The verdict is in – the kids of Welwyn Garden City love new coding studio!
On Sunday 9th May, socially distanced crowds flocked to the heart of the town to celebrate the grand opening of a brand-new kids coding studio – Code Ninjas. Launched by local parents, Bhavna and Pradip Patel, the family-focused business owners were determined to make it a day to remember for video-game-loving kids in their community.
“We have two sets of twins, aged 17 and 12, who like most children absolutely love anything related to gaming or technology,” explained Bhavna. “When we looked for local coding classes for them, we couldn’t find anything remotely suitable and so we took matters into our own hands. Launching this business has been a real passion project of ours – we’ve been looking forward to our grand opening party for weeks! It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces on the day, but we also want to thank all our new ninjas and their parents for coming along to celebrate with us. A great time was had by all!”
Code Ninjas is the fastest-growing kids coding brand in the world, with 400 other likeminded business owners, like Bhavna and Pradip, launching their own kids coding studios across the US, Canada and, since 2019, the UK. Code Ninjas in Welwyn Garden City is the first of its kind in the area – and a much-needed digital hub for tech-loving kids, like Bhavna and Pradip’s own children, living locally.
“We’re based at Applecroft School, right in the centre of town – the teaching team has been so welcoming and are really pleased to see our complementary curriculum being delivered from their very own IT department. We’re proud to partner with such an esteemed provider of primary education and hope that our programme will help their students, and all other children aged 5-14 living in our community, develop their love of gaming and tech,” added Pradip.
Amongst the attendees was the Mayor of Welwyn Garden City, Roger Trigg, who got involved with some of the fun game-building, robot creating and drone piloting sessions on offer during the free trial day.
Mrs O’Connor, curriculum leader of IT and computing at nearby Stanborough School also attended and said, "I was so impressed by the content that is covered at Code Ninjas. The different programming languages that the ninjas learn reflects our school curriculum and more.
"Code Ninjas helps teach students to computationally and logically think through different problems, which is key to all school subjects. I can see the benefit that each belt stage has through all key stages, right up to A-level."
The Code Ninjas mantra is ‘kids have fun, parents see results®’ - for the Patel’s, this isn’t just a motto, but a commitment. And so far, ninjas – the name given to students – and their parents are enjoying the experience they were promised!
“Code Ninjas has been recommended to us by one of our friends and our daughter, Sophie, absolutely loves going there,” explained Galina Lawson. “Chrysoula, the studio manager, and the staff are amazing! They’re all very friendly and helpful - they truly enjoy seeing the kids learn new things. Sophie is learning so much and loves developing her own games. She is always excited for her weekly coding classes. I cannot say enough good things about Code Ninjas!”
And this is what Sophie has to say about her first few weeks as a ninja, “I love it at Code Ninjas because it's fun, exciting and the staff are so friendly. The games are amazing because they are fun to play and it's cool to learn new things about JavaScript. I’ve asked for loads of additional lessons because I'm really enjoying it!”
The studio is also helping the community in terms of youth employment, having already taken on six local college and university students as their Senseis. To sign up or find out more about Code Ninjas, visit: www.codeninjas.co.uk/welwyn-garden-city-hrt-uk
Editor’s notes- For more information, or to speak with Bhavna or Pradip, contact Kelly Ayres at Rev PR on 07895 876745 or email kelly@revpr.co.uk
Images available: A selection of images taken during the launch event.