Horsham’s young coders to take part in national competition

The annual festival of code will be taking place at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham between Friday (July 31) and Sunday (August 2) and 12 children from across the district will be representing the town in the competition.

The event is run by Young Rewired State with the aim of challenging youngsters to combine their technical and digital skills to write pieces of computer code to solve problems and improve their communities.

Hack Horsham, who promote digital awareness in the town, have come to together with members of Horsham based software provider Red River Software and digital marketing agency Strategic Internet Consulting to offer youngsters a chance to take part in this years event, with the town entering for the very first time in the competition.

Representatives from all three organisations have worked with the young coders for the past four days to create individual projects which will be presented in front of parents, mentors and industry expert judges.

Marcus Tyler-Moore, a member of Hack Horsham said: “We have got quite a mix of age ranges from 7-year-olds to 14-year-olds taking part.

“The children are going to learn design skills, technical skills presentational skills which will stay with them for life.

“We have also got local companies coming together and working as a team.

“These companies are coming together sharing skills and sharing ideas to get to a common goal.

“It is exceptionally important and it is exceptionally important Horsham does more events like these.”

Nik Butler, who is also part Hack Horsham, agreed with Marcus and said Horsham needed to run more events like this so people would not turn to Brighton or London for digital work.

Simon Pringle, director of Red River Software, added: “This event is good as we want to see more people getting into the industry.

“It is a booming industry at the moment but there aren’t enough people around so we need to promote it locally.”

8-year-old Maddie was very excited to be going up to Birmingham and presenting her work.

She said: “We are learning about proper coding. I thought it might be quite good and I’m really having fun.

“I am really looking forward to presenting it.”

Ten-year-old Greg Dargue agreed. He said: “I was really interested in doing it and now I am really enjoying it.

“I looking forward to presenting but I am a bit nervous in a fun way.”

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