Over 23,000 schools are set to benefit from the collaboration between Lloyds Banking Group and Clever Tykes, which is sending children’s storybooks on coding to every primary school in the UK. The Clever Tykes concept was created following evidence that there are too few positive business role models for children, and the storybooks inspire resourceful, innovative and enterprising behaviour and have generated interest from across the globe after their inclusion in a national government report, “Enterprise for All”.
The series of books includes Code-It Cody, a story following computer whizz Cody, and aims to make coding and IT skills fun and relevant for primary school children. The project complements LBG’s partnership with Code Club to deliver after school coding lessons for 9-11 year olds, and is part of its Helping Britain Prosper Plan, committing to supporting education, skills, and entrepreneurship which will help to develop the business leaders of the future.
Jodie Cook, founder of JC Social Media, and Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2014 started Clever Tykes with her husband Ben after discovering the evidence between role models and entrepreneurial intention, but finding too few positive business role models for children.
“We are delighted to be able to support Clever Tykes which we hope will develop much-needed skills,” Head of Group Digital Inclusion at Lloyds Banking Group, Leigh Smyth said. “As part of our ambition to help Britain prosper we strongly believe that investing in educating children in coding, IT and enterprise will not only benefit young people, but ultimately also the communities in which they live”.
As part of our ambition to help Britain prosper we strongly believe that investing in educating children in coding, IT and enterprise will not only benefit young people, but ultimately also the communities in which they live
Through the LBG initiative and the Code-It Cody story, children are being introduced to basic programming skills which will allow them to program their own interactive stories, games, and animations, and will develop their coding capabilities to help create the coders and digital makers of the future. Over 400 Lloyds Banking Group colleagues signed up to Code Club in the last three months of 2016 keen to help young people learn coding skills in schools and libraries.
The book package also includes access to a range on online teaching materials, the Clever Tykes enterprise portal. This is the first of its kind and allows teachers and parents to access enterprise resources, including specific coding storybooks, plus the associated teachers guides, chapter walkthroughs and lesson plans. It can be accessed on a big screen for the whole class, or students can use iPads to view resources individually.
Co-founder Ben Cook commented, “It’s an incredibly exciting time for Clever Tykes and primary enterprise education. We’ve seen the positive changes in children’s behaviour having read our stories and we’re delighted that thousands more will benefit.”
