A Newbury children’s coding studio is celebrating its third anniversary with two major student milestones.
The popular game-building and coding destination opened its doors for the first time back in April 2021.
“As we celebrate three years of igniting young minds, I’m so proud of how far we’ve come,” said owner Marcus Brind.
“We’ve welcomed hundreds of children from the local community through our doors since we opened.
“It’s been incredibly rewarding to witness not only their confidence in their coding abilities, but also their communication skills since they started coming to our sessions.”
And to celebrate this milestone, Mr Brind and his team wish to highlight the achievements of two of their students.
Both Edward Terry, 11, and Charlie Fox, 15, have been awarded their coding black belts.
Edward and Charlie – who have attended Code Ninjas since it opened – have worked through the brand’s rigorous curriculum, earning them black belt status.
“I’m over the moon for both of them,” added Mr Brind. “They’ve both worked so hard.
“I’m so pleased to have supported them in their coding journeys.”
To reach black belt status at Code Ninjas, Edward and Charlie worked through nine courses of the programme, including JavaScript, Lua in Roblox, and C# in Unity.
“To achieve the black belt, each of them then had to create their own game, which is now downloadable for the public to access and play,” Mr Brind explained.
Edward’s mother, Tatiana Terry, shared her reaction to the progress her son has made during his weekly two-hour coding sessions.
“As you can imagine, Edward is extremely proud of himself, as are we,” said Mrs Terry.
“He’s been going along for a two-hour session every Saturday since Code Ninjas opened on London Road.
“He’s always enjoyed working with computers, so it seemed a great idea to pursue his interests.
“I can’t thank Marcus and the team enough for their support.
“They’ve obviously had quite the impact on Edward, as the whole experience has confirmed his choice of undertaking computer studies in senior school and possibly even at university.”
Like Edward, Charlie has always had a passion for gaming, IT and coding.
His mother, Kay Wilson, also celebrated the news.
She said: “We were absolutely thrilled to hear he was the fourth ninja in the UK to achieve black belt status.
“He’s worked so hard to reach this goal.
“The best part about the whole programme is that he never feels like it’s a chore.
“He’s just having fun whilst harnessing a skill that I believe will support him throughout the rest of his formal education and into the workplace. I couldn’t be happier for him.”
“The course was really fun and gradually built up my knowledge and confidence,” added Charlie.
“I know this will be a good foundation for the AS and A-level computer science I’m taking from September.”
Code Ninjas allows children to learn how to code in a safe, inclusive and social learning environment.
