Your Code Club highlights from 2021!

In 2021, even with the ongoing impact of coronavirus, we’ve seen many amazing achievements taking place in Code Clubs across the world.

Our clubs are able to run because of the thousands of volunteers who give their time to help young people learn to code. Thank you to everyone who has been involved with Code Club in 2021!

We reached out to Code Club educators and asked them to share their personal highlights and tell us what they are excited about for 2022. Find out what they said and join us in celebrating another fantastic year of coding!

Getting back to in-person sessions

Cubitt Town Junior School Code Club is run by Rhodri Smith, and they’ve just resumed their club activity with support from BP volunteers. In 2022, Rhodri is excited to use more Raspberry Pi projects, help members code with micro:bits, and introduce Python to the club! 

“After a long period without Code Club, we are excited to renew our partnership with BP. It has been a difficult time without in-person sessions so there was an excitement to begin them again. Spaces for our Code Club were snapped up by students eager to join the club. Having BP support Code Club has been great and the children benefit from greater adult support. We are looking forward to trying new projects in the year ahead.”

Delivering sessions in Welsh

Marcus Davage is the club organiser for Ysgol Treganna Code Club in Cardiff. He started to run his new Code Club in September and has enjoyed using our Welsh-translated resources on the website.

“This term, I started a brand-new Code Club in person at the school at which my wife teaches. She helped me, caught the Scratch bug (pardon the pun), and has now taught three classes herself. Over 120 kids have had an introduction into coding through her and me this term.”

Collaborating to create something awesome 

Kevin Johnson from Code Club USA recently took a virtual trip to Delmar Code Club. He wanted to learn more about their club and the Raspberry Pi–powered, fully-functioning arcade cabinet that the young coders have created. You can discover more about Delmar Code Club in our blog post.

Exploring the natural world through code

Liam Garnett, Senior Librarian (digital) at Leeds Libraries has been a Code Club educator for four years. He reflected on everything the club has achieved this year and all the exciting plans for 2022!

“I have loved collaborating with libraries, museums and universities to help our Code Club kids to explore the natural world through coding. Having Milo from Leeds Museums bring along his electron microscope he’d borrowed from the Natural History Museum was amazing! It was the first time it had been used outside of London.”

“In 2022 we are looking to re-establish our Code Clubs that paused during lockdown and then get cracking on some projects from Code Club UK!”

Reaching 150 young coders

We caught up with Mrinmoy Pal, a Code Club educator for Curious Coders, based in Bangalore, India, to hear what the club has been getting up to since it was launched in 2020. 

“Curious Coders Club started during Covid in March 2020 with just three kids using Scratch in an apartment. And in 2021, around 150+ kids across US, Canada, UK, Australia and India have benefitted. Kids [have] learnt Scratch, Python, Java, web development, micro:bit and app development. Apart from the coding sessions, kids [have] also learnt Rubik’s [cube] and had [a] Q&A with scientists (microbiologist, astronomer, and climate scientist).”

Going green for Code Club 

Code Club’s Lorna Gibson went green for COP26 and helped 5750 schoolchildren in Scotland join the code-along to learn about the environment. Find out how they got on in this special blog post.

Do you have a cool 2021 highlight from your Code Club? What are your coding resolutions for your club in 2022? Share them with us on Twitter or Facebook, using the hashtag #MyCodeClub.