New South Wales is making coding a part of the set curriculum for students from Kindergarten onwards. The change will begin in 2019, so teachers – it’s time to get prepared.
Ben Levi, founder of extra-curricular program Code Camp, agrees with Education Minister Rob Stokes that coding from an early age will help with kids’ analytical and numeracy skills.
“Teaching kids to code is about teaching kids to be thinkers, problem solvers and digital creators,” Levi says.
Code Camp is the country’s largest provider of coding skills for children aged from 5 years old. Educating over 20,000 children annually across all states, Levi says the move towards making coding part of the curriculum is a positive move to teach kids coding beyond the school holidays.
In preparation for the changes, from the first term 2018, Code Camp is running an in-school program to help teachers get up to speed.
Levi says learning to code is more than ‘becoming a developer.’
“Learning to code allows students to be creative with technology, develop logical thinking and problem-solving skills, mathematical, analytical and computational thinking,” he explains.
“In addition, through ‘app building’ we also focus on game design, psychology of user experience and the entrepreneurial mindset.”
Levi says while these skills can be adapted to any role in any industry, it is a brand-new curriculum for our school teachers, and they need our support in the classroom.
Ascham Primary School located in Edgecliff, Sydney has been trialing the program in 2017 and has seen positive results.
Children in the UK, Belgium, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands and Queensland and Victoria are already teaching coding in schools.