A Grade 3 learner of Bryneven Primary School in Bryanston has blown away his teachers with his skill and talent for coding.
Eight-year-old Andrew Wilson only started to play around with coding last year but in that short space of time, he has impressed his teachers with his understanding of the complexity of coding. Recently, Andrew has begun doing hour-long tutorials on YouTube to help others learn about coding.
Andrew’s coding teacher Erin Bradley said every class at the school takes part in a coding lesson each week. These lessons were all uploaded onto YouTube so that learners have access to them even after school hours. Following one of the lessons, Andrew approached Bradley to ask if he could give a lesson for the channel. Andrew’s tutorials focus on how to use Scratch, a programming language targeted primarily at children.
“I was a little hesitant because he’s only 8 years old but he tackled the lesson and covered Tutorial One and the next day he wanted to do Tutorial Two which is just exceptional. It shows a gifted side you don’t often see,” said Bradley.
The school has placed an emphasis on encouraging learners to learn more about technology. The school teaches children from grades 1 to 7 how to use a programme called Purple Mash which contains a series of tools that are both fun and educational and allow learners to understand more about coding.
Andrew said, “When Mr Bradley was teaching it at school I thought it looked really interesting and I wanted to try it. I would also like to do scripts and writing things down instead of using blocks.”
At school, Andrew helped create a programme called Translate which helps learners translate words from English to Zulu. While many children focus on the games, Andrew is excited to look at the code that helped create the games and change it.
Bradley said where most children are naturally inclined toward games, Andrew is far more intrigued by the complexity of the code. He added that it was easy to underestimate the abilities of children but often allowing them to explore and make mistakes was what helped develop that skill.
“I was fortunate enough to meet Andrew and see that he has this amazing ability. It’s only the beginning for him, there are many great things ahead if he retains this interest,” concluded Bradley.
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Details: Bryneven Primary School 011 463 1453
Related article:
https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/204613/bryneven-primary-school-celebrates-50-years-of-success/
