MONITOR
NEWS
School Pupils are
Challenged to get Coding
S
chool children from across Northamptonshire are being challenged to design a
digital game or mobile app in a county wide coding competition.
The University of Northampton, Northamptonshire County Council, the Code Club and
The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT), a City of London Livery
Company, have teamed up to organise the Race To The Top contest to encourage
increased and improved teaching of computer coding.
The competition was launched at the beginning of October and WCIT Liveryman
Michael Hoddy and Freeman David Barker (both pictured left) were very worthy
ambassadors for both WCIT and The Livery Schools Link.
There are two categories, the first being for primary school pupils in Years 4-6, who will
design a game based around saving energy using the coding programme Scratch. This
competition will be led by Code Club. The other category is for Year 9 secondary school
pupils, who will design a mobile application based around saving energy. This
competition will be led by WCIT and the University.
Digital
Transformation
Agreement
WCIT &
Northamptonshire
County Council
A panel will judge the entries and choose a winner from the primary school and
secondary school categories to be awarded prizes at an event in early 2016. WCIT
have very kindly helped to sponsor the prizes for both categories through the
WCIT Charity and these include a trophy shield for the school of the winning team and
Raspberry Pi’s for each member of the winning team, so to keep on coding. The
winners of the secondary school competition will also be invited to represent the WCIT
at the prestigious Livery Schools Link Showcase event at The City of London
Corporation Guildhall venue in March 2016.
Scott Turner, Associate Professor in Computing and Immersive Technologies at the
University of Northampton, said: “This is an exciting opportunity and shows coding is
creative and fun. Coding promotes problem solving, team-work and analytical
thinking – and those who code from an early age will have a real advantage in the
future jobs market.”
Cllr Matthew Golby, Northamptonshire County Council cabinet member for families and
learning, said: “The council’s Race to the Top strategy, launched in February 2015,
aims to raise attainment in schools and it includes a particular focus on
improving performance in the science, technology and maths subjects.
This coding competition is a great opportunity for schools to work with pupils to
enhance their digital skills in a fun and challenging way.”
The competition will run from October 2015 to the 8th January 2016.
Schools wishing to be involved can find out more by visiting
www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/codingcompetition.
The Tech Partnership, the skills arm of
the Information Economy Council (IEC),
has featured our Livery Schools Link
lead Freeman David Barker in their
#mytechstory campaign - read his
story online here:
www.tinyurl.com/davidstechstory
Page 4
Contributed by Chris
Fidler, The University
of Northampton