The Race to the Top Code Competition takes off.

The Race to the Top Coding Competition was launched today (2nd October 2015) at University of Northampton. 

Northamptonshire County Council, The Worshipful Company of Information Technolgists (WCIT, a City of London Livery Company), Code Club and the University of Northampton have organised a competition for schools to encourage increased and improved teaching of computer coding.

The aim of the competition is to inspire young people to achieve digital fluency through collaboration and challenge. The competition will run from the launch event on 2 October, 2015 until the closing date of 8 January, 2016.

The entries will be judged by representatives from all four organisations and our sponsors, and the winning entries will be rewarded with The Northamptonshire Race to the Top Coding Competition Cup and prizes for the students and their schools.

The Challenge

• Primary Category, Years 4-6 – Groups of up to 6 students from Years 4, 5, or 6 will design a game based around saving energy using the coding programme Scratch. Students will also have to come up with their own team name and logo. They will then present their game to the judges with a 2 minute video uploaded to YouTube. This competition will be led by Code Club.

• Secondary Category, Year 9 – Groups of up to 6 students will use coding to design a mobile application based around saving energy. Students will also have to come up with their own team name and logo. They will then present the app to the judges with a 2 minute video uploaded to YouTube. This competition will be led by WCIT and the University of Northampton.

The games and apps will be judged by our panel, and the very best entries from each level will be awarded this year’s Race to the Top Coding Competition Cup and a personal Raspberry Pi computer. Level 2 winners will also be invited to represent the WCIT on their stand at the prestigious Livery Schools Link Showcase event at The City of London Corporation Guildhall in March, 2016

A pod cast of the event by Alan O'Donohoe (alias Teknoteacher ) see below: 

For more details on the competition go to Race to the Top Coding Competition

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with