DS in tears over school coding club what do you think?

I’d expect all clubs in primary school to involve teaching, an opportunity to practice isn’t good enough

I agree with previous posters, if it's a free club your expectations were maybe a little high. I'd find a paid coding club for him to attend instead.

I had similar issue with robotics and coding - they just got wedo and tablets and teacher sat on phone.

Bought lego spike and raspberry pi and we do it at home now.

Also I saw it was cheaper to buy wedo (I think it was 10 robots) than do the 10 weeks robotics thing. Plus she could spend all the time she needed but we went with the newer spike and will upgrade to prime eventually as she's 7.

We sometimes invite friends to do it with us. Tbh she gets tablet and can do it herself, did it herself in the class too but complained the boys were naughty and loud so I found a solution.

I think clubs run by teachers rather than an external provider are normally free in state schools. (Maybe private too, not sure)

YANBU, our school’s coding club is taught by a coder (and is charged at the going rate for an, eg, holiday coding course). Are you paying above the going rate for an after school care club? If so, there should be some teaching going on.

OP I've inboxed you something that may help your son (not school based)

I sometimes think these primary school after school clubs are a bit disappointing tbh. They’re basic childcare, I think? Quite cheap, also.

Anyway that’s what I’ve discovered after DS has tried loads over the years. Things that cost a bit more and are outside school and run by coding experts etc are better quality.

You havent answered any questions so a bit difficult to give advice. He needs to give it another week and you need to find out more about the club, what age the other kids are and whether the teacher normally helps the kids out. You may need to look elsewhere,

Was this a new club or had been running for some time? What were the other children doing? Is it that the others were completing a project they had already started and the teacher was either not the usual one or had something they needed to complete. Not ideal I know.

I thought you was being sarcastic and taking the mick out of my grammar 🤣

Now I’m confused - are you being sarcastic @Mrskeepforgettingmywords ? 🥴🥴🥴

Thanks. I'm curious now and found this Directed Time FAQ which says "After school activities, breakfast clubs, summer school, extracurricular clubs are not included in the 1265 hours of directed time. Teachers should be paid for the additional work."

If it’s a club, I would expect there to be some interaction with the teacher, but also with the other kids. Do any of his friends go? Can they do some of it together?

Can you speak to the school about what the club is so you can manage expectations?

Also, are you sure your child wasn't just a bit upset about finding it more difficult than they expected? The teacher should have helped but if he asked something complicated at the end of the session then maybe there really wasn't enough time to get in to it?

Is it because he missed the start in September and the rest are now further ahead.
He may have asked teacher for help with 5 mins to go.
I'd encourage him to give it another try

If your ds is saying it was really difficult could you ask if he could have an easier version and then work up to the more difficult one.

I helped out with Code Club at my children's primary school on a few occasions. It was only offered to years 5 and 6 and they had at least 2 helpers each week. Expecting 7 year olds to be able to do it with no adult input seems a bit unrealistic. Maybe have a chat with the teacher about whether he's a bit young for it?

In many (most?) private schools teachers are expected to run an after school club.

It's not universal in state schools by any means but I have worked in quite a few schools where every teacher is expected to run an after school club.

What happens if you say no? Well, if it's because you area single parent with three kids and an elderly mum you look after they say well ok you don't have to but don't tell anyone.

It comes under "any other reasonable duties". In one school I worked in it was counted towards the 1265 so EVERyONE had to do it elderly mum or not.

Even when their contract doesn't stipulate it? Would their union help in these situations?

What happens if they say no?
I'm not being goady, I know things are very tough in schools, but I didn't realise teachers were forced into these things.

Are teachers forced to run after school clubs?

In many cases, yes.

Are teachers forced to run after school clubs?

It depends whether it is something that the school provide for free and basically force a teacher to give up time, for no extra pay, to do something that they don't want to do. If that's the situation, then I can see the teacher's point of view - sad as that is.

On the other hand, if you have paid for this either directly or via a private school, then it's absolutely disgraceful.

Coding club doesn’t run like that, they do tasks individually working through a programme with the facilitator providing a little support. You can access the software from home for free.

Coding is a great thing for him to be into, DS got into it at that age and is now doing a software engineering degree apprenticeship. He may well be frustrated by using an iPad as they're not ideal for coding although can be used. He probably got upset because he was so excited at the idea of the club and then it was the absolute opposite of what he was expecting.

The teacher was being really mean by not helping him even for a few minutes - what a waste of time running a club for the children and then not even having a few minutes to help. What was he doing on the iPad? if he knows what the program was you could have a look at it and he might have a better understanding for next time. I would have him go another time and if it's still the same and he doesn't enjoy it then let him decide if he wants to stop.

Does he have a laptop at home where he can use Scratch at all? That 's how DS started, it's really good - so good he was reluctant to move onto Python which he considered far too much work! (It's now his favourite however) The other thing he loved was lego mindstorms but he wasn't so into raspberry pi.

As he gets older (secondary school age +) the Unity Junior Programmer course is brilliant for learning C# (and making your own games!). But not something to move onto from scratch, get him doing lots of free 'learn Python for kids' type things when he's ready to move on from Scratch.

Obviously I'm as old as Methuselah, but IIJM who is amazed that kids are coding (or indeed, wanting to) at age 7? At that age, I'd have thought concentrating on reading...?