Peer mentoring

Many Code Clubs have young people as helpers in addition to adult helpers.

Getting young people to help their peers can enrich your club in all sorts of ways. For example, it will provide extra help to club members who need it, whilst also giving mentoring skills and extending learning for the more experienced in your group.

Help from more senior peers

One way of approaching this is to identify some young people at your club venue who are older than your club members and help them gain the skills to assist their peers.

To make this a success, it helps to give the mentors some guidelines to follow — otherwise the desire to take over the mouse can be too much!

Help from ex-club members

Many clubs find that the young people who have been attending the club for a while don't want to leave, but the club may be full. Creating a new role of 'club helper' is a great way to keep these experienced club members engaged and to allow them to still be involved, while also opening up spaces for new members.

Once again, be clear on what the role of 'club helper' will involve, so that the helpers are aware that this is a bit different to attending the club. You can think about giving them a great 'job title' to boost their confidence too, such as Code Club Expert.

We get our Code Club Experts to teach the younger ones to take the laptops back to the laptop rack themselves and make sure they’re plugged in! — Adam Cohen-Rose, Code Club Leader, Fleetville Junior School, Hertfordshire

A little help from your friends

Alternatively, you could do this in a much more informal way. For example, if all your club members are completing the same project in a session, you could encourage those who finish early to assist their peers. If you try this approach, just make sure that you keep it occasional and informal: if the same club members finish early each time, they may get frustrated with the role of helping their peers if they have to do it at the end of every session.