Preston coder, 12, conducts workshop for the Royal Cross Primary School for Deaf Children

Jay Mehta, a year 7 pupil at Archbishop Temple has been conducting coding and robotics workshops for children and adults all over the country since he was seven, including over 60 sessions in his hometown of Preston.

With AI increasingly making a huge impact on the lives of students Jay was invited by the Royal Cross Primary School for Deaf Children to conduct a coding workshop at the end of last month, a year on from his first visit to the school.

Jay believes that whatever your starting point, every child can become a good coder, whilst ICT in schools, aside from being fun, can help break down barriers of ability or economic/social background.

On the day, Jay was able to communicate through a sign language interpreter and he taught two classes of children how to code their own video game.

What did Jay say about the workshop?

Jay said: “It was exciting to see the children again after last year's coding workshop went very well.

“This year the game was different and it was more fun. I was anxious that coding a longer game would be difficult for the younger children but I was quietly confident that all the children would be able to. Once I started the workshop the children were able to quickly grasp the coding and they were in no time coding all the parts of the game.

“In the end, it was great to see the smiles on the children's faces and the happiness and excitement that filled the room. The sense of achieving the goal was very visible among the children.

“I thoroughly enjoyed teaching coding and hope to return in the future for more exciting workshops.”

What did the school think?

Royal Cross Teacher Ms J Robinson said: “Jay told the two classes a little bit about himself and his passion for computing before patiently guiding the pupils, step by step to code a game of a mouse being chased by a cat. The pupils really enjoyed the activity and especially the end result!

“He will be returning in October hopefully to teach us how to use our new ‘micro:bits’.”

Take a look at the scenes from the day below: