Element14 lets London school cook up Raspberry Pi code

A group of London school children have been given the chance to test out their coding skills on a Raspberry Pi computer.

Nearly 250 students at St Saviour's Primary School in Paddington, London, got their hands on the British-developed device to programme a Lego robot crocodile as part of the school's day of creativity.

The credit card-sized computers were supplied by Raspberry Pi global distributor element14.

The company provided St Saviour's with 30 units, plus SD cards, and gifted half of them to the school at the end of the day.

Its generosity will allow pupils to develop their programming skills and, perhaps, encourage some of them to become the next generation of UK programmers and designers, the company hopes.

Element14 also claims Creative Day-type initiatives will help safeguard the future of Britain's tech industry.

The UK "took a wrong turn" with the teaching of ICT in the 1990s, the firm added, leaving children knowing how to use a computer, but not how it works.

Element14, along with the Raspberry Pi foundation, hopes to reverse this trend.

Lindsey Woodford, head teacher at St Saviour's, said: "We are keen to create a legacy for the initiative by purchasing the Raspberry Pis and Lego robotics kits to run a computer club with parents and teachers working together and bringing these invaluable IT skills into the curriculum."

Jane McCallion is ITPro's Managing Editor, specializing in data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. Before becoming Managing Editor, she held the role of Deputy Editor and, prior to that, Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialize in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.

Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.