Healthy-eating themed Bupa Coding Days for schools

Healthcare company BUPA has partnered with social enterprise Get with the Program, to launch free healthy-eating themed Bupa Coding Days.

The new initiative for 5–9-year-olds inspires the children around healthy eating as they learn coding concepts with ‘Professor’ Trice and her sidekick Al the Robot. Engaging and highly interactive, there’s a 30-minute panto-style online show, with two fun 45-minute follow-up activities to support the children’s learning. One of these is unplugged, requiring no computers or devices, so as many children and schools as possible can participate.

Three Bupa Coding Days are planned throughout the year, giving schools free access to the show and activities – usually £360. The first will be held on 14 September 2022, to coincide with the start of National Coding Week, and schools are encouraged to sign up now for their KS1 and lower KS2 students. There’s also an opportunity to nominate a school of your choice, and for volunteers who’d like to help out on the day at a local school. Anyone can register their interest at www.getwiththeprogram.org.uk/bupa.

As Jeni Trice, Chief Coding Adventurer at Get with the Program, explains; “At Get with the Program our mission is to inspire the tech innovators of the future, introducing coding concepts to children at a young age to inspire them on the path to a future in technology. Our fun, exciting coding adventures take children on a journey, capturing their creative imaginations, whilst incorporating real world themes, like healthy eating.

“We also highlight diverse and inclusive role models to encourage and inspire all children, to broaden horizons and aspirations. Not everyone’s drawn to coding and tech but you can make it accessible to everyone.

“We’re absolutely delighted to be partnering with Bupa on this initiative. Coding and health are two essentials for our children’s futures, and our hope is that one day these children will help solve the world’s biggest challenges in healthcare.”

Diana Kennedy, Group Chief Technology and Architecture Officer at Bupa, commented, “It’s fantastic to be working with Get with the Program to promote the joys and opportunities of coding to young people. The world would truly be a better place if more people could code, and the journey starts in our schools. We need the greatest minds working to tackle the challenges and opportunities of human healthcare for many decades, so inspiring the younger generation into STEM careers is our collective responsibility."

Paula Oyella, Nutritionist and Clinical Evidence Specialist at Bupa, who also features in the Healthy Lunch-Bot Coding Adventure, added, “It's a really exciting initiative and here at Bupa we’re all proud to be working with Get with the Program on this vital project – and delighted that we can inspire children around coding while also highlighting the importance of healthy eating.”

Christine Lynch, Headteacher of Heatherside Infant School in Fleet, Hampshire, commented, “I would recommend a Get with the Program coding adventure to any headteacher because it's engaging, it's fun and it encapsulates the key terms from the national computing curriculum so brilliantly.”