My relationship with Girls Coding Weekend started when I was only 10 years old. I had never thought about coding before. In 2019, I had the opportunity to go to a weekend specifically designed for girls to learn how to code. The weekend was fun: I learnt about how to talk to a computer with a demonstration of the level of specificity needed for an algorithm to work by directing a workshop leader to make a sandwich. I coded a microbit to light up in patterns I chose. I made mini games with Python. I left the weekend with a newfound enthusiasm for coding. And most of all, I was incredibly excited to have this new skill – and at any chance I got, I wanted to pursue it.
This led me to seek out and attend many coding-related camps and events in the future. When I went, though, I noticed a pattern that was strange to me at the time: I was usually one of the only girls—if not the only girl— there. I didn’t understand why this was: coding was never presented to me as something for boys and not girls. However, my experiences made it clear that it was not the same for us.
Girls Coding Weekend 2025 was launched for the very first time on the 1st-2nd of November – yet this time, I could help organise it to help other girls arrive at the same conclusion. The weekend is one designed for girls to have an exclusive space where they can be encouraged to get excited about coding. Noticeably, there is a definite shortage of girls in computer science, with a report conducted by Tech Nation showing that only 26% of those in the UK’s technology industry are women. Even if we look at the issue on a more local scale, in ISL itself, there are only 2 girls in the computer science course for Year 12. Despite girls being given the same options, there’s still hesitation to pursue computer science, potentially due to the gender disparity in the field.
Thus, we designed this weekend to help girls get interested in coding so that they would feel that it is an option for them. Additionally, we aimed to raise money for an organisation called SOLA, a boarding school for Afghan girls to give them an education that they otherwise might not have received.
To ensure the weekend served its purpose, it had to be planned out. Firstly, we had to make sure that the workshops would appeal to girls of the age group 8-14 (although the group who signed up was mostly comprised of 8-12 year olds). I realised that by the time they reach 13-14, it is difficult to encourage the girls to try coding if the idea that it’s not for them has already been ingrained into their minds. The goal of the weekend was to get girls interested in coding rather than to teach difficult concepts that they would remember. Therefore, we decided to prioritise showcasing the interactive parts of computer science. The workshop leaders designed workshops that had some interactive/gamified elements to them in order to motivate the girls. For example, we had a VEX IQ workshop where the girls could code small robots to complete certain tasks. For more technical workshops like the Python coding workshop, it was gamified by having prizes for completing the code effectively first or coming up with their own modifications.
In order to have a far enough reach to make an impact, we needed a way to make people aware of the event. We therefore had to market it to the parents, as they would be the ones actually signing their kids up for the event, and the kids, so that they would be excited about going. We also marketed it to the students – the actual participants, by going into each classroom and presenting the Coding Weekend possibilities. However, when we marketed it to the kids, we quickly ran into an issue: explaining why the weekend was a girls-only event. The girls were confused about why the boys in their year would not be able to come with them. Ultimately, the weekend is designed to give girls an opportunity that they may not otherwise have to explore coding: a space that is explicitly designed for them, so that they know they can explore coding as a girl. For some of the girls, this didn’t make sense: they questioned the fairness of the weekend. This led us to discuss whether Girls Coding Weekend should remain a girls-exclusive event. We felt that if the weekend was also for boys, it was likely fewer girls would want to participate.
It was like what I had observed when I was a girl: those who didn’t get a defined space to explore coding tailored to them never crossed the barrier to try it out. Following this reasoning, we ended up agreeing that it should remain girls-exclusive, as its purpose is to introduce girls who may not otherwise explore computer science to coding.
The weekend progressed well; the kids learnt about the various stretches of coding that they had never been exposed to before. With the new age of AI, they knew about some of the applications of coding, but not necessarily the mechanics of them. Actually, coding was a new experience for most of the girls—save for those who had attended the year before. It took them some time to get engaged with it, but eventually, the prospect of having something to take home from the weekend was exciting. In the end, the most popular activities were those which were interactive, such as the Makey-Makeys (kits which have alligator clips which can be used to make a variety of creations), which they used to make various inventions. They were able to see what coding and robotics could achieve as they explored VR and had a quick tour of the VEX robotics lab.
I hope that this weekend caused the girls who attended to be curious about coding, which they will be able to pursue and carry forward with them throughout their lives. I hope that some of them will be able to continue the cycle, and one day, run Girls Coding Weekend themselves to carry the torch forward.