a great impact on the students he worked with…

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Hi my name is Evan Cusick, I ran 7 weekly Code Club sessions from September to December 2015 at Edenbrooke Primary School in North Belfast. This was my first time running a Code Club or anything similar and I don’t think it will be my last!

I signed up to Code Club as I have always enjoyed volunteering with children and wanted to play my part in passing on coding skills to the next generation. Fortunately, my company Kainos is hugely supportive of tech outreach activities, especially Code Club, and allows employees half a day a week to volunteer.

Starting The Club

I ended up starting my club at Edenbrooke after a request from Pamela Algie, the teacher with responsibility for the school’s IT and Computing. After a meeting to discuss dates and time I ran the first session within 2 weeks, after-school in the computer room. During the term we covered Code Club’s first scratch module using the exercises available for registered club leaders to download from the website. There was an attendance of around 3 pupils, with 2 boys pictured below attending every week.

Running The Club

I found that volunteering with Code Club took about 3 hours of my time each week, including preparation and organisation. A helpful tip is to run through the activity yourself beforehand so you can anticipate any problems the pupils may run into. In general, the club was fun and relaxed with my involvement being pretty ‘hands off’ as the kids were able to follow and complete the activity sheets themselves with little assistance. Indeed, after a few weeks the more capable pupils were able to help and guide their fellow club members when they had finished that week’s activity early. Another helpful point I picked up is to ask the pupil who is stuck if they understand how the code is meant to work, they are usually able to work out the problem themselves with a little prompting.

What I got out of it

I had an enjoyable time teaching the club attendees how to build apps in Scratch. I would definitely recommend volunteering with Code Club to anyone who is considering it. There is nothing to worry about as long as you are prepared, organized and enjoy interacting with children. If you go for it, you will be surprised by the ability and enthusiasm the kids will have for programming!

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Would you like to help provide children in your area with the chance to get excited about coding and digital making? Find out more about volunteering with Code Club.

Keen to share your volunteering story? Pop us an email at hello@codeclub.org.uk

 

 

 

At Code Club, we’re always grateful for the enthusiasm and passion of our volunteers. Marc Grossman is one of our volunteers who has been with us since the very start, and his dedication to helping children in London learn coding skills always amazes us.

We asked Marc to tell us a bit about his experiences with Code Club, and what benefits he gets from volunteering:

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What inspired you to volunteer for Code Club?

It all started with an email from my head teacher. For six years I had already been doing regular lunchtime and after school computer clubs. I loved the idea of concentrating on doing solely programming, as I had so much fun doing it when I was younger.

Tell us as a bit about your Code Club

We’ve been going for nearly four years now. Just once a term as I do other computer based clubs with different year groups. It’s just me with a group of twelve to sixteen young people usually from year groups 5 and 6. Our school is lucky as we have a computer suite with 30 PCs. We started off with the initial pilot projects such as Felix and Herbert and Fireworks. These days we have newer projects such as Rock Band, Lost In Space and ChatBot. We don’t do just Scratch, but also HTML and CSS too. 

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

It’s a wonderful opportunity to share skills and knowledge with young people. No two sessions are ever the same. It’s great to see what can be done with someone’s code and then to find ways to extend what has been produced so far. Although they start with the same project they all develop their own unique version by the end!

 

How does volunteering fit into your schedule?

I only work part time so I finish at lunchtime two days a week. This has given me the opportunity to go and do clubs at other schools. At my own school staff are very much encouraged to run a club where they can.

What has been your best ‘Code Club moment’?

My best moment recently was when doing the HTML/CSS projects with a group of SEN students at a college. They asked if they could include a YouTube video in their web pages. I showed them how to embed the video clips on their own web pages.

Why is Code Club important to you?

Code Club is important to me because it’s a great environment to just play. There’s nothing too formal. It’s just a club where young people can explore and experiment. The Code Club projects are a great starting point, letting young  people create whatever they want to, once they have got the basics under their belt.

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Want to share your volunteering experience with Code Club? Get in touch by emailing hello@codeclub.org.uk

It’s Volunteers’ Week 2016! A time to celebrate all the amazing activities of our Code Club volunteers across the country – so we wanted to profile some of the fantastic people who are out there busy helping to inspire the next generation of digital makers.

First up, Lizzy Atkinson, a Software Engineering student in Northern Ireland. Read more about her volunteer story below:

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Why I started Code Club

My name is Lizzy Atkinson and I am a placement Software Engineering student at a Company in Belfast called Kainos.

My company encourages employees to get involved in delivering Tech Outreach activities to kids in local schools to help promote confidence in young people’s ICT skills. I chose to become involved in Code Club because I remembered the lack of ICT focused activities I had in school growing up, and I hoped that by offering a Code Club some kids could really benefit from the experience. 

Starting the Club

The Code Club website was really easy to use, and within minutes I was in contact with a local school who were eager for a volunteer. I arranged a meeting with Audrey, the Primary 6 teacher/school ICT co-ordinator who showed me the ins and outs of the school computer network, and set the date for the first club.

Experience

At first, I thought about so many things that could go wrong. What if the kids knew more than me? What if I couldn’t control the classroom? After my first Code Club lesson, I realised that I had nothing to worry about, and it was actually really fun! 

The kids

The kids were one of the best things about Code Club! Their enthusiasm was infectious, and the rate at which they picked up programming in Scratch was incredible. Sometimes they got frustrated when they couldn’t work things out, but I found they really benefitted if I took 5 minutes to sit down beside them and walk through the problem logically and prompted them to come up with the solution themselves. There were of course one or two prodigies who finished the worksheets well before class ended, so it was sometimes helpful to ask them to help their friends if they got stuck, as they liked to show off that they knew what to do!

It was really impressive when one of the kids asked their dad to buy them a Raspberry Pi, which he brought in to run Scratch on for our last few sessions.

 What I got out of it

Running the Code Club has made me more confident in my ability to manage my time more effectively, as I had to make sure my regular work was done in time to enable me to leave the office early. I left the school each week with a massive smile on my face knowing the kids were enjoying the club, and it was so rewarding.

Audrey has asked me to come back next year to run another club when I am in my final year in University, and if I am able to I definitely will!

Code Club has been an incredible experience, and it was really easy to get involved. If you are thinking about it, just go for it!

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Think you could run a Code Club in your local area? Visit our website to sign up!