Code Club is awesome. If you don’t want to spend time reading the full post below then just take that away with you – Code Club is awesome.
What is it?
Code Club is a network of after school clubs that aims to get kids aged 9 to 11 involved in making their own computer games, animations and websites to help them understand what computer programming is and to hopefully inspire them and help generate interest in it as a subject choice. Code Club itself tries to connect industry volunteers (who run the clubs) with venues and they provide a “curriculum” for the clubs to follow.
How?
The first two terms of Code Club use Scratch, which is an educational tool created by MIT specifically to introduce children to the core building blocks of programming. Term 3 moves on to web development via HTML and CSS then Term 4 introduces Python.
My Experiences
I first took the idea to my company’s Manager Director and our then Director of HR in summer 2012. They were looking for something that would let staff give back to the community after a couple of successful, and very popular, volunteering days, so when I found a BBC article about Code Club I pitched it to them and they fully supported it so I’ve been trying to get one off the ground since then (see rant later!). I finally started running my own Club in Oct 2013.
The first class was grand, but was very much me leading them through all of the steps to create a game to get them up to speed using Scratch. It was pretty good and the class seemed to enjoy it. Since then I just hand them the instructions and set them loose – that is when the fun begins!
Telling them to just give it a go and shout when they’d problems means they are able to experiment and try things out. It also means a lot of running about and trying to make sure you’re answering questions simply and not leaving people waiting too long for help. I came out of the second class completely exhausted, dehydrated, with a sore throat but absolutely grinning!
It’s great to see them trying out the challenges to personalise and change the games, and the sense of satisfaction when they get different pieces working. There are some kids who will get the basics working and then just want to change how characters look to make them individual that way and don’t worry about the extra features, I personally find that a bit frustrating (I confess I’m a control freak), but you just have to let them go for it.
The Struggle…
With approval from work to pilot Code Club I started contacting schools to try and get one that would be interested in running it, and I got no response. It was the summer though so I didn’t really expect anything. Once the term began I upped the communication and specifically targeted the primary school near my house where I used to go and where my cousin was then a P7 pupil. It took a lot of effort to get to talk to anyone and when I eventually did get the head of IT she seemed interested and said she’d get back to me with a date I could come in to talk at an assembly, she never did. I kept trying to followup and never got a response despite trying different methods of contact, so I gave up.
I then turned to the Code Club website where schools can register themselves as looking for a volunteer, my naive mind thought they must be interested. Again I got no response from the ones I contacted.
Our new Director of HR put me in touch with the school her sister worked in so another member of staff and I went there to help run Code Club. They had a dedicated IT teacher who had already been running the Club for a while so we were very much just helping out and wandering around the class waiting for questions. It was still fun to see the kids enjoying creating their games though, but I wanted to be in control!
Finally I went back to the Code Club site and found a new school in my area had added itself so I emailed that teacher and she was thrilled to have a volunteer. We talked on the phone the next day and agreed a date to start – so simple once someone was actually keen.
I get that schools have a lot of stuff going on so this could be seen as an added burden, but given they were getting the lessons for free without having provide any input other than a teacher being in the room it seemed odd to me that there was such a lack of interest.
Tips and Advice
These are the main things I think would be useful to anyone looking to start a Code Club –
- Persevere when looking for a school, try those you or your friends have kids in as it’s an easier route.
- Don’t assume your employers won’t let you – there’s no harm in asking.
- Try all the projects before doing them in class – it’s easier when you know what you’re fixing.
- Do not underestimate the appeal of the resources Code Club give; my class love the badges.
- Try not to stifle the ones that want to go totally off book and just give their fish mohawks rather than adding timers and counters. I struggle with this one.
- Don’t have too big of a group. Code Club recommend no more than 12 and that seems about right. I have 16; neither the teacher or I felt we could be mean enough to turn away four of them and thankfully she’s able to help out. It wouldn’t be doable alone.
- If you’re doing it in a school you’ll need a Criminal Records Bureau check done first – you can get this for free by becoming a STEMNET Ambassador
- Check out tips from other volunteers here
Links
Danielle Topping 