Python Skills 4 DofE (age 13-17)

Spark4Kids offers multiple DofE computer coding and touch-typing courses towards earning the Duke of Edinburgh (Skills section) award.

On all of our DofE courses, note that:

• Attendees can start a course at any time during the school year
• All courses have LIVE! tutors supporting attendees during online sessions
• LIVE! sessions run during weekday evenings and at weekends
• Our terms follow the school calendar, for the convenience of participants and their families
• Registering for one of our courses will entitle your child to set quota of sessions, equal to a specified number of months required to complete the DofE level (3-, 6- or 12-months).
• Training on using our online classroom is provided to attendees

To book this online course, please select your options from the “Book Course” section on this page and then click on “Add to Basket”. Once you are happy with your course selection in the Basket, click “View Basket” and complete your booking.

Course Information

This Python Skills 4 DofE course introduces attendees to a powerful, modern programming language that has a gentle learning curve along with lots of useful accompanying documentation. The nature of Python means you can write short programs really quickly, with the platform remaining flexible enough for its use to be limited only by the programmers imagination.

The simplicity of Python, does not impede its application as a serious programming language. In industry, Python is used in many famous organisations including NASA, Digg, Yelp, Google, DropBox, and Pinterest to name a few, and countless experienced programmers and security professionals use Python in their day-to-day work.

This introduction to Python will cover the basic language features, including:

• While loops, Arguments, Variables, If statements
• Coding Arithmetic, Counters, Advanced While loops
• Arrays, Object Literals, For loops
• Function definitions, Drawing, and Modulo

All of this makes Python an ideal first “proper” programming language for attendees progressing past the basics of coding.

Note that these weekly sessions are led by a LIVE!, remote tutor who is able to provide attendees guidance in real-time, along with progress reviews during the sessions. At the end of the course, you will receive a Spark4Kids certificate and a Skills Assessor report will be submitted to the Duke of Edinburgh towards your eventual skills award.

All times shown are UK times – please convert to your local time to ensure the online classes work for you.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Attendance

Sessions for each course are held once a week, and children registered on a course will be expected to attend on a weekly basis, on the day and at the time chosen at course registration.

Safeguarding Policy

All of our tutors are DBS-checked, and our website as well as virtual LIVE! classrooms have high levels of security built-in, using standard security protocols to secure yours and our data.

All sessions are also monitored continuously, and our tutors will not tolerate bullying, bad language or inappropriate questions, conversations or content.

Follow this link to access our Safeguarding Policy.

Group Discounts

We now support group discounts when you book as a group of two or more. We have always automatically applied discounts to orders for multiple course bookings for siblings – discounts are now extended to general group bookings.

If your child has friends who share their interest in computer coding, games design or touch-typing, speak to the other parents to see if they are interested in a Group Discount, and then use our Group Discounts page to invite them to book.

Pay Monthly by Instalments

Kindly note that all of our courses offer the option to pay monthly in instalments. To find out more about our payment plans do get in touch via the Contact Us form.

Childcare Vouchers

Spark4Kids accepts childcare vouchers as fee payment towards all of our courses from a variety of childcare voucher providers.

A full list is available here: Spark4Kids Childcare Providers

To pay for a course using childcare vouchers, select the course you want, add to basket, and then proceed to Checkout by clicking “View Basket” (you may need access to your email account). When at Checkout, choose “Pay with Childcare Vouchers” as the payment option, and follow the on-screen prompts to complete your booking (you will soon be emailed the voucher payment details for Spark4Kids in order to complete the payment.

We can also accept a fee payment that is split between a childcare voucher payment and a standard debit/credit card payment (e.g. if your remaining childcare voucher balance isn’t enough to cover the course fee). To do this, kindly get in touch using the contact details listed in the footer of this page.

Minimum System Requirements

The system requirements below only apply if your child is attending the online, remotely accessible version of this course.

Icons courtesy of Icon8

• Hardware: Desktop or laptop computer, microphone and speakers (or headset with mic), mouse and keyboard, fast internet connection
• Operating System: Windows, Mac, Chromebook
• License: None
• Memory: n/a
• Disk Space: n/a
• Processor: n/a

To find out what your computers’ technical specifications are, kindly use the links below:

• Microsoft Windows
• Apple Mac
• Google Chromebook

Our online classroom software requires minimum internet speeds of 5 Mbps for upload and 15 Mbps for download. The vast majority of broadband providers’ packages will exceed these speeds. To test the speed of your broadband click the link below:

Check My Speed