The second week of the April school holidays are going to be a blast, with seven student workshops and one teacher workshop being run out of libraries across the Wellington region. Best of all, the workshops are all free to attend thanks to Hutt City Libraries and sponsorship by Grow Wellington.

Gather Workshops will be running the eight Building the Web workshops in our signature style, focusing on the fun and creative opportunities offered by coding. Each workshop will be presented by an experienced Gather Workshops presenter, and supported by a volunteer team of industry mentors from tech companies across the city.

Workshops begin on Saturday 11th April, and will be run for a different group of students each day for a full week. Each workshop will be held at a different location around the city and will be divided between junior groups (age 12–14) and seniors (age 15–18), with one workshop day dedicated entirely to teachers.

Sat 11 April — Upper Hutt City Library
Age 15–18, 9am-3pm | book now

Sun 12 April — Wellington Central Library
Age 12–14, 9am-3pm | FULL

Mon 13 April — Wellington Central Library
Age 15–18, 9am-3pm | FULL

Tue 14 April — Porirua Central Library
Age 12–14, 9am-3pm | FULL

Wed 15 April — Waiata House, Lincoln Rd, Masterton
Age 12–14, 9am-3pm | book now

Thu 16 April — War Memorial Library, Hutt City Libraries
Age 12–14, 9am-3pm | FULL

Fri 17 April — Taita Computer Clubhouse, Hutt City Libraries
Teachers, 9am-4pm | book now

Sat 18 April — Taita Computer Clubhouse, Hutt City Libraries
Age 15–18, 9am-3pm | book now

Keen to share your love of code?
Join us as a mentor!

The content of the workshops is aimed at beginners, so is ideal for those who have always thought coding sounds kinda cool but haven’t known where to start. Students need only to know the basics of computer use — how to create, copy and rename files, navigate around the Internet, and type proficiently.

The coding part of the workshop begins right at the basics and students spend the day building up their skill set. They design a web page of their own, choose all the content, add images and video, and finally publish it online to share with the world.

The teacher workshop covers the same essential skills as the student workshops, with the benefit of being an all-teacher environment. This provides an opportunity for networking and discussing how the ideas covered might be taught in the classroom.

Our Building the Web workshop is always highly praised for having a good balance between “challenging” and “rewarding”. Feedback from past students says it all:

Student Feedback

After I had finished the course I realized that coding and programming isn’t as inaccessible as the average person believes. I feel that I now have another option when it comes to tertiary education and choosing a career.
- Awatapu College student

It was fun and made me think creatively and productively. I enjoyed it and it gave me a outlook of what website designers do.
- Otahuhu College student

It was just cool like thinking that all this “nonsense” as some people will call it actually runs what we use most in our everyday lives.
- Tamaki College student

10/10 best experience I’ve had with friends and coding in my lifetime.
- Waitakere College student

These workshops will see up to 210 students and 30 teachers experience what it feels like to code, to actively contribute to the web and to share their creativity through a medium which may be entirely new to some. This holiday series is an incredibly exciting programme and we are grateful for the opportunity to introduce so many to the joys of code. Bring on the fun!

Spaces are limited for this free series of workshops, so don’t miss out — book soon, and bring your friends. See you there!