Beyond the classics: exploring Code Club projects in 2025

At the end of 2024, we crunched the numbers and found that classic Code Club projects like ‘Space talk’, ‘Boat race’, and ‘Ghostbusters’ remain popular choices across the world. In 2025, dive into some of our other inspiring projects to help your creators build on their skills!

Two girls sat at a desk with two laptops. The girls are laughing and one girl has her thumbs up.
Make your ideas with Code Club

Exploring new projects and adding your own creative spin can boost learning, spark excitement, and unlock fresh inspiration for you and your creators.

Our projects site offers over 200 coding projects that provide support for creators to learn at their own pace and grow their confidence through hands-on learning. This empowers them to successfully bring their ideas to life through code. Code Club mentor Bob shares how he has used the projects in his club:

“The Code Club projects help motivate creators through the structure. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of a new year with a fresh group of coders showing them the projects and how they work through them, and how they go from one page to the next and find all the hints and tips in the projects.”

– Bob, Code Club mentor

Check out our suggestions and try a new project in your club this year.

Moving on from ‘Space talk’

After Space talk, launch a new space-themed activity with Alien language! Creators will train a machine learning model to recognise alien words and use it to control an alien in Scratch. Get ready for a fun, possibly noisy, introduction to machine learning.

You can expand the project by encouraging your creators to change the sprites and backdrops.

‘Alien language’ Scratch project

From boat racing to scoring goals

Boat race is a Code Club classic, but why not take those coding skills to the next level with a new game? Beat the goalie guides coders to create a two-player game where the aim is to score as many goals as possible in 30 seconds.

Creators can customise the sport, target, and players to make the game their own.

‘Beat the goalie’ Scratch project 

‘Ghostbusters’ is just the beginning

If you love Ghostbusters, try a new challenge with Clone wars. Creators can build on their existing Scratch skills and discover exciting new concepts by creating a game to save the Earth from space monsters — or any other threat that coders can dream up.

‘Clone wars’ Scratch project 

“The Code Club projects start the ball rolling. I often start with the ‘Ghostbusters’ project and very rarely do children make a ghost floating around a manor. They’re picking sprites that relate to things that they’re interested in. Whether it’s about footballs, food, or anything else is what sparks their creativity and inspires them to experiment.”

– Rachel, Code Club mentor, Stevenage, UK

Creators can swap out the extraterrestrial invaders for giant robots, mischievous gremlins, or even a swarm of angry bees. The possibilities are endless!

Explore the Code Club projects, where creators are guided through new coding and design skills to make things that matter to them.

Passion, purpose, play — why do volunteers run Code Clubs?

Passionate individuals around the world run Code Clubs, but what motivates them?

We spoke to four Code Club mentors from around the world — both long-time leaders and newcomers — to learn why they started Code Clubs and continue to run them in their communities.

Creating a community 

A man stands on the left in a classroom with a group of young people during their Code Club session.
Vipul at his Code Club

The Code Club community is expanding worldwide! Vipul Rathod, based in Gujarat, India, started his club at a community centre in Jamnagar in 2022. As he explains, he wanted to create a space where everyone could collaborate and learn together:

“As the leader of this Code Club, I’m driven by the chance to spark innovation and create a space where collaboration thrives. It’s exciting to build a dynamic community that’s passionate about technology. Every session sharpens not just my skills, but everyone’s, while also developing leadership abilities. The greatest reward is watching others grow in their coding journeys and embrace the potential of future technologies.”

Opening up possibilities

A man sits to the left of a young Code Club creator, both of them behind a laptop screen.
Code Club mentor, Bob

Bob Bilsland from Malvern, England has been with Code Club since its launch in 2012. He runs three Code Clubs in the area, with one of them — the club at Malvern CofE Primary School, which launched in 2013 — standing as the longest-running club in the world! Bob shares what brings him back to Code Club week in, week out:

“What brings me back week after week is the sharing of what I enjoy doing. It’s so much fun to help others explore this space themselves, to see what they can personally create. I see that giving others the opportunity to explore and familiarise themselves with computing as something that could open up a world of possibilities for them in the future.”

Two women and a man stand together in a busy room holding Code Club roundels.
IIiana (left) attending the Clubs Conference in 2024

Coding as a creative spark

For Iliana Ramirez in Mexico, Code Club is about more than just teaching young people to code. It’s also about equipping them with new skills so they can thrive in an increasingly digital world and prepare themselves for the future. She points in particular to how Code Club empowers young learners by unlocking their creativity:

“[By running a Code Club] we prepare young people to live in a digital world. They understand that this world is interconnected and we prepare them to think and solve problems. They start to believe they can do things that they thought they couldn’t do before. They find it to be like magic and discover that they can have that power in their hands to create games, and share their stories. That’s what I see, I see them fly.”

Learning flexibly and deeply

Long-standing Code Club leader, Rachael

Meet Rachael from Stevenage, who’s been a champion of digital technologies for over a decade. She started a Code Club after she and her young son became curious about coding and now continues to inspire learners at the school where it all began. Rachael emphasises the benefits of Code Club’s flexible structure:

“I started running a Code Club when my son was seven and I wanted to learn what this whole programming/coding stuff was about. And I still run a Code Club in the same school where he started! In a lesson, there’s often an end point and they have to stop. Whereas in Code Club, we’re meant to run for an hour, but we rarely stop at the end of the hour. So there’s that ability for them to really stick with something and come back to the same project week after week to develop it.

And, you know, the mistakes, the debugging we learned together. And that was a really powerful process to go through.”

You don’t need to be a coding expert to start a Code Club! It’s a fun and rewarding way to connect with young people and help them learn valuable skills for the future. Visit the Code Club website to learn how you can get involved.

Code Club community celebrates top moments from 2024

It’s that time again! As another year of coding adventures wraps up, we’re taking a moment to celebrate the incredible achievements of Code Clubs across the globe.

The magic of Code Club goes beyond lines of code. It’s about igniting a love for technology, building confidence, and empowering the next generation of digital makers. It’s about those “a-ha!” moments when a concept clicks, a bug is squashed, or an idea comes to life on the screen.

To celebrate this year, we contacted Code Club community members and asked them to share one standout highlight. Prepare to be inspired by stories from Zimbabwe, Australia, and Ireland.

Cambridge Make Space Code Club

The power of sharing

Blessed Moyo, from Mvelo Hive Trust in Zimbabwe, signed up to be a Code Club partner this year. She told us about Amminadab, aged 11, and how he has been sharing his new coding skills with his peers:

“Amminadab, a talented young creator at Kumalo Primary School Code Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, showcased exceptional coding and communication skills during the ‘Catch the bus’ project. After successfully completing his own project, Amminadab generously shared his knowledge with his peers, guiding four fellow learners through the project with patience and expertise.

His dedication to helping others and his natural leadership abilities made him an outstanding role model for his fellow club members. Amminadab’s impressive coding skills and his ability to explain complex concepts in a clear and concise manner made him an invaluable asset to the Code Club. His selflessness and willingness to assist others demonstrate the values of teamwork, collaboration, and community that are at the heart of the Code Club.”

Amminadab supporting creators with the Scratch project ‘Catch the bus’ 

Eoghan and his dog code their way to Coolest Projects

Young creator Eoghan has been attending the Gorey CoderDojo in County Wexford, Ireland, for three years. He’s had a great year attending Coolest Projects Ireland and entering his Scratch project, ‘Leia Adventure’ into the online showcase. Eoghan shares why he enjoys attending his club:

“It’s really fun to meet and talk about ideas with other creators and the mentors are very helpful in fixing any coding problems.”

We recently featured Eoghan’s project in a Coolest Projects online workshop. Afterwards, he told us that his biggest passion is Leia, the family dog, and that he told her she was famous after the call. We hope Eoghan and Leia continue to have many coding adventures in 2025!

Eoghan first Scratch platform game featuring Leia

An Olympic “a-ha!” moment for Code Club

Inspired by the Olympic Games in Paris, a Code Club in Nambour, Queensland, Australia had its own winning moment this year. Kaye North from Code Club Australia shares the story of this inspiring “a-ha!” moment, showcasing the power of Code Clubs to spark learning and creativity.

“During the Olympic Games this year I wrote a new Scratch project that used the pen tool to draw the Olympic Rings. I had just supported the opening of a new Code Club at a local school and in the third week of the club running I had young people in that club become official testers of the project.

Two young creators were excited to create the finished product and they had a great ‘a-ha!’ moment when they saw the link between maths and coding. One of the boys told me that it finally clicked with his understanding of degrees, and how this was used in the code to draw a circle. All the young people were proud of their creations and enjoyed manipulating the code to create alternate or improved versions of the Olympic Rings.”

Two creators working on their Olympic Rings 

From sparking creativity to building problem-solving skills, these stories showcase the incredible impact Code Club has on young minds worldwide. Feeling inspired? Learn how to start a Code Club in your community in 2025!