Hi Manchester, WE LOVE YOU…

CCManchesterAs you may know by now, we’re working megasuperhard behind the scenes to meet the demand we have from schools for Code Clubs. We’ve been working on a local partnerships model where we match up local tech staff and university students with schools. It’s working really well in Camden, and things are also underway in Islington and Tower Hamlets too :)

We realised things were getting a bit London-centric so we set our sights elsewhere. With Manchester firmly established as the UK’s second city for tech businesses, it didn’t take us long to find a bunch of people excited about coding.

The awesome people at the City Council made having Code Clubs in their schools part of their digital strategy a while ago and now, with the efforts of amazing individuals and great local companies, we’re ready for a big announcement!

Mark February 11th in your diary now as a date you will want to keep free – for an announcement at the Digital Skills Festival in Manchester Town Hall, then a must-attend party in the evening.

RSVPs
Code Club Manchester Launch
Code Club Manchester Party

Our partnership in Islington

Image

Yesterday the London Borough of Islington announced their strategy for Computing and we are pleased to say that having a Code Club in all of their schools is part of it!

We went along to an exciting event at Islington Assembly Hall where children from Islington schools showed us all the amazing things they’ve been learning in class and Code Clubs. There were Raspberry Pi’s, roamers, robots, Scratch demos and all sorts of awesome things. The kids from Thornhill Primary School (pictured above) totally nailed it when they explained how learning to code has helped them understand the things they use every single day!

We are really grateful to our partner in Islington, Bloomberg, who have already started recruiting volunteers to send into Islington schools. We also have much appreciated help from TechHub’s start-ups and City University students too :)

Maggie Philbin, who spoke at the event, summed it up nicely when she said how great it was to see a community working together to help children gain crucial skills. It’s so awesome to see schools, businesses, universities and not-for-profits working together to achieve big things!

This means we’ve got Croydon, Camden, Tower Hamlets and Islington all set on implementing Code Clubs in their schools now. Looks quite London focussed doesn’t it? Well, let us tell you a secret… the next partnerships will be a lot further north and south… Phew! Watch this space.