Arcus: Inspiring Young Coders

Arcus Global

Arcus Global
July 25, 2017

It goes without saying that Arcus is a great place to work. When you start working at Arcus, you become part of our community. A community that is diverse, creative, and encouraging of difference. We are constantly looking to learn and improve and we extend this ethos to our wider community beyond the walls of our building. To enable and encourage engagement with our local communities all staff are entitled to two paid days per year to volunteer.

So that brings me to one of our favourite community projects. Dominic Myers and Simon Cull have been running a weekly Code Club after school at St Andrew’s School in Soham since September 2016.

Code Club is a nationwide network that believes that all children should have the opportunity to learn to code, no matter who they are or where they come from. To enable this, they support volunteers and educators to run free coding clubs for children aged 9-11. The aim of Code Clubs is to inspire the next generation to get excited about computer science and digital making.

The Code Club ran its final session of the academic year last week, and each pupil was given a certificate and a goody bag including pens, stickers and a micro:bit each. If you don’t know a micro:bit is a pocket-sized codable computer with motion detection, a built-in compass and Bluetooth technology. A pretty impressive goody bag for the children!

Dominic Myers said, “It’s been a really positive experience for all of us. The best things for Simon and me has been seeing the children develop their coding skills each week. Within the group, there are a couple of children who have been captivated.”

The club was fully subscribed, and we’re delighted that Dom and Simon will be running it again when the children return to school in September. Who knows, we might have more people running more clubs.