It’s been over a year since Google pumped £120,000 into Code Club, a not-for-profit computer programming for schools business that also counts Mozilla, ARM and Samsung as supporters. Within that time the government has introduced coding for kids as part of the curriculum and there are now 2,500 Code Clubs across the UK. So are we looking at the start of a new golden age in UK programming with tech-savvy kids driving the job market? Code Club founder Clare Sutcliffe has the answers.
Do you think teachers are struggling to cope with the new coding demands of the curriculum?
It was a really good move to change the curriculum. It had to be done but it does cause a lot of secondary problems, mainly for teachers who already have so much to fit into their teaching day. It’s not a subject most primary or secondary school teachers are au fait with so I can see why it would make you anxious as a teacher.
Is Code Club helping them to overcome the anxiety then?
Well, we saw this as an opportunity to help, so we set up our teacher training programme for primary teachers called Code Club Pro. It’s still early days but we have well over 300 teachers now. We want to take away the mystery and get them excited about coding, seeing it as a creative tool that can be embedded in other lessons too.
Is this the secret, demystifying coding and making it more accessible through specialist teaching?
Yes to a certain extent. Coding wasn’t being taught in schools when we started in 2012 but we thought it’s such a creative tool, very much like a paint set or learning to play a musical instrument that we had to change the way kids and teachers approached the subject. The biggest barrier was, what to teach?
So what have you done to break down the barriers?
There is a massive world of languages out there, so we looked at how we could get the most focus for a 9 or 11-year-old to learn. We had to make the courses fun and relevant so we developed three main strands. First we use Scratch, so we can teach the concepts of programming. We teach them how to make animation and games mainly. Then we start teaching HTML and CSS, looking at how to make basic websites (my favourite so far is “I love Chinchillas”, the internet definitely needs more of those) and then we start teaching Python, teaching them how to create Minecraft from the beginning. This is a popular one.
So do parents get it? Are they happy to send their kids to after school clubs about coding?
We still have some work to do around the unconscious bias sometimes displayed by parents about what’s right for their child or not. Even the most well-meaning parents could accidentally not offer the opportunity if they think engineering is not for girls, for example – a comment I’ve heard a worrying number of times.
So are you struggling to promote diversity in Code Club then?
No our numbers for girls are good. We know that 40% of the kids that attend are girls. It’s not quite 50% but we are really pleased with this number. We designed Code Club to be as gender neutral as possible.
Do you think that this is because parents understand the increasing importance of coding for the future jobs market?
It’s not just the job market. Jobs are important, unless you go and live on an island with Bear Grylls of course. What we’re not trying to do is create a new generation of programmers that go into specific jobs. It’s great if it becomes a passion and they can use their hobby as their work – that’s what a lot of coders do – but we want to create a new generation of digital artists, musicians and people who do doctorates and chop up their data using the programming skills they’ve learned.
In that case, could Code Club reach kids in deprived areas or kids who don’t want to learn the traditional curriculum and inspire them to develop new skills?
We hope so. We have over the average number of schools with a high pupil premium. We are looking into this as we are not quite sure why yet. But one thing we are going to focus on is how to reach schools that wouldn’t immediately think Code Club is a good thing because it makes life more difficult or they may feel there is not enough initial interest. I want it to be seen as a normal thing and added to the usual roster of after school clubs, like football, drama or choir. It will take a couple of years but that’s the vision.
This advertisement feature is brought to you by TransIP, sponsors of the Guardian Media Network’s digital entrepreneurs hub
