Reach for the Stars! micro:bit Coding Summer Camp

Who We Are

Digit<all> is a new charity which is run by a small team with big ambitions!

Hello, my name is Pete Marshman and I am the founder of digit<all> - a charity which is committed to supporting young people to develop their coding and data science skills with an emphasis on activity, allowing them to become digit<all>y active and promoting their general wellbeing.

With a team of like-minded individuals, I bring to the charity a wealth of knowledge and skills.

I have enjoyed a fulfilling and fruitful career in Computer Science education, teaching to A-level and interacting with primary aged pupils, adopting senior leadership roles in national initiatives, and being a seasoned author.

Working with communities and young people who love sport and activity, nurturing in them an enjoyment in coding, has provided me with as much delight as nurturing in those who enjoy coding the joys and benefits of physical activity.

One recent event, Reach for the Stars summer camp, for children aged 9- to 11-years focused not only on the enjoyment of coding but also developing teamwork and creativity, engaging in physical activity, through the context of Space: 

https://www.digitall.charity/reach-for-the-stars.

What is our Project Aim?

We want to raise money to buy the young people a micro:bit programmable device to use in the face-to-face coding camp for Summer 2023 and allow them to take them home and continue their learning and share their solutions with their parents and family as well as provide transport for families that need it.

How it all began!

Digit<all> emerged as a solution to developing self-confidence and self-efficacy in young people for Computing from an early age, especially girls.  Many primary schools simply don’t have the capacity or skill set within the teaching team to confidently teach coding in creative and innovative ways.  Although previously, I have been involved in a national programme to upskill primary teachers, few activities in school can match up to days of coding at a summer school where they can receive visits from young computer scientists in the Space industry and meet new friends and engage in activities alongside their parents and siblings.

After the first event run at UKRI, The Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in Didcot, Oxfordshire we received such amazing feedback that we are excited to provide a bigger event for more young people and provide greater capacity.

What we have achieved so far

In my previous role as a teacher at a secondary school, during the pandemic myself and some local teachers put on a free remote summer school – details you can find here:

http://parkhousehub.org/reachforthestars

In 2022 we provided a free face to face event – details you can find here:

https://www.digitall.charity/reach-for-the-stars

We have sown the seeds through an initial face to face summer school

Our Solution

We want to keep our summer school free with so many families struggling in the current economic climate and continue to keep this event free but as a new charity we need your help for the summer of 2023. 

YOU can help!

We need your help to raise funds to provide each child with a micro:bit portable, programmable device for the two day summer schools we wish to provide.  We also need to raise funds so that we are able to provide a free lunch for the children and transport for children who attend from areas of deprivation.

How will we use the money we raise?

Them money raised will go towards instances of face to face coding summer schools for primary and early secondary children which include:

·         The cost of a micro:bit starter pack (approximately £18 per child)

·         Transport from a central location (likely to be Reading, Swindon, Bracknell) which are defined as areas of deprivation in the central south of England for children attending from those areas.

·         A free lunch at the cost of £2.00 per child

For just £20.00 you can sponsor a young person to be digitally active and learn essential coding and future digital skills.

Our Vision for the Future

We would like to offer both remote and face-to-face summer camps to combine our previous two experiences.  For children distant to the central south of England they can engage through sending a micro:bit in the post as we have been able to do during lockdown with local families.

We also plan to run workshops during Easter as well as the summer and to provide camps for home schooled children during the school term.

We would like to partner with organisations to expand our capacity but building a bigger volunteer network to provide more face to face opportunities outside of the local area.