National competition success for UK Scratch Club

A group of four ten year olds who run their own Scratch Club at Loughton School in the UK were prizewinners in a national competition for innovative uses of technology for learning.

The boys set up the club when they were nine and had recently begun using Scratch at home. They persuaded their head teacher to install the software on school computers, and then began to teach their fellow pupils about Scratch programming. Their weekly lunchtime club now regularly fills the school's ICT suite with pupils from two year groups.

The four plan each lesson in advance, preparing their own resources.  "One week we showed everyone how to make a simple game. We split our club into three groups. The easy group worked with motion blocks. The medium group learned how to alter sprites and make them communicate with each other. The hard group worked on x and y positions and backgrounds. In the end, everyone enjoyed making a game."

The club leaders entered their club for the Y Factor, an annual competition hosted by the Handheld Learning conference to showcase the innovation and ingenuity demonstrated among young learners using new technologies to support their learning.

Rather than use PowerPoint, they programmed their entire presentation using Scratch. 'Great to see some creativity and development', commented one audience member. 'At last someone admits to using the tech at home as well as school' tweeted another.

The boys each won a Nintendo wii for their presentation to a crowded room of international delegates.