On the 28th October 2015, 24 children attended a Code Club at Plusnet to learn how to create computer games. While Code Clubs are normally run at schools and community venues such as libraries, we were very excited to launch our very first Code Club at our Sheffield office, giving kids an opportunity to come over and learn about coding. They were supported by Plusnet volunteers and got first hand advice from Plusnet software engineers!
All tickets were sold out within a week and we were sad to see not everybody could join us on the day.
I have lead this 3 hour workshop and still think that running a Code Club is such an amazing experience. I am really happy that along with Plusnet we can give children an opportunity to learn about coding and help them become more confident with technology. Being able to inspire the young generation and show them that computers can be fun to work with is very rewarding.
During the break, the children had an opportunity to learn how Plusnet works and were given a tour around our offices where they had the opportunity to talk to some of our engineers. We also had a short visit to one of our data centres where the young coders learnt about how the internet works and what ‘providing broadband’ means.

“I was so pleased that we were able to host what is the first Code Club event in what I hope will now become a regular fixture here at Plusnet, and it was a testament to the hard work of Seb, Aoife and the wider team in that it went so smoothly. It was truly amazing to hear how much the kids knew about technology during the q&a session, not to mention seeing what they created when they got their heads down to the coding. Ensuring they got a look around the building and the chance to wave at people was also important to illustrate the connection between the fun side of coding and how fundamental computing is to our everyday lives and they were all so well behaved on the day. Another great example of how Plusnet takes its’ role in the community seriously and I’m very much looking forward to the next event.”

Participants at Plusnet Code Club were children aged 8 – 12 and it was great to see that over 30% of the children were girls. All of them enjoyed the club and they created some amazing games despite the fact that this was the first time that some of them had ever done any coding activities. It was clearly a success as almost everybody said afterwards that they would consider becoming a coder in the future.
Not only were the children inspired – some of the volunteers, that have not done coding before said, this is something that they would like to try and learn as well!
Aoife Gilroy said: “I was extremely excited about the opportunity to be involved in Plusnet’s first code club as coding is one of the skills children will need for the future. After the session with the children it made me want to find out more and will be part-taking in future events alongside some sneaky practice at home.”
Plusnet plans to organise another half term code club in February 2016 and will hopefully start running a regular Code Club in the near future.