In May 2017, North Ayrshire Council made a pledge to tackle the digital skills gap by providing access to Code Clubs for all learners aged 9–13 by August 2020.
The ‘Coding the Future’ project team, including staff from Customer and Digital Services and Education and Youth Employment has the aim of expanding and supporting Code Clubs across the authority. The first step was to look for volunteer staff to become STEM Ambassadors.
We now have approximately 40 STEM Ambassadors and they are part of a ‘train the trainer’ approach. They support schools to set up their own clubs, and then take a step back once the staff feel confident to run the clubs by themselves.
Moving forward, the team is also interested in having secondary school pupils become volunteers and STEM ambassadors.
BAREFOOT COMPUTING
Barefoot Computing has free classroom resources and teacher resources to help deliver the primary computer curriculum. Simply register with your work e-mail and explore the huge amount of resources available.
