At a glance
go_girl: code+create is a project at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, run in partnership with the Oxfordshire County Council's Early Intervention Service. In line with Oxford’s targets in its Access Agreement with the Office for Fair Access, this interdisciplinary project complements existing programmes aimed at widening access to the University of Oxford, but tackles the problem in a fundamentally new way using technology. The research was originally supported by the University of Oxford IT Innovation Challenges Seed Fund and has received subsequent funding from Goldman Sachs Gives.
Author Archives: izzy256
Girls, Coding and BBC micro:bit
Tracey and I were delighted to be invited to a workshop at the IET, hosted by the Micro:bit Educational Foundation, to discuss gender inequality in digital and computing education. In just a couple of years the micro:bit has become a … Continue reading
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The Awards Ceremony
After months of hard work, learning (and fun, of course!) the Go_Girl Awards Ceremony had finally arrived! This evening would give us a chance to celebrate all of the achievements that the girls have made over the past year, and … Continue reading
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Session 34: Autism Awareness
At the beginning of the month the world celebrated Autism Awareness Day. Autism is a topic of great importance to the Go_Girl team, especially due to the fact that a number of the Go_Girls identify as autistic. Today we were … Continue reading
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Session 33: Looking to the future
It’s hard to believe that we are approaching the last stages of the Go_Girl 2017-18 program! The time has flown by and so much has been achieved. However, we all want to make sure that the progress that has been … Continue reading
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Session 31: Project Fun and Being Resilient
With the Easter break just over the horizon, the whole team felt extra motivated this week to make good headway with their projects. However, keeping up the momentum on longer term initiatives can sometimes be tricky. Life throws curveballs when … Continue reading
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Session 29: Making it as a woman in STEM – a visit from Dr Clara Barker
One of the key issues that the Go_Girl project aims to shed light on is the lack of women pursuing STEM study and careers. Despite the growing amount of research that explores this problem, we need to delve deeper into … Continue reading
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Session 28: Apprentices of the Future
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘apprenticeship’? Do certain careers come to mind? Or a certain type of person? How do you view apprenticeships in general? With this week being National Apprenticeship week we started off … Continue reading
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Session 27: Prototyping and Bravery
The ‘Beast from the East’ was in full force this week, smothering Oxford in a blanket of fresh snowy powder blown in by icy winds. Sadly the Wednesday session had to be cancelled due to road safety concerns, but the … Continue reading
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Session 26: What does feminism mean to us?
Go_Girl is, as the name suggests, a project specifically for female-identifying young people. By its very nature, then, Go_Girl is built on the feminist notion that there is value in a women-only, peer supportive space. The program also recognises that gender, … Continue reading
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Session 25: Careers Fest and Project Time
On February 6th the Go_Girl team headed off to the ninth annual ‘Careers Fest’ at the Oxford MINI Plant. Over all, we had a great experience. There were lots of interesting companies to talk to. UK Atomic Energy Agency, Microsoft, Sophos, … Continue reading
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Session 24: Stepping up the career ladder
Leading on from last week’s inspiring career advice afternoon with Kiki McDonough, the Go_Girls have decided to attend an upcoming job fair. Hosted in the Oxford MINI Plant by OxLEP, the Careers Fest on the 6th of February is a … Continue reading
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Session 23: A visit from Kiki McDonough
As the famous saying goes, if you follow your passion you will never have to work a day in your life. But how do you find what really motivates you? And once you’ve found your raison d’être, how can you … Continue reading
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Session 22: New Year, New Goals
The first Go_Girl session since the Christmas break went off with a bang! The festive period, a difficult time for many across the country, was especially tricky for many of the Go_Girls. It was so wonderful to all get together … Continue reading
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Week 19: Stitching Up By Writing Code
After the great success of Cathy’s visit, we are very lucky to also be receiving a visit from Jo Hannaford, Head of EMEA Technology & Global Head of Quality Assurance Engineering at Goldman Sachs. She has been a big supporter of … Continue reading
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Session 18: All that glitters is #goals
Coding our own embroidery on Turtlestitch has really inspired the Go_Girl team. Many of the young women are creative spirits, and it has been exciting to explore the ways that technology can enhance our artistic endeavours. But making it in … Continue reading
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Session 17: CVs and Turtlestitch
Inspired by Julian Box talking about tech careers last week, this Go_Girl session tackled the issue of CVs. The average time a recruiter will spend looking at a CV is 5-7 seconds, and 76% of CVs are ignored if the … Continue reading
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Session 16: Practice makes perfect
This week the Go_Girls got to build on their presentation and Scratch skills. Giving short presentations each week on topics including technology-related jobs, and what it is like to be a young NEET in Oxfordshire, helps the young women to … Continue reading
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Session 15: Going Your Own Way
After a well-earned half term break the Go_Girls were back in the classroom and raring to get going. As with every session, we began with a group feedback exercise where the young women get to share what they’ve been up … Continue reading
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Session 14: Speaking Out and Practicing Presentations
Do you enjoy giving presentations? When asked this question, many people will respond with an abrupt ‘No!’. A study conducted in 2012, for example, found that ‘public speaking’ is a more commonly listed fear than ‘death’! That’s my halloween outfit … Continue reading
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Session 13: Coding – a guessing game?
This week the Go_Girls got straight back into Scratch with a fun and challenging task. The young women were asked to create a ‘guessing game’ using the skills they had learnt last week. The little ‘sprite’, or animated character, central … Continue reading
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Session 12: Building games from Scratch
Are you an angry birds devotee? Or perhaps you’re more of a FIFA fan? If neither of those options appeal, then surely you’ve enjoyed a round of Pac-Man or Tetris in your time? Online gaming is a global phenomenon – … Continue reading
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Session 11: All Aboard the HTML Train
The Internet is everywhere – but do we know how to define it? This week the Go_Girls explored the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web, as well as coding their own webpage. Impressive going for a grey … Continue reading
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Session 10: Mastering blogging and doing the robot
Following on from the great success of last week’s blogging session, this week saw the Go_Girls continue to work on their individual sites. Some of the young women have been working on their blogs in their own free time, adding … Continue reading
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Session 8: Spot the code and visualising success
It is hard to believe that we are at the end of the Go_Girl summer term! The last eight weeks have far exceeded everyone’s expectations in terms of the young women’s progress. They are very much on the way to … Continue reading
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Session 7: Cyberbullying, interviews and moving forward with work
For the penultimate session before the summer break the Go_Girls had a visit from Helena and Menisha, researchers from the Computer Science department at Oxford. As well as giving us some fascinating internet facts (Most popular celeb on Instagram? Selena … Continue reading
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Session 6: Social media, body image and dancing to our own rhythm
This week the Go_Girls tackled one of the most talked about pressures of our time – body image. Anyone with Instagram knows that tanned, toned (and more often than not edited) selfies are de rigueur on this social app. It’s … Continue reading
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Session 1: On the road(map) to success!
The second session of go_girl had a lot to live up to after the huge success of week 1. Unsurprisingly, however, week 2 proved to be another fantastic afternoon full of insightful discussions and fun activities. I was lucky enough … Continue reading
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