This Saturday we joined thousands of other coders around the world as we hosted our first ever World Scratch Day 2015 event in Canterbury. It was an excellent day which saw over 35 children and adults working together to solve problems, debug and collaborate.

We kick started the day with a robotics enabled registration system, of course built in Scratch and with Lego Wedo equipment, where the attendees had to wave their hand in front of a sensor before entering their name. Names were then picked at random by the program, giving everyone a chance to introduce themselves to the group. We had a good range of ages, from year 3 (7 year olds) to year 7 (12 year olds), with everyone accompanied by an equally eager adult!

We set a range of challenges for attendees to pick from, including robotics enabled games, door entry systems, video enabled games and more. Many also chose to continue working on their own projects, making the most of the additional expertise within the room. I was immediately struck by the ability of everyone who came; the children clearly had a good understanding of the basics of coding and could apply them to a given purpose. I was however aware that code efficiency was not always prevalent, so am mindful this is something I need to focus on in my lessons.

Regardless of the projects being worked on, everyone was keen to share their creations with the group, presenting confidently as they demonstrated their programs.

It was an excellent day which we certainly plan on running again. Thanks to everyone who attended and thanks also to David Phillips (@djphillips1408) for helping to run the event.

If you were there, please leave a comment on what you thought of the day, including links to some of your favourite projects on the Scratch Community.

Here are some highlights: