Creative Computing Club 4 Kids

So as you may know I run the Creative Computer Club at Parkside PRU for students from all around Suffolk, it is hugely successful, with a waiting list of around 80 students. These students are aged 12 to 16 and they are a great group to work with, very talented, very vocal. I am pleased with this ongoing project, but deep down I knew I needed to do more. I knew I needed to start with younger kids to give them the boost they needed to get were they wanted to go in life.

I have now setup CCC4KIDS at St. Helens Primary School it is simple, it is the same rolling "curriculum" as the normal CCC admittedly slightly less depth but they get to do Robotics, Programming, Game Design, Animation, Digital Music and more. The group is for 7 to 11-year olds , initially it is for students of St. Helens but I hope to open this up to students from all around Suffolk in the future, we just need to work out the details.

Today was the first session and it was great we are doing game design as the ice breaker, we are starting to divide the 16 students up in to 4 groups of 4 and next week they are going to pitch their ideas before they go in to production. They are great to work with, very positive very excited about doing something creative. By the end of the six weeks we will have made four iPad compatible / HTML5 games, that I will link to on here when they are all done. It is a lot of work ahead but I know it will be a great fun.

Again the work is unfunded and voluntary, I do this in Suffolk for Suffolk because, I have to. I know that it has a positive effect on the students not just in their IT work but in a lot of the work they do.

It was good fun today, and I look forward to next week. It is a bit daunting as I suddenly realize I am responsible for 40+ students now and their development as developers. I know I need to be a positive and inspiring role model and provide them with exciting projects to be involved with, hopefully I can get it all done, I think I can.

Honourable mention from Creative Computing Club, Joe has successfully passed his exam with an A earning him a place on the computing A level at Suffolk One. We are all really proud of him and we know he will do well.