With the schools about to take a break, now is a great time to look for half term coding courses in London, especially as parents around other parts of the country will be doing likewise.

An example of this is in Gloucestershire, where a new coding skills club has been launched in Cheltenham, Punchline Gloucester reports.

While the historic spa town may be most famous for its architecture and horse racing, it is also already a place of technical expertise, as the base of GCHQ. But the new club is seeking to raise the bar further and give the next generation technical knowledge that will give them highly important skills for their futures.

The new hub has been set up by Gloucestershire College, Cynam and Hub8, and is designed to teach kids practical STEM skills while engaging their interest through computer games. The publication has appealed to readers working in the tech industry to become sponsors of scholarships, to provide such training for free to kids whose families might otherwise not be able to afford it.

Such an appeal demonstrates the importance of coding as a life skill and the need for children of all backgrounds to learn it in order not to be disadvantaged in the adult world in years to come.

While half term is a short period, it can get kids engaged in coding in a way that means they will be back for more when the next school holidays come around.

Last month, the Metro News reported that many children had been using the summer break to good effect and noted the view of experts is that the sooner they start learning to code the better.

Expressing such a view, Richard Smith of tech firm Amazing ICT told the paper: “It’s no use them going to secondary school and the teacher expecting them to do advanced coding if they haven’t had the background from an early age.