Read me first
How it works
CodeGrades are creative cumulative steps for learning to code.
Pass grades by demonstrating your knowledge and skills through fun programming projects.
Mentors (experienced professional software developers) support, encourage and ultimately assess your projects.
You receive a mark (out of 100) and detailed written feedback about your attainment, areas for improvement and possible next steps.
Passing a grade shows an independent and respected professional certifies you have achieved a certain level of skill, as defined by the grade.
Learn
Our syllabus is a well trodden path on a journey to coding: as you progress through the grades the challenge and depth required to pass increases.
Each grade requires a different project, so you'll also build a portfolio of software as evidence of your skill and progress. While you decide the nature and scope of your project, it must show you understand and can use the core concepts defined in the syllabus for the grade you are taking. Since grades are cumulative, it is assumed you'll also understand and demonstrate core concepts from the grades that come before.
It is through creating and developing a project that you learn the core skills for the grade: the grade isn't the end goal, rather, it is a vehicle for learning.
Grade
Book your grading on this website then upload evidence of your project's development.
It's a diary of your progress: what you planned to do and what you actually did; the challenges you faced and how you overcame them; the code you wrote and how you improved it.
This record of your journey is important evidence and just one way you demonstrate your attainment.
When you have a working first draft of your project, submit it.
At this point a mentor becomes involved to help you refine your project, give feedback, ask questions, point out bugs and otherwise engage with you and your project. Once again, this is a way you demonstrate progress towards fulfilling the requirements for the grade.
Such interactions with the mentor follow the widely used industry practice of a code review.
Grow
When your mentor is satisfied they have enough evidence, they write up an assessment and give you a mark out of 100.
- You pass the grade if you get a score of 60 or more.
- A pass "with merit" is awarded if you get 75 or more.
- A rare and highly prized pass "with distinction" is achieved for a score of 90 or above.
Your assessment contains a detailed breakdown of how your marks were awarded (so you can see your strengths and weaknesses) as well as comprehensive written feedback from your mentor.
Passing a grade is a real achievement to be celebrated and a moment of which you should be proud.
Who is it for?
The short answer is: everyone..!
If you’re thinking, “but they don’t mean me”, then we especially mean YOU!
We believe coding is for everyone, and at CodeGrades you will be made welcome irrespective of age, gender, religion, race or sexuality. We celebrate diversity and cherish open-mindedness, compassion and tolerance when being together.
No matter your background, folks involved with CodeGrades tend to fall into one of these three categories:
- Candidates, who want to learn to code.
- Teachers, who support those learning to code.
- Mentors, who provide feedback, constructive criticism and assessment for the candidates.
Candidates
CodeGrades are a progressive path from your first steps in programming to an effective level of skill and knowledge needed for writing your own coding projects.
- CodeGrades are created by experienced professional software developers: what you learn will be relevant, valuable and up-to-date.
- When you go for grading you'll work with supportive experienced professional developers.
- Like playing music, coding takes practice. CodeGrades give you the structure and goals needed for effective sustained development.
- CodeGrades are fun for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Teachers
Wondering what to teach in coding lessons? Not sure what's relevant? Is the work of programmers a complete mystery to you? No idea what to do in "computer club"? Would you like some supportive professional development yourself?
- CodeGrades provide a teacher-friendly syllabus and advice for curriculum development.
- They're student focused and encourage self-paced learning.
- While CodeGrades have been created by professional programmers, they also reflect feedback from teachers like you (and we welcome and encourage feedback).
- Grading is an opportunity for your students to shine, receive recognition and have their achievements celebrated.
- CodeGrades help you gain the skills and knowledge needed to be an effective coding teacher.
Mentors
Mentoring is a core part of effective software engineering: we have to teach and support users, colleagues and collaborators who use our code and applications.
- Mentoring for CodeGrades is recognition that you have the required technical, leadership and communication skills.
- You're paid to improve and grow your pedagogical technique.
- Mentoring helps you to practice explaining, analogizing and summarizing difficult concepts in easy-to-understand language, demonstrating and improving your own clarity of thought.
- You benefit from the moral and professional growth that comes with mentoring for CodeGrades.
Ways of attending
It is important to attend to CodeGrades with the right attitude, with the right effort, and, with the right resources.
Sister Mary Corita's ten rules for students and teachers have the right spirit for CodeGrades.
Don't be fooled that they were originally created for an art school.
Coding is an art (and the sooner you realise this, the better).
RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
RULE TWO: General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.
RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.
RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined — this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.
RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.
RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.
RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.
RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)
HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything — it might come in handy later.