Primary Students Learn to Code

Students at First Tower Primary School have spent the past ten weeks learning to code their own computer programs.

The after-school coding club, run by First Tower Primary School parent Elaine Feltham, teaches six and seven year olds the principles of coding. By the end of the course they are able to create their own computer games using the programming software “Scratch”.

Mrs Feltham explained: “The course teaches students core concepts including logical reasoning, debugging problems, developing ideas, and perseverance. This makes it much easier to teach them industry-standard programming languages like Python when they get to secondary school.”

In total, almost 100 students have taken part in previous courses with an even split of boys and girls.

Around half of them go on to take part in a more advanced course the following year where they continue building new programs on their own initiative.

“We even have 4 children who took part in previous years sitting in to help this year’s students”, explained Mrs. Feltham.

With the support of local software development consultancy XRM, students are provided with a certificate and a book about coding at the end of each course. This allows them to continue developing their skills.

Simon Jackson, Founder and Director of XRM said: “These students are the future of our technology community here in Jersey. Anything that we can do to improve the teaching of technology in education is vital to the future success of our industry. That’s why, when Elaine approached XRM to support the coding club, we were only too happy to help. “