In January 2015, inspired to do something to help support teaching the new computing curriculum, I organised an event in a local pub and invited local schools, code clubs, coder dojos and anyone else I could find who was vaguely interested in coding and the new computing curriculum.
At the first event there were 12 of us in a local pub, which included 3 of my friends, and we chatted about strategy, Raspberry Pi and Code Club. The overwhelming response to the evening was that people wanted more of the same – an informal opportunity to chat about the curriculum with a pint or a glass of wine and the opportunity to have a play.
The Coding Evening was born…
Six months and four events later, and I’ve been asked by several people if they can host their own Coding Evenings in their local area so I’m hoping to give you information here about hosting your own evenings, about my evenings as they happen and about other evenings and where you can find an event in your local area. The goal is to encourage other communities to follow my model to give teachers the opportunity to discuss ideas and meet up in a relaxed environment – no lectures or workshops, just people bringing what they know and sharing with each other, but the whole thing relies on communities coming together to support each other.
So, if you’re interested in hosting your own events, get in touch – I’ll update this site as soon as I can with further information!
Cat
Coding Evening 
Hi Cat!
I’m a RCE and saw your post on the community. I would definitely like to run an event like this in the Southend area and would love some advice/more info. You’re doing a great thing, thanks so much for sharing!
Grace x
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I’ve sent you a quick email 🙂
Cat
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Hello – I’ve been leading a Code Club at a local school (Oxford) for 3 terms and also trying to establish a Code Pub for interested Code Club / Raspberry Jam / Coder Dojo folk with a bit of success (unfortunately, Code Club now seems not to like the “Pub” bit), but not resounding.
The teacher accompanying my Code Club has said that she needs help with programming, and so I’m inclined to brand the next meeting as a Coding Evening and maybe push it to local schools more.
Any hints on organising?
All the best,
Peter
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Hi Peter, you’re already off to a great start. My main plan is to have at least one teacher and one ‘expert’ which you already have. If you head over to the codingevening.org page there is a page called “hosting a coding evening” which gives a lot of information and if you have a wp account I can allow you to blog on the main page about your events. If you publicise on CAS, Raspberry Jam and ask your local Code Club coordinator to retweet you will get a few people & get the teacher you have involved to email some local schools and get them interested too!
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Ah… the link is behind the little “menu” icon on the top right. OK, got it now, but you might want to make the links a bit more obvious.
I’ll have a read and let you know how I get on. thanks for writing all this down.
I’d still like to keep this open to the existing “Code Pub” people as well as local teachers. I have a nice venue (Royal Oak, Oxford). My local Code Club co-ord just changed, and my last attempts at publicity fell a little flat.
Ta,
Peter
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That sounds absolutely perfect – it sounds like the Code Pub people are just the ones we want to attract anyway 🙂
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