Coding is a subject that gets more fun the further you go. Everyone needs to start from the basics and learn the fundamentals. Getting the fundamentals right is critical with coding, as with any subject. However, it's just as important to keep moving to the next step. Too often, students don't realise that there's a lot more to learn in coding than the fundamentals. We often hear students tell us that "they know coding", but what they really mean is that they know the basics.
A coding curriculum for children needs to guide students through the beginner, intermediate, and also advanced stages of coding, at a pace that's suitable for different age groups. The codetoday Higher Level coding courses are designed to achieve this.
As we approach the half term coding courses, I'll explain a bit more how the codetoday Higher Level coding courses fit within the curriculum and how they follow on from the earlier Levels from 1 to 6.
I'll also outline how we use codetodayEXPLORE sessions to help students become more proficient and more independent in their coding. These sessions are available for students at all levels.
Codetoday Higher Level Coding Courses
When students start to learn coding in Python with codetoday, they start with a Level 1 course at their age group. All Level 1 courses start from the fundamentals and ensure that students grasp these basic concepts very well. These fundamentals are needed later on.
Once they complete a Level 1 course, they can move on to Level 2 and successive Levels. Each Level consists of one full course, so it's easy to follow how to progress through these beginner and intermediate levels.
Although we start from the beginning in Level 1 at all age groups, we progress faster and go further with older age groups. Older students can grasp the basics a lot quicker and therefore we can move to more complex material a bit quicker, but not too quickly, of course!
The numbered Levels go up to Level 6 and these courses should be followed in order. After Level 6, students can join our Higher Level courses. These have the same format as the Live Online courses at the lower levels. However, each Higher Level course is a standalone course and they don't need to be followed in any paraticular order. This makes it easier for parents and students, and the students get to learn about a broad range of topics.
Each Higher Level course focuses on a theme or a project. We are continuously adding more Higher Level courses so that those students who want to explore coding further can pick and choose the topics they'd like to learn.
Higher Level courses also allow us to showcase how coding can be used in applications such as science and maths, for instance. So those students who have an affinity for these subjects can learn how to use Python coding as a tool in those subjects, too.
codetodayEXPLORE
Another type of session we run regularly is the codetodayEXPLORE session. These can be added to any weekly course as additional sessions. In these sessions, each student works on an individual project or projects with the guidance and assistance of our instructors. They will work through all the stages programming, including planning, writing the code, testing the code, and finding and fixing any bugs or errors.
codetodayEXPLORE sessions focus on a number of aspects:
They help students consolidate the topics they learned in the Live Online courses
They enable students to become more proficient in all aspects of writing a program, from planning to testing and debugging (finding and fixing bugs)
They ensure students become independent coders who don't need to rely on an instructor to write code
As each students works on their own project and at their own pace, these sessions are perfectly tailored to each student based on their level of coding and proficiency.
Vouchers for Advance Booking
Each individual codetoday course is four sessions long. This means there's no need for any long term committments from parents and students, and it allows them to progress through the curriculum at their own pace. It also means that many parents book several courses at once. To make this easier, we've introduced bundle discounts a while ago. When parents book three courses in one booking, they automatically get a £20 bundle discount.
As more and more parents are using this offer, we're introducing Advance Booking Vouchers to facilitate how parents can use the bundle offer. The Advance Booking Voucher can be added to any order so that the bundle discount is applied. The voucher can then be used at a later date to book a specific set of dates and times.
Advance Booking Vouchers can be used to secure the bundle discount in any of the following cases:
If you'd like to decide at a later date which specific days and times you'd like to book
If you'd like to book a course in the future for which our schedules haven't been published yet
There is no time limit on when to use the vouchers, so they can be purchased as far in advance as you wish!
Final Words
Do you have more questions for us about coding, Python, or our courses? We're always very happy to speak to parents, so please don't be shy and get in touch with us.
