By Helene Yhuel | Fundraising and Marketing Officer
For this report, we have decided to interview three Young Leaders about their learning journey at the Coding Club. Timothy (10), Tola (9) and Abideen (8) were full of enthusiasm and definitely proud of their increasing knowledge about computer science. You can actually click here if you want to watch them demonstrate how they set up their Raspberry Pi!
We started by asking them what they have learnt in the past three months. Timothy, who joined the club last September, explained that he can now "write many types of secret messages". "We encrypted and decrypted messages" added Tola, who started last year and is now an expert in programming jargon. To help them get a bit more specific, we asked them about when they took part in the Hour of Code event. "It's a special day in December to make coding", started Tola. "We had to finish a piece of script on a website called uk.code.org", said Timothy. "You can use all sort of things to code. We used Minecraft!" added Abideen, obviously happy about this first approach to the world of gamers. At the end of the session, they presented their work and received a certificate for completing the Hour of Code. Our Young Coders also told us that they watched videos about the history of internet, how Bill Gates created Microsoft, and fun facts. For Timothy, coding had suddenly appeared even cooler when he heard that Will.I.Am was taking coding lessons.
Then we wanted to know what they like the most about coming to the Coding Club. Timothy likes to set up the Raspberry Pi; he was really surprised to see that "a computer can be any size". Tola likes computers, so he is always happy to know more about computer science, and Abideen enjoys learning new things. They also think that participating to the Coding Club is helping them at school. "I am among the few pupils who finished the first programme which is Python, so I got to move on to HTML" said Tola with pride.
It was obvious that the Coding Club is boosting their confidence and raising their aspirations. They all dream of making "proper games like Super Mario or Ping Pong". They would like to present them to the Dragon's Den and sell them to big companies. But their dreams are not just materialistic. Coding also appears to them as a way of expressing themselves; Timothy would like to create "something imaginative" and Abideen wants to find a way of composing music through coding.
At Southside Young Leaders' Academy, we definitely want to support their ambitions. They will soon meet with a new Coding Tutor, and we might even get extra help from a volunteer who works at Salesforce. We also ordered additional computers, to open the Coding Club to all the boys willing to join. Finally, our youg coders have expressed the desire to meet "people who actually do coding", so we are soliciting the coders in our networks to organise career talks online or at SYLA.
If you want to volunteer for this new opportunity, please contact us at info@syla.org.uk !
Once again, thank you so much for your support. We have received many donations through gift cards in January, and we are most grateful to all those kind supporters who chose our project.
If you want to know more about Southside Young Leaders' Academy, you can visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. It would be great to be able to communicate with you more!
Meanwhile, and even if it's February already, we wish you a new year full of wonder, peace and meaning.
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