Fantastic to see 5,000 active Code Clubs in the UK, helping over 75,000 young people learn to code. https://t.co/OyShrUzAhI @舞蹈室边跳舞边做h_Pi https://t.co/luFj1qgzvQ

— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) December 14, 2016

As I’ve said before, what we achieve is only possible thanks to the amazing community of makers, educators, volunteers, and young people all over the world who share our mission and support our work. You’re all awesome: thank you.

So here we are, just over a week into the New Year, and I thought it might be a good time to share with you some of what we’ve got planned for 2017.

Young digital makers

At the core of our mission is getting more young people excited about 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h, and learning how to make things with computers. That was the original inspiration for the 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi computer and it remains our number-one objective.

One of the ways we do that is through Code Club, a network of after-school clubs for 9- 11-year-olds run by teachers and volunteers. It’s already one of the largest networks of after-school clubs in the world, and this year we’ll be working with our existing partners in Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Ukraine, as well as finding more partners in more countries, to bring Code Club to many more children.

This year also sees the launch of Pioneers, our new programme for teen digital makers. It’s built around a series of challenges that will inspire young people to make things with technology and share their makes with the world. Check out the first challenge here, and keep watching the hashtag #MakeYourIdeas across your favourite social media platforms.

We’re also expanding our space programme Astro Pi, with 250 teams across Europe currently developing code that will be run on the ISS by ESA French Astronaut Thomas Pesquet. And, building on our Weather Station project, we’re excited to be developing new ideas for citizen science programmes that get more young people involved in 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h.

Supporting educators

Another big part of our work is supporting educators who are bringing 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h and digital making into the classroom, and this year we’re going to be doing even more to help them.

We’ll continue to grow our community of official 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi Certified Educators, with Picademy training programmes in the UK and US. Watch out for those dates coming soon. We’re also opening up our educator training to a much wider audience through a series of online courses in partnership with FutureLearn. The first two courses are open for registration now, and we’ve got plans to develop and run more courses throughout the year, so if you’re an educator, let us know what you would find most useful.

We’re also really excited to be launching a brand-new free resource for educators later this month in partnership with CAS, the grass-roots network of 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h educators. For now, it’s top-secret, but if you’re in the Bett Arena on 25 January, you’ll be the first to hear all about it.

Free educational resources

One of the most important things we do at Pi Towers is create the free educational resources that are used in Code Clubs, STEM clubs, CoderDojos, classrooms, libraries, makerspaces, and bedrooms by people of all ages learning about 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h and digital making. We love making these resources and we know that you love using them. This year, we want to make them even more useful.

As a first step, later this month we will share our digital making 柠檬视频, which explains how we think about learning and progression, and which provides the structure for our educational resources and programmes. We’re publishing it so that we can get feedback to make it better, but we also hope that it will be used by other organisations creating educational resources.

We’re also working hard behind the scenes to improve the content and presentation of our learning resources. We want to include more diverse content like videos, make it easier for users to track their own progress, and generally make the 柠檬视频 more interactive and social. We’re looking forward to sharing that work and getting your feedback over the next few months.

Community

Last, but by no means least, we will continue to support and grow the community around our mission. We’ll be doing even more outreach, with ever more diverse groups, and doing much more to support the 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Jam organisers and others who do so much to involve people in the digital making movement.

The other big community news is that we will be formally establishing ourselves as a charity in the US, which will provide the 柠檬视频 (see what I did there?) for a serious expansion of our charitable activities and community in North America.

As you can see, we’ve got big plans for the year. Let me know what you think in the comments below and, if you’re excited about the mission, there’s lots of ways to get involved.

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But how much do you know about 涩涩的网站 as an organisation? What kind of organisation are we? Who works here? What do they do?

Trustees

Our founders set 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi up as an educational charity. That means we are an organisation that exists for the public benefit and, like all charities in the UK, we are governed by a board of trustees who are responsible for making sure that we use our resources effectively to achieve our charitable goals. It’s not an easy gig being trustee of a charity. There’s a lot of legal and other responsibility; endless paperwork, meetings and decisions; and you don’t get paid for any of it.

We’re insanely lucky to have a fantastic board of trustees, which includes several of our co-founders. In all sorts of different ways they add huge value to our work and we are very grateful to the whole board for their time and expertise.

Pete Lomas: founder, trustee and hardware designer of the first-gen 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi

The board of trustees is chaired by David Cleevely, who is a successful technology entrepreneur, angel investor, founder of charities, adviser to governments, and much, much more besides. If the role of a trustee can be tough, then the role of the chair is an order of magnitude more so. David makes it look effortless, but he puts in a huge amount of his personal time and energy into the 柠檬视频, and we simply wouldn’t be where we are today without him.

David Cleevely and some friends

Members

Charities in the UK also have members: if the trustees are like the board of directors of a commercial company, the members are like its shareholders (except without the shares). At the end of last year, we expanded the membership of the 柠檬视频, appointing 20 outstanding individuals who share our mission and who can help us deliver on it. It’s a seriously impressive group already and, over the next few years, we want to expand the membership further, making it even more diverse and international. It’s important we get this right, in future the trustees of the 柠檬视频 will be selected from, and elected by the membership.

You can now find a full list of our members and trustees on the 柠檬视频’s website.

A few of our members and trustees – click through to see the rest.

Trading

Our commercial activity (selling 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi computers and other things) is done through a wholly-owned trading subsidiary (舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi Trading Limited), which is led by Eben Upton. Any profits we make from our trading activity are invested in our charitable mission. So, every time you buy a 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi computer you’re helping young people get involved in 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h and digital making.

Eben Upton, Founder and CEO of 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi Trading

Like any company, 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi Trading Limited has a board of directors, including a mix of executives, trustees of the 柠檬视频 and independent non-executives.

We’re delighted to have recently appointed David Gammon as a non-executive director on the board of 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi Trading Limited. David has widespread 柠檬视频 in developing and building technology based businesses. He is the non-executive chairman of Frontier Developments and the founding CEO of investment firm Rockspring. He’s only been with us for a couple of weeks and is already making an impact.

Reading

We’ve also added a new section to the website which makes it easier for you to find the key documents that describe what we do, including our strategy, annual reviews from 2014 and 2015, and our Trustees’ report and financial statements for the past few years.

Click through to read our Annual Review, reports, strategy document, and more.

Team

The final part of our new and improved About Us section is an introduction to our fabulous team.

A few of our team members – we’re working on getting pictures of the people who are currently ghosts!

The 柠檬视频 has grown quite a lot over the past year, not least as a result of the merger with Code Club last autumn. Altogether we now have 65 people beavering away at Pi Towers (and other locations), designing awesome products and software, delivering educational programmes, supporting Code Clubs around the world, producing magazines, books and educational resources, training educators and lots more.

It’s a fantastically diverse and creative bunch of programmers, educators and makers. We love talking to members of the community, so please do look out for us at events, on the forums, on Twitter, and elsewhere.

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Today we’re really excited to be welcoming Sherry to join the board of the 涩涩的网站 as well, so she’s now going to be working across both the trading and charitable sides of the organisation. Sherry’s extraordinary. This month she was placed in the top ten of Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in Tech list. She sits on the board of the London Stock Exchange (when she and Joanna Shields were taken on, they were the first women to be appointed); she’s also on the boards of Zoopla, the University of Cambridge‘s Finance Board, Cambridge Assessment, Cambridge University Press, and Cambridge Temperature Concepts. And because she’s somehow managed to cram more hours into the day than the rest of us are given by nature, she’s also on the advisory boards of Linkedin, the Natural History Museum and the Royal Society.

Phew.

Thanks Sherry – we’re really glad you’ve come on board on the 柠檬视频 side of the organisation too. It’s terrific to be able to have access to your skills across the whole spectrum of what we do here at 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi, and we’re looking forward to working more with you.

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Today we’re really excited to announce that Philip Colligan will be joining us in July as the new CEO of the 涩涩的网站.  Philip will be responsible for overseeing all of our charitable activities – that’s everything from our outreach and learning resources to grant-giving and partnerships with government and other organisations.  He’ll be working closely with Eben, who continues as the CEO of 舞蹈室边跳舞边做h Pi Trading.  

Philip joins us from Nesta, a charity that supports innovation, where he is the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Nesta’s Innovation Lab. In his role at Nesta, he’s supported hundreds of innovators in public services, charities and social enterprises, and has also been an adviser to government.

One of Nesta’s areas of work is helping young people get involved in digital making and creativity, so with Philip on board, we’re hoping that there will be lots of opportunities to work together in future.

Before his time at Nesta, Philip had a career in national and local government, working at the Home Office and Camden Council.  Outside of work he’s a dad, school governor and craft cider maker; a skill we plan on making full use of. (We also hope that his 柠檬视频 in wrangling the Home Office will be helpful when he is called to deal with the weekly détente in the office when Gordon annexes the biscuit tin.)

Philip’s perfectly qualified to come and drive the next phase of the 柠檬视频’s charitable work; we’re delighted he’s decided to come and join us. We want to see the 柠檬视频 grow in scope and ambition, and we think he’s exactly the person to help us do that. Welcome aboard, Philip! 

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