Everyone Can Code
Everyone can Code introduces programming to primary school students in a fun, interactive format.
The Law Society of Ireland actively supports Public Legal Education (PLE) projects through a series of initiatives and engagement with solicitors, trainee solicitors and members of the public. PLE aims to increase awareness of the law by teaching various groups about our legal system and how law impacts on society, so they are better able to exercise their legal rights and responsibilities. ‘Street Law’ and ‘Solicitors of the Future’ are two such PLE projects run with local post-primary schools.
Our Everyone Can Code programme is a voluntary initiative between Law Society of Ireland’s Law School staff and a local primary school. Instead of teaching law we teach code. This project started in 2018. Children from the school participate in an eight-week introduction to code on the Law School campus which follows the Everyone Can Code lesson plans.
Tynker, with its characters introducing code blocks and fun puzzles to solve, is used as the visual programming application. The children work in groups on Law Society of Ireland iPads. At the start of the course the children participate in interactive cyber smart awareness activities. AirPlay, AirDrop and iMovie is an integral part of the course helping to promote a more interactive and hands on approach to the sessions. At the end of the eight-week coding course the children attend a graduation ceremony for little coders and receive their certificates in recognition of their participation.
We had just started our 2020 programme with the school when ‘Living with Covid’ restrictions were introduced in Ireland so our programme is currently on hold until September 2021.
