Intermediate Scratch: Game Making - Platform Games (Two Hour Lessons)

NEW COURSE: Children explore the timeless appeal of platform games, encouraging them to 'level-up' their game-making skills!

Age

8 to 11

Level

Suitable for all students aged 8 and above who are familiar with Scratch.

Date

13th July - 17th July, 27th July - 31st July, 10th August - 14th August
10:00 - 12:15; 15:00 - 17:15 (British Summer Time)
Price

£150.00

Select booking details

Important Information

How does it work?
- Our virtual classroom teaches your child programming skills in your home.
- 1:6 teacher:student ratio with an experienced blue{shift} teacher leading the class.
- With five daily lessons our virtual classroom is a great form of social learning - kids explore code together!
Each student will need:
- A laptop or computer with a high-speed internet connection
- A headset/earphones
- A webcam and a microphone
- An adult to help set-up
Before each session, we will provide instructions on setting up our video conference software.
What's unique about our courses?
With a research based curriculum all of our lessons are informed by an innovative pedagogy.
Each course has been extensively user-tested and refined.
Every parent & student receives a personalised end of week report.

Teachers at blue{shift}

All of our teaching staff undergo a rigorous application and on-boarding process. Each teacher is then vetted by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We provide training and support for all our teachers, and many of our teaching staff have taught at some of London's most prestigious schools. To read more, click here.

Course information

Has your child ever loved playing Mario? Are they fascinated by the enigmatic worlds of platform games? In a BRAND NEW course we use the power of individual creativity to introduce students to even more Scratch-based programming concepts as they create and code their own classic platformer games!

Throughout the course we use the Scratch coding language to explore the exciting world of game design, looking specifically at the mechanics, features, and programming needed to make a fully functioning platform game. Freedom of expression is key within this course - students can customise their creations so that the goal, characters, scenery and music are down to them!

In two hour-long lessons each student will use Scratch, a language invented by MIT, to learn key game making concepts. They will be guided through a series of challenges and tutorials, learning about core computing concepts like keyboard control, events, loops, and lists. They will then be able to apply all of these new concepts when they code their uniquely themed platform game; which once finished can be shared with you, your friends, and your family!

Across the week students will learn how to pair keyboard controls with movement commands, build more complex game interactions using functions and incorporate data structures into their designs. On top of this, each student will work with the teacher to focus on customising their platform game to make it as unique and individual as possible. Finally, we regularly review each child's progress with playful competitions and exciting challenges throughout the course - not only does this ensure progress, it's also a lot of fun 🏆

This course aims to cover tougher coding concepts and logic than our Scratch for Beginner courses, and as such students who haven't coded before should start with these beginner courses first. Students who complete our Intermediate Scratch: Game Making courses are often well placed to move from block-based coding to text-based coding. Not sure which course to pick? Get in contact, we'd be happy to help!

Our virtual classroom provides students with an innovative approach to coding that balances learning computational skills with nurturing students’ curiosity and sense of discovery in a small online setting! Setting this software up is easy and we will provide you with comprehensive set-up instructions before your lessons begin 💻

During this course your child will:

Develop their own unique code from the ground up.
Have a fully customised platform game that they can share with their friends!
Discover advanced computational concepts such as functions, data structures, and parameters.
Be well position to progress on to text-based programming and more advanced coding languages.
Improve their logical reasoning and problem solving skills.

Class Structure and Lateness Policy

Typical Class Structure

10:00-10:15	Set Up	Students will set up their coding environments, share any work from the previous day or projects they have done independently
10:15-12:00	Coding	1h 45 minutes of focused coding, led by our fantastic teachers. Students will face new challenges, solidify their knowledge of coding concepts and flex their creativity! Please note, any students arriving 10 minutes into this section of the lesson will not be admitted into the class. Please read our lateness policy for more details.
12:00-12:15	Wrap Up	Students will complete quizzes & challenges to test their knowledge and share their work.

Lateness Policy

Customer feedback has focused on how students joining late can be majorly disruptive.

Therefore we have imposed a cut-off time for joining lessons. If you are 15 minutes late to a lesson you will not be admitted into the class. We will ensure late students can catch up by using the recordings of the lesson and additional class resources!

Recordings of Lessons

Lessons will be recorded and uploaded onto the class padlet as a resource for students who have missed a lesson or arrived late.

Recordings of classes will only be available to class students, the class teacher, and the blue{shift} team. Recordings will be deleted 7 days after a course ends.

FAQs:

Can I book individual days?

We do not allow individual day bookings for our online courses. As each course consists of five hour long lessons which work toward a finished project, we believe that individual day bookings would both be disruptive to the rest of the class and difficult for the new student to join in with. We want all children to leave our online courses feeling like they have accomplished a goal - joining for a day or two might leave your child unsatisfied!
If you are not available for one of the five sessions, you can still book a course. When you sign up to a class, you will receive a link to a Padlet which will have the solution code available for each lesson. Therefore if your child has to miss a lesson, they can log-in outside of the classroom and catch up!
You can also book our 1:1 online tuition which offers more flexibility.
Can I use an iPad/tablet/Chromebook instead of a laptop/PC?

Unfortunately, you are unable to use an iPad or a tablet by itself to join this online class. However, using a second device (such as a tablet) as a second screen may be helpful for your child during the class.
Chromebooks are fine for this course!
Is adult presence required?

We ask that a parent or an adult is present for at least the first 15 minutes of the session to help the child set up. After that, the parent/adult does not need to stay, but we ask that they are nearby.
For children that are 7 years old, we ask that a parent or adult is able to stay for the full session. Younger students might require more assistance and we will need to assess they ability during the session.
My child is a beginner, is this course still suitable?

If your child is a beginner, they need to be at least 8 years old. We would still suggest taking one of our Scratch for Beginners courses first to ensure they have a good foundation within Scratch.
If your child is 7 years old and has done at least a full year of coding it is also fine to join this course. If they do not have this coding experience we suggest doing one of our Scratch for Beginners courses first.
We always aim to match students to the appropriate course and reserve the right to move students if we feel this would be beneficial. If you are still unsure, please give us a call!

“My daughter had a great time. Her teacher challenged and inspired her interest in coding and helped her produce lots of cool programmes each day.”
Sharon