Onward Homes - one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the North West of England - approached MadLab to run a digital summer club for families in Hattersley, Tameside. They wanted to offer children and adults an engaging way to learn about coding and making, as well as how to stay safe online. 

The resulting programme, the Tech Together Summer Camp, ran in August 2024 at the Hattersley Hub. It comprised four workshops designed in line with the Inspiring Digital Enterprise curriculum - an award-winning digital learning programme - and reached nearly 100 local residents.

The first workshop, “Get Set With Digital Skills” built fundamental concepts of coding, “Get Ready for Innovation” saw families pitch ideas for a video game in a Dragons’ Den-style competition. “Get Going with Creativity” focused on digital story-telling, using stop motion animation, and “Get Coding for Life” introduced the micro:bit, which children were given at the end of the programme.‍

“My daughter has been coding with her micro:bit since we got home from the workshop, both before and after swimming this evening!”

“These workshops have been brilliant to attend and make such a difference to children wanting to get into tech and IT. Please offer them again!”

‍“With times changing and digital becoming more apparent I think it’s useful for children to learn young. We’ve become more interested in digital skills together”‍

Based on feedback from participants and Onward Homes, MadLab is looking at approaches to embedding longer form programmes in areas like Hattersley across Greater Manchester. 

‍Case study‍

Sandy, Daisy and Demi live in Hyde. Sandy originally signed her daughters up to Tech Together so they could learn something a bit different, and Sandy was keen to improve her digital skills too. Daisy, the eldest, was very confident with her general digital literacy and grasped new concepts quickly. She also helped her mum and younger sister learn to code. Sandy said they talked about the sessions together often at home. She reported that both children found the workshops inspiring. They returned each week, eager to show MadLab staff what they had been worked on at home. The workshops also gave Sandy more confidence to engage in digital conversations with her daughters.

“I learnt more about coding. It seems to be easier than I thought [it would be] :)” - Sandy