A Code Club for every community: Our new offer for trusts and local authorities

Last year we announced a bold ambition — to see a Code Club in every school and library across the UK. Today we’re excited to announce the next step in this journey — a package of support for multi academy trusts and local authorities who are interested in establishing Code Clubs across their network.

A cheerful instructor engaging with a young participant in a tech club, both appearing excited and joyful. Text overlay reads 'Join the club' with decorative stars.

Why this is important

Feedback from educators, as well as independent research, tells us that Code Club works. Not only does it help young people develop their programming skills, but it also builds life skills like confidence, resilience and problem solving. We also know that to achieve our aims, we need to have a great package for trusts and local authorities that makes it easy to get new Code Clubs up and running.

Grounded in feedback

Over the past year, we’ve worked with teachers, librarians, and school leaders across the UK to explore how we can make it easier to support organisations to set up Code Clubs at scale.

Part of this work saw us partner with teachers from Three Spires Trust — a Church of England multi academy trust in Staffordshire — for a hands-on training day focused on the practical side of setting up new Code Clubs. Together, we explored the value of Code Club, how to structure sessions, how to use technologies like Scratch and the micro:bit in non-formal settings, and how to navigate common challenges of running a club.

By the end of the day, teachers felt more confident and better equipped to run Code Clubs in their own settings.

This initiative will empower our pupils with the digital skills they need for the future, opening doors to creativity, problem solving, and innovation” – Chris Leek, Head of ICT & Systems at Three Spires Trust

Following the training, the Trust established six Code Clubs across its academies and has since brought creators together through a trust-wide coding competition led by the King’s CofE Academy Code Club.

This impact, moving from initial training to embedded, scalable delivery, is what we aim to support more organisations to achieve across the UK.

A group of adults in a classroom setting attending a coding workshop, with one instructor presenting on a screen. Participants are actively engaged with laptops open, and a banner for Code Club is visible in the background.

An offer that works for you

Code Club is already free — which is a great foundation — but for new Impact Partners, we’re pleased to offer you:

  • A dedicated member of our team to work with you to get new Code Clubs up and running
  • Training for your team on how to run a great Code Club experience
  • Exclusive partner logos to use on your website and social posts
  • Resources to promote and celebrate your clubs and the chance to be included in our global communications
  • Priority places at our community events
  • Access to a digital platform to monitor and manage your clubs
  • A welcome pack including some of our most popular resources
  • And of course, easy to follow projects for your young people, including our collection of AI projects
Two women engaged in conversation at a table with a laptop and a water bottle. One woman is sitting, smiling, while the other is leaning over, looking at the laptop screen.

We’re just getting started, you can too!

This is just the beginning. As we develop new partnerships across the UK, we are committed to developing this package of support even further, listening to the advice you give us. Code Club is about more than just coding — it’s about giving every child essential life skills, and helping them have fun along the way. 

Contact us today to learn more about how we can work together to give every young person the opportunity to be part of Code Club

Our Code Club global tour — find out what we learned!

Over the last year, our global Code Club team has missed being able to make in-person club visits. Seeing our clubs’ creativity, enthusiasm, and love of coding first-hand is a massive inspiration to us.

This year, the team decided to take a tour of the world to visit clubs online, and in some countries in person, to see how everyone is getting on. Here are a few highlights!

First stop…the USA!

Kevin, our Club Program Coordinator for North America, joined educator David Slavin at his online club session at Pajaro Valley Virtual Academy, in California.  

The club members he met were enthusiastic, polite, and keen to share their ideas. They were also excited to learn more about how they could share their coding creations as part of Coolest Projects.

Kevin reflected on his visit:  

“I can’t imagine how difficult it has been for educators and learners to have had to transition to online learning so abruptly, but to see these students bursting with curiosity was inspiring!” 

Let’s head Down Under!

Nicola Curnow, Program Manager for Code Club Australia, has been able to resume in-person club visits and joined Ferntree Gully Club in Melbourne. This club thought about what they have learnt at Code Club and decided to build a school newsletter using their HTML knowledge! 

“When I visited they were working on formatting and editing the newsletter. The teachers and volunteers did an amazing job working together to build the newsletter for their community.”

Approximately 4800 miles away in India…

Vasu, our Club Programme Coordinator in India, had the exciting opportunity to go online to see a hybrid club at Core Programmers Academy in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. In the session, some children took part in the classroom, while others joined online from their homes.

Vasu enjoyed seeing the club in action and the leader had planned the session perfectly to help the young coders interact and learn alongside each other.

Vasu said:  

 “It’s great to see that the Code Club India community is working so hard to continuously stay updated with different models of learning in this ever-changing new world!” 

Vasu joining the Core Programmers Academy from her home

Meanwhile, in the UK

Zoe, Programme Coordinator for Code Club UK & Ireland, popped online to visit Rugby Library in Warwickshire, where their creative coders were enjoying launching into space with Astro Pi Mission Zero and racing to the finish line of Scratch module one with Boat race!

“It was wonderful to see the kids working independently through the projects and feeling confident to ask for help. I had so much fun and loved when Hazq showed me his super cool Boat race project!”  

The Scratch game Boat race

What we learned 

What shone brightly throughout these visits, is how well everyone has adapted during these challenging times. The resilience of the Code Club community has been nothing short of inspirational.

There may be less noise in an online session, but the fun learning environment where coders can continue to explore and be creative, is still very much alive! 

Visit my club

You can get in touch to invite us to visit your online club. We would love to see and celebrate your amazing achievements, so please share them with us on Twitter at Code Club UK or Code Club World using the hashtag #MyCodeClub!