From Adelaide to Worcestershire: How two Code Club volunteers 21 hours apart met up to share their experience of running a Code Club

Code Club has a global network of coding clubs in over 150 countries. Find out what happened when a Code Club volunteer from Australia visited the Code Club at The Hive in Worcester, UK!

It took a plane trip for this Code Club visit!

Angela Brown is a Code Club volunteer at Aldinga Library near Adelaide, Australia. Angela loves making connections and thought a family trip to the UK would be an excellent opportunity to visit a UK Code Club.  

Angela and her children taking part in The Hive’s holiday programme.

Midlands Regional Coordinator Tim Wilson contacted Anita Kiss, who runs two Code Clubs and a Coder Dojo at The Hive, a library in Worcester. 

The club was running a special one-off coding session as part of their holiday programme — perfect timing for Angela’s trip to the UK:

When we’re on holiday, I don’t just stop thinking about coding, so the first thing I thought of was: can we find a Code Club to visit? 
– Angela Brown

What happened on the day 

The Hive ran a special family coding session, where at least three generations of budding coders got stuck into a fun selection of Code Club projects, including Beat the goalie, Scratch Cat goes skiing, and Archery:

It was fun to see the interaction across the generations not just between mums, dads and their kids, but also to see grandparents with their grandchildren as well.
– Tim Wilson 

Differences and similarities

At the end of the Code Club session, Tim had a chat with Angela and Anita about the differences and similarities between the two clubs.

One major difference was the locations of Code Clubs. Children travel for up to half an hour to get to Aldinga Library, their nearest Code Club, while children at Code Club at The Hive are predominantly from the local Worcester area. 

As it is a long way between clubs in Australia, it can be tough to visit clubs, meet other volunteers, and discuss challenges and share good ideas. So, Angela welcomed the opportunity to network while on holiday in the UK: 

Despite differences in scale, budget, and venue size, many of the challenges and success running Code Clubs, whether large or small, are similar. We can all learn a lot from each other!
– Angela Brown 

Both Angela and Anita talked about the benefits of having a good mix of boys and girls learning to code, as well as a shared philosophy of everyone learning together.

They also talked about the importance of encouraging parents to explore coding alongside their children, and of having an inclusive approach to young people from all educational and learning backgrounds: 

I think public library Code Clubs work hard to be welcoming to everyone who is keen to try coding in a friendly, relaxed and informal atmosphere.”
– Angela Brown 

Why visit a Code Club? 

No matter where you are on your Code Club journey, visiting a club is inspiring, informative and fun! 

Angela found her visit to The Hive valuable: 

Meeting with Anita and visiting The Hive was really inspiring. It is something I will learn from as a Code Club Volunteer and I think it will help us grow our Code Club in different ways I might not have considered.
– Angela Brown  

Anita from The Hive also enjoyed welcoming Angela to her Code Club:

It was so useful exchanging ideas and experiences with Angela and we absolutely loved having her at The Hive. It was very interesting to hear how they run Code Club at Aldinga Library as (although similar), I think all Code Clubs are different and have their own personality due to the lovely volunteers and staff who run them and, obviously, because all coders are different and have got unique and cool ideas!
– Anita Kiss 

If you’re interested in meeting other volunteers, why not join us at a Code Club event? If you’re based in Australia and want to get involved, find out how to set up a Code Club near you!