Volunteers

Run a teacher-led Code Club & improve your skills

Are you a teacher looking to start a Code Club at your school, but think you don’t have the necessary skills or experience to run the club yourself?

We’ve heard about some amazing teachers across the country who started a Code Club to learn more about computer science and develop their own skills.

One of these teachers is Esther, who runs a Code Club at her school in Derby. Read on to learn more about her story, and how she improved her coding skills at her own Code Club.

Before I started my Code Club I had absolutely no knowledge of coding, other than pulling my hair out when the PC didn’t start properly and showed lines of numbers and letters which I assumed were code!

I decided to start a Code Club because my school requires all teachers to run a club. I am also responsible for teaching the computing curriculum, even though I have no prior training in the subject. Luckily, I had a very supportive ICT Tech, who had heard about Code Club and suggested I try it out. I signed up a couple of weeks before half term and thought the resources were amazing! We started at the beginning of the following half term.

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Esther & her Code Club at Fritchley Primary School

Our club has now been running for 3 years. We operate out of our tired computer room and we use the downloaded version of Scratch so we don’t have to deal with any access or security issues. When I started, I recruited the kids by running a Code Club assembly with the junior children. I don’t need to do that anymore as it’s almost a rite of passage that you get to do Code Club when you get into Year 3.

Code Club fits easily into my working schedule. At first it was more of a push to do the games and animations before the kids, but now I’m more confident I have a more relaxed approach. All the resources are there – they just need printing off and you’re good to go.

My club is made up of children who are all super interested, and we have just as many girls as boys coding. All the pupils can work independently, they usually support each other but I’m on hand to help them debug if they really need it.

When we had our OFSTED inspection a few years ago, computing came out as an outstanding feature and that’s down to Code Club. The children’s maths and problem solving abilities have all improved alongside their teamwork and resilience.

I am very proud of the school’s Code Club, and what we have achieved. When we had our OFSTED inspection a few years ago, computing came out as an outstanding feature and that’s down to Code Club. The children’s maths and problem solving abilities have all improved alongside their teamwork and resilience. Getting something wrong isn’t a bad thing anymore, it’s just a problem to be solved.

Code Club has given our school a unique selling point. Despite being a tiny village school in the middle of nowhere, we have children who are great at coding and are expanding their minds and their career prospects.

Most importantly, Code Club offers the children some great experiences. One term, our chair of governors joined the club. She was into her sixties but a keen mathematician and wanted to see how it all worked. It was fab to see her learn a new skill and show her work alongside the children’s. The children loved to show their work to her, they explained what they had done so simply and they were all beaming with pride.

Interested in finding out more about starting a Code Club? Go to our website to find out more. You can also arrange a visit to see Esther’s Code Club in action via our Star Clubs network.

Start a Code Club in your library

Over the past year, we’ve had more and more Code Clubs starting in libraries around the country. Ipswich County Library is host to one of those new Code Clubs, and they filled us in on they’re progress so far:

My name is Charmain Osborne and I’m the Assistant Library Manager at Ipswich County Library. As part of my role I have responsibility for the Enterprise and Innovation Hub located on the top floor of the library, this is where our weekly Code Club is held.

I first heard  about Code Club a while ago while carrying out a volunteer role I have outside of the library. The concept interested me, but at that point I wasn’t in a position to be able to move forward. When I started at Ipswich County Library in August 2015 I was quite keen to investigate the idea of a Code Club further. By coincidence a volunteer came in to ask if we could start a Code Club in the library. I didn’t need asking twice!

We’ve set up our Code Club with combination of volunteers; Code Club, STEMnet and High School students. I started off with one volunteer who was very pro-active about getting some other volunteers on board, she continues to be extremely helpful and is an active volunteer at the sessions.  

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The library’s Code Club was featured in the local paper, the East Anglian Daily Times.

At each session we generally have 2 Code Club/STEM volunteers and a couple of High School students. The High School students focus on troubleshooting IT and this allows the Code Club/STEM volunteers to interact with the children. Our group started off at 8 children, after the first group of sessions this was increased to 14. The children range in age from 6-11, the youngest children generally have their parents helping them with the material and the group all work well together. We don’t have rigid structure where the children work systematically through the projects. Instead the children choose their own projects to suit their interest and ability working at their own level; if they choose one that is too hard or too easy they soon change it for another one.

The greatest challenge for our Code Club is also our greatest triumph. The club has been more popular than I imagined. The waiting list continues to grow faster than we can create spaces in our club! I’m now considering starting a second Code Club, I’ve approached a local college who have Level 3 Game Design and IT students to see any of them would like to gain some valuable work experience.

My advice to anyone else working in a library and considering starting a Code Club would be: go for it, what have you got to lose? It’s a really great experience to see the children engaged and learning at a Club they have chosen to come to.

If you’d like to start a Code Club in your library, find out more about hosting a Code Club here: www.codeclub.org.uk/start-a-club/venues.

You can then visit www.codeclub.org.uk/register/host to register as a Club Host.

 

I’m a Parent, how can I help Code Club?

If you’re a parent looking to contribute to your child’s school community, how about starting a Code Club? Whether you’re a coding expert or an absolute beginner, we’re looking for enthusiastic parent volunteers who can start an after-school coding club in their child’s school.

Interested to find out more? We spoke to Elbrie de Kock, the co-founder of Tech Age Kids, a blog about technology for kids and families.  She started a Code Club in Chandlers Ford in January 2016, and she told us about her experiences so far:

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I was inspired to start my own Code Club whilst trying to help my son find his feet in the world of computing as an enthusiastic young coder. I wanted to make sure my own kids and their peers at school have access to the fantastic resources Code Club have to offer.

At first, fear of not having the right qualifications prevented me from starting a Code Club. However, now I’ve got started, it’s incredible, and I realise my fear was unfounded.

Getting the club up and running

I registered as a volunteer on the Code Club site and then approached the school about starting the Code Club in November last year. From there, we sent out letters to all year 5 and 6 classes and it didn’t take long to fill the club and have a waiting list. We used all the resources available on the Code Club website to help us get started quickly and after Christmas we were up and running.

Our Code Club started in January 2016 and we used the curriculum and materials provided by Code Club straight out of the box. We meet once a week after school for an hour in the school’s computer lab with 18 year 5 and 6 pupils. The school is really lucky to have such a fantastic facility, allowing each child to have their own PC and we have room to grow.

Together with a teacher from the school and 2 other parent volunteers we decided to start with the 1st Scratch module and work our way through the projects. The kids found the first projects fairly easy, but now we are starting to get to more challenging ones. We’ve also added some fun elements, by trying out their Scratch projects with a Makey Makey.

The kids and school liked the Makey Makeys so much, they are planning a fundraising project to buy cool tech gadgets for the school. One fun idea was to host a Code Club for parents!

The benefits of volunteering

I am not a computer programmer and work in digital marketing. Code Club has definitely shown me learning new digital skills isn’t hard.  If the kids can do it, so can I. Every week, I try out the project we are going to do at the Code Club at home. I’m really enjoying it and impressed with my own growing coding skills.

My 7 year old son attends the club with me. I love being able to be part of an activity he really enjoys at his school. It’s great to be able to support your child in their school by starting a Code Club. I see the time I give to prepare and run the Code Club at my kids school as important as volunteering on the PTA or governing body. The school benefits from having a computing focussed activity, your child benefits from seeing you take an active interest in their schooling and you benefit from enabling other kids to be creative with technology.

In terms of volunteering with Code Club, it is really easy and there is a lot of support in the Code Club community. I would say, don’t over think it, just do it! There is a lot of support on the way.

Favourite Code Club moments

I think Code Club is brilliant, and my favourite moments are when the kids’ eyes light up when they get something right, or they have a new experience with technology that is fun and creative. The last week before half-term, we did a more tricky Scratch project. It was fascinating to see how differently each child responded to the challenges they faced.

My best moment has to be, when one of the coders, said at the end of the session, eyes shining with excitement; “Elbrie, I just can’t wait to get home and solve this problem! I am going to get it right!” Now that is what I call a great success.