by Eleanore Richardson
Lewisham Library Code Club was set up to introduce 7-12 year olds
how to code using block coding language Scratch and website building languages
HTML and CSS. Run by volunteers and Library staff, the club offers free lessons
and runs for a term at a time before graduating the children and starting afresh
with a new class in the new term.
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| HTML Class Attendees |
At the Beginning…
With the help of Anne our excellent volunteer, we kicked off
our first class on 7th March 2017 with only 5 children and rapidly
grew to 10 kids by the end of the term, covering lessons such as how to
programme sound loops to create a responsive rock band game, programming robot
characters to have conversations with us and creating a boat race video game
with power ups, time trials and point accumulators.
I noticed the children become more focused in their ability
to understand and translate instructions, develop their openness to collaborate
and help each other and hone their attention to detail in the coding they
entered. With almost zero knowledge of the coding language scratch, we finished
our term creating video games, quizzes and more.
Summer Coding
Challenge…
The fun didn’t stop there. As we headed into the Summer
Holidays we introduced the Summer Coding Challenge, a 6week challenge to go
from design to final product, using weekly sessions and time at home to
continue developing their idea.
18 children joined our Challenge and met up each week over
the Summer Holidays to graft away at their project, taking time to share
computers, develop ideas with each other and code original designs. The results
were incredible, with supermario-esque games, maths and geography quizzes and
even a karaoke music video!
What did parents have
to say?
Feedback from parent illustrated the impact the club was
having:
“My children were really pleased
and were always looking forward to coming to code club!”
“A great opportunity and very
necessary for children today”
“My children enjoyed it a lot and
received feedback and support throughout the class”
More kids, more
classes…
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| Scratch Class Attendees |
This September, due to popular demand we started our second
weekly coding class for 8-12 year olds teaching them how to code their own
website using HTML and CSS coding language. We aso have a code club in our Sydenham Branch.
The kids have learnt how to create webpages, and add images,
edit fonts and title size, add hyperlinks and even create their own animations
among other things. Attention to detail is key here, but they kids are also
developing concepts such as relative and absolute positions, percentages, ratio,
coding grammar and punctuation, problem solving and collaboration with each
other.
As we lead up to the final weeks of this winter term, demand
for both our Scratch class and HTML/CSS class remain as high as ever and
waiting lists grow with each week, but we look forward to welcoming in new
classes in January.
Find out more
At Lewisham Library we have an excellent selection of coding
books to spark children’s curiosity with this increasingly important subject, visit
us here at the Library to check them out!
If you have experience with coding or teaching and would
like to volunteer your time with one of our classes, please do get in contact
as we are looking for volunteers to help inspire and guide these keen kids as
our classes grow.
If you would like to enrol your child for classes please get
in contact with me as soon as possible and I will first add them to our waiting
list before contacting you when we have a space available for your child to
join.
Best wishes and happy winter holidays!
Eleanore.Richardson@lewisham.gov.uk
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