Coding club helps six and seven-year-olds get switched on

Saturday 21 July 2018

An after-school coding club at First Tower Primary School has helped more than 100 students learn how to devise their own gaming programs.

The ten-week course run by one of the parents, Elaine Feltham, teaches six and seven-year-olds the principles of coding. By the end of the course they are able to create their own computer games using the programming software 'Scratch.'

Mrs Feltham explained: “The course teaches students core concepts including logical reasoning, debugging problems, developing ideas, and perseverance. This makes it much easier to teach them industry-standard programming languages like Python when they get to secondary school.”

Around half of students who’ve finished the course have gone on to take part in a more advanced course the following year where they continue building new programs on their own initiative.

According to Mrs Feltham “We even have 4 children who took part in previous years sitting in to help this year’s students”.

With the support of local software development consultancy XRM Architects, students are provided with a certificate and a book about coding at the end of each course. This allows them to continue developing their skills.

Simon Jackson, Founder and Director of XRM Architects said: “These students are the future of our technology community here in Jersey. Anything that we can do to improve the teaching of technology in education is vital to the future success of our industry. That’s why, when Elaine approached XRM Architects to support the coding club, we were only too happy to help.”