Free kids coding lessons | Mum In The Madhouse

Free kids coding lessons

Coding is now on the school curriculum, my boys really enjoy coding at school and when we were offered the chance to  try out a free kids coding lesson with Barclays code playground we jumped at it.

Barclays Code Playground session at the Piccadilly branch

Within two hours (one for Maxi) both of the boys had created a game with the help of the Digital Eagles.  The boys attended a 2 hour session with the Digital Eagles along with a group of around 10 other kids of varying ages and they had a blast.

Barclays Code Playground session at the Piccadilly branch

But more than that they came home totally inspired and have continued to code and learn instead of just wanting to play.  Below is a video from the day, see if you can can spot Maxi, Mini, MadDad and myself.

Not only did the boys both code their own game, but the Digital Eagles explained it to them and to both me and MadDad in a way we could understand, so that we could help the kids if we needed to.

Coding is already the nation’s favorite school subject with 24% of all school children stating it is their most loved subject and it has only been on the curriculum since September 2014 according to research revealed by Barclays.

However, the statistics also show that the introduction of coding into the National Curriculum has left some parents unable to help on the new favourite school subject with nearly 30%  feeling unable to help their kids with their computing homework and 40% said they ‘dread’ helping with it.

With this in mind, Barclays Digital Eagles are helping families of all ages acquire and embrace digital skills and knowledge through the launch of ‘Code Playground’.

Maxi code playground

Code playground gives people (and you do not have to be a Barclays customer) the opportunity to learn about coding online or in branch with the help of a Barclays Digital Eagle. Parents and grandparents are encouraged to participate in order to bridge the divide between the generations’ digital know-how.

We have already looked in to booking in to our nearest code playground for another session.

mini code playground

Resources

Visit barclayscodeplayground.co.uk to book a free session or find ourt more.
You can also see if Coderdojo have free lessons in your area.
The boys have been using Scratch for coding which is a free software program that you can download.
We were gifted a Kano build it yourself computer by Barclays and  loved building it and have been using it daily to code.

Disclosure: We were invited to the event and our travel expenses paid in addition to being gifted a Kano build yourself computer.

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