University of Northampton receives a Green Apple Award for helping teach children to code

The University of Northampton has been praised for a competition it helped set up with the aim of improving the teaching of computer coding and school pupils’ technology skills.

The Race to the Top contest, which challenged children across the county to design a digital game or mobile app based around saving energy, was awarded a Gold Green Apple Award by the Green Organisation. These are awarded for projects which are considered to be demonstrative of environmental best practice within the public sector.

The winning teams were from Park Junior School in Wellingborough and Kettering Buccleuch Academy who came up with a game which challenges players to fix degrading solar panels on the school roof and an app which tracks household energy consumption.

The competition was organised by the University of Northampton, in partnership with Northamptonshire County Council, Code Club and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT).

The initiative was part of Northamptonshire’s school improvement strategy and the award was presented at a recent ceremony at the Houses of Parliament in London.

Dr Scott Turner, Associate Professor in Computing said: “The feedback we received from the children has shown that the Race to the Top contest has enthused them and having the opportunity to come to the University campus for the celebration event was a real confidence boost and they really enjoyed it.”

Read more about the Race to the Top contest and the winning projects