One of the big initiatives for this school year at ISA was launching a coding club for middle and high school girls. Despite its nascent stages, the club provided a stage for plenty of emerging talents to come together and continue working on their problem solving skills with code.

A few months ago – as part of International Women’s Day – DressCode launched the Hopper Award for Computing as a committed effort to ensure that secondary schools across Scotland recognize and celebrate exemplary work being done by girls in Computing classes. It also presents an opportunity to advocate the subject more and address the increasing gender gaps in Computer Science.

At the end of the year assembly. it was great to see a Grade 7 student – E – win this for her singular efforts with programming this year. What it made even more special was that an older female student was the one presenting it! I hope to see this initiative grow strength to strength in coming years. Here are some of E’s app development works from this year. We used Code.org’s App Labs to create a wide range of mobile solutions. Her attention to detail and ability to look beyond an assignment made this a truly deserving win.

E was part of our Middle School mandatory Computer Science weekly lessons. Her work and win demonstrates how critical it is to allow such initiatives to flourish in schools around the world. Without access there cannot be a way forward. I am thrilled to be part of this journey and look forward to what pathways girls like E inspire for other girls to come on board and let the creativity and passion with the subject spread!