Welcome back after half-term! We hope you had a great break.

Our curriculum team has been busy researching free coding resources ready for use with the new computing curriculum. They have come across Code Combat; a free online coding game that is perfect to teach children how to use Javascript from scratch. It makes a good addition to Scratch or Small Basic which are also great resources for teaching code and programming.

Like Minecraft, Code Combat is a multi-player, open-source fantasy combat game where players must protect land from ogres and collude with wizards. The players’ in-game actions are dictated by the Javascript code commands they type.

Creators of the game, George Saines, Scott Erikson and Nick Winter say that, when learning a new skill like coding and programming, slow, intensive lessons don’t work. “What people need is fast, extensive practice. Need to learn to code? You don’t need lessons. You need to write a lot of code and have a great time doing it. That’s what programming is about. It’s got to be fun.”

Code Combat might not be suitable smaller children but you can judge whether it is suitable for your key stage. It would be a great way to kick-start plans for your Year of Code.

Take a look at the game and see if you don’t get hooked on the various levels yourself! Let us know how you get on: leave us a message below.