LEGO Group and Mayor of London team up to encourage coding

The LEGO Group is collaborating with the Mayor of London in order to inspire schoolchildren to explore coding. RE:CODE London gives schoolchildren the opportunity to take on a robotics coding based challenge, and is the result of a collaboration between the LEGO Group, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the Institute of Imagination. Part of the new initiative will be to encourage more girls to think about going into coding, as women are currently underrepresented in STEM industries. The first RE:CODE session took place on November 8, with 450 children designing a LEGO robot to help clean up the River Thames. Five and six year olds signed up to the free London Curriculum programme will get the opportunity to get involved with the project. It is part of a broader effort within London to get children involved in science and engineering.

London Loves Business reports the news of LEGO RE:CODE:

From the outset of his Mayoralty, Sadiq Khan pledged to develop a city-wide STEM strategy and to make gender equality a focus by creating targeted opportunities for girls to excel in STEM subjects. Research suggests career choices are fixed as early as four years old, making it crucial that girls can see the contribution women make to science in order to raise their aspirations.

“Some of the most fascinating jobs in the world are in STEM and I want to see more girls and pupils from all backgrounds considering a career in this area. This initiative along with RE:CODE London and the London Curriculum will help to inspire pupils at a young age, developing London’s future workers, business leaders and entrepreneurs, on whose skills and capabilities future economic growth depends.”

Comment was also provided by the LEGO Group:

Kathrine Kirk Muff, Vice President of Social Responsibility at the LEGO Group, said: “We want to enable children to shape their own future, by imagining it and then building it brick by brick – and we know children learn best when they are also playing and having fun.

“By combining the physical play experience with digital coding, we release the potential to bring abstract challenges to life in a fun way. This hands-on approach is what really engages students and ignites effective and lifelong learning.”