Host a Club - Code Club Aotearoa

Hosting a Code Club

Hosting a Code Club in your classroom, marae, library or community centre is a fun, engaging way to give back to your community. Code Clubs are free for children to attend and with the help of volunteers and leaders they learn how to make games, websites, and many other exciting things! Our projects have been written for children who are 7-13 years old, based on average literacy and numeracy levels for this age group. However, this is just an indicator, plenty of our Code Club students are outside this age group.

You don’t need to be an experienced programmer to run a club. Using our step-by-step project guides for Scratch, Python and HTML/CSS is a great way to build confidence for both you and your students.

You can choose to run the club by yourself or if you’d like some help, you can advertise for volunteers in your local area and reach out to us about our nationwide network of keen volunteers- we can put you in touch!

What are my responsibilities as a club host?

A club host must be able to provide adequate space, reliable wifi and devices for a club to meet once per week for at least an hour. Some children will be able to bring their own device from home, however we recommend children work on similar devices in the beginning to avoid too many technical difficulties! These are usually laptops, chrome books or desktop computers.

Club hosts are often quite involved with student and if required, volunteer recruitment when getting started. After the club has been set up the host may choose to teach on their own, help alongside volunteers or not teach at all, relying on the volunteers to do this part. No club is the same and it is up to the host to decide how they would like to run sessions.

As for projects, most clubs work through the Scratch modules before moving into Python and HTML/CSS. Some are entirely robotics based and many work with compact hardware like the micro:bit and Raspberry Pi. Again, it’s up to you as the leader and whether or not you have access to equipment, but there’s plenty of open source material out there to work with!

Setting up a Code Club at your venue

Setting up and running a club is easy! You don’t need to be a coding whizz to host and run a club either, because you will learn alongside your students. Our projects take the mahi out of session planning too! All you need to get started is access to devices and reliable wifi. See our steps below to get started.

Step 1: Register as a host on our website

Create an account with us using your email address. The option to register your club is available but if you don’t have these details sorted that is fine you can do that part later. After completing the form a Code Club staff member will be in touch to answer any questions you have about running the club and talk you through the process.

Step 2: Register the venue

Once you have a venue, day and session time sorted for your club, login into your account and select “start a club” from your dashboard. Many clubs meet after school or in the evening, some school based clubs meet during lunch while others take place on the weekend. If your club is school based you have the option, when adding details, to select "only accept students belonging to this school". You also have the option to limit capacity when your club is full by editing the session from your dashboard and selecting "not accepting new students".

Step 3: Advertise for volunteers (if required)

There are many ways to advertise for volunteers:

Select "accepting new volunteers" when setting up your club, and a note will appear on your clubs profile on our find a club page once the club has been approved by us.
We have flyers to promote your club to potential volunteers, you can use these on social media or download and print physical copies.
You can ping volunteers in your area from your dashboard under "send email".
The final option is to reach out to us and let us know you’re struggling to find support and we will put the word out.

Step 4: Meet your volunteer/s

Arrange a meeting with your volunteer/s to organise the club and go through any rules and regulations. If the volunteer is already registered with Code Club it is likely they have been vetted already but you should check anyway. If they are new to volunteering please get them to register with us so we can go through the onboarding and police vetting process.

Step 5: Take a look at our projects & classroom-ready resources

Check out our projects page and go through a few yourself in preparation for your first session. Most Code Club students work through the open source step-by-step guides each week and there’s always more being added throughout the year. If you have other material you want to use that is also fine!
We have also developed a number of Aotearoa specific, classroom-ready resources for teachers and club leaders to use.

Step 6: Safeguarding

Across all activities that Code Club Aotearoa supports, we have a firm commitment to safeguarding. We believe we all have a responsibility to promote the welfare of children and young people and to keep them safe. The Raspberry Pi foundation have plenty of safeguarding resources relevant to both in person and online Code Club sessions, including a free 30 minute safeguarding e-learning module.

Step 7: Have fun!

Code Club is about having fun while learning! It is a place to collaborate and create with likeminded peers as well as those you wouldn’t otherwise interact with on a daily basis. To keep up to date with all things code club join our Facebook community group, follow our page and see what’s happening on twitter.

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