Creating the Code Club

As part of my school setting we are expected to run an activity every week as part of our super curricular work that we do with our students. I have tried running a code club in the past and in all honesty it didn't really lift off the ground which was not very ideal. However since then I have started being a trustee and mentor at my local CoderDojo which has helped me significantly with building my confidence and how to conduct a coding session in a more relaxed and creator led way.

To try and make this right, I decided to register my school Code Club with the official Raspberry Pi Code Club network so that I can get access to starter activities and extra support. The set up was extremely easy and intuitive which has really boosted my confidence with running this club.

Club Demographic

The demographic of my Code Club ranges with pupils of all ages. Due to its popularity I had to create two sessions.

In the first session:

• Year 7
• Year 8
• Year 9
• Year 11

In the second session:

• Year 5
• Year 6
• Year 7
• Year 12

What is also positive is the amount of girls that have opted to take part with this activity as there is still a definite gender gap within my setting for the amount of girls taking computer science.

Activities

Due to the nature of Code Club and allowing students to explore with code and have other interactions with physical computing, I have decided to keep the work in a manner that explores self exploration. Within saying this I have pointed students to the Raspberry Pi pathways and given a theme every week with some project briefs that students can opt to use. Or they can do their own thing with code for if they have a particular project in mind.

I have kept all my work freely accessible online via the following link: https://tlundcomputing.github.io/CodeClub So other mentors and club leaders are able to use my activities.

Next Steps

Due to the success of my Code Club I have been able to start running house coding competitions and enter more students within the national/international competitions such as Bebra, Astro Pi, and Coolest Projects.

I would highly recommend joining the Code Club network or seeing if you can support a local Code Club/CoderDojo as it does encourage future coders to learn the skill early and helps build their confidence around coding and beyond.