Chance to break into coding

Young people in Angus are being given the opportunity to learn coding as part of a national “Scratch” day this weekend.

Angus Alive hosts an introduction to the visual computing language at Arbroath Library.

Scratch was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The leisure trust is marking Scratch’s 10th anniversary by hosting a Scratch day and joining in the worldwide celebration of events taking place throughout May.

Programmes are created by connecting coloured blocks of code, joined together creating a set of instructions which allow the computer to understand a command and carry out a task.

Scratch is described as a great way to start coding.

Saturday’s event, between 10am and 3pm, is open to youngsters aged nine to 13 years old and entry is free, but only 15 places are available.

Visit www.ticketsource.co.uk/ date/367270 to book.

Children are encouraged to bring along a guardian to work with.

A number of activities have been launched across Angus to foster an affinity with coding.

In Arbroath Library a monthly CoderDojo workshop is held on the first Monday of the month for young people aged seven to 17 years old.

And a Code Club pilot is taking place in Forfar Library, held fortnightly on a Monday, for enthusiasts from the ages of nine to 11.