Every session begins with an energiser. Usually there’s a rota showing who will lead the energiser. We have some favourite games you can play if you are stuck.

Traffic Jam: re-order the cars to unblock yourself
Telephone: draw the words and write the pictures
Popcorn show and tell: popcorn around the room and show one nearby object or something in your pocket or bag and explain what it means to you.

Learning Objectives

Introduce and welcome new volunteers
Nominate a timekeeper
Check the morning day plan and group structures

Planning during the week

🧭 During the week, create a post on Slack and get some people to take on the roles of facilitator and timekeeper. Nominate new people each time.

👣 Steps

If you haven’t done so already, choose someone (volunteer or trainee) to be the facilitator for this morning orientation block. Choose another to be the timekeeper.

🎙️ The Facilitator will:

Assemble the entire group (all volunteers & all trainees) in a circle
Briefly welcome everyone with an announcement, like this:
💬 “Morning everyone, Welcome to CYF {REGION}, this week we are working on {MODULE} {SPRINT} and we’re currently working on {SUMMARISE THE TOPICS OF THE WEEK}”
Ask any newcomers to introduce themselves to the group, and welcome them.
Now check: is it the start of a new module? Is it sprint 1? If so, read out the success criteria for the new module.
Next go through the morning day plan only (typically on the curriculum website) - and check the following things:

Facilitator Checklist

Check the number of volunteers you have for the morning
Check someone is leading each session
Describe how any new activities works for the group
Decide how best to allocate trainees and volunteers for a given block - most blocks will make this clear

⏰ The Timekeeper will:

Announce the start of an activity and how long it will take (check everyone is listening)
Manage any whole class timers that are used in an activity
Give people a 10-minute wrap-up warning before the end of an activity
Announce the end of an activity and what happens next

Learning Objectives

Discuss hard and soft skills in a tech team
Describe different roles in tech teams
Explain the importance of agreeing on clear goals for the team

Preparation

You must have done the prep work.

Introduction

Collaborative software development equals higher-quality products and efficient development cycles. Team synergy, knowledge, and diverse skills are crucial to achieving this. We are going to talk about these roles and their responsibilities.

Brainstorm about teamwork in the tech industry.

🎯 Goal: Discuss teamwork in the tech industry. (35 minutes)

Think about the teams you will work with in tech. Discuss in your team:

What is your dream job?
What professional roles will be in your team?
What other people/teams will you interact with?
What non-technical skills will you bring?
What non-technical skills should you develop while at CYF?
Which of the Belbin’s tole do you identify strongest with?

Define which team member will be the time keeper for your team.
Work in your teams for about 10 minutes and write down brief answers to each question.
Assign one of the team members as speaker to deliver your answers back to the class in maximum 2 minutes.

Discuss the roles in a product team

🎯 Goal: To discuss the importance of different roles in tech teams. (10 minutes)

The following are the roles typically found within a development team. As you see, there are plenty of roles other than ‘Full-Stack Developer’.

Discuss as a class the responsibilities of the following tech roles.

Write a brief description for each of them on a post-it and share the post it on a collaborative board:

Front-end web developer
Back-end web developer
UX/UI designer
UX researcher
Product manager
Quality Assurance/Quality Engineer (tester)
Tech lead

Team Charter

🎯 Goal: To discuss the importance of setting clear goals and responsibilities within a team. (15 minutes)

You might come across a ceremony called “team charter” in your future work.

Team charters define roles, responsibilities and ways of working. If these are not clear to you when you join a new company, you should ask and seek clarification urgently.

Discuss as a class:

Why is it important for your team to understand their main goal?
Why is it important for everybody on your team to understand the role each other plays?
What is the importance of having clear ways of working?
What happens when you are not clear about these three points?

Spend the rest of your time clarifying any questions about the project and the coursework for the first week.

Every Saturday we cook and eat together. We share our food and our stories. We learn about each other and the world. We build community.

This is everyone’s responsibility, so help with what is needed to make this happen, for example, organising the food, setting up the table, washing up, tidying up, etc. You can do something different every week. You don’t need to be constantly responsible for the same task.

Learning Objectives

Resolve blockers in your coursework
Express and resolve problems effectively by writing tickets and asking questions
Give and receive code review
Develop your personal portfolio
Pair programme
Evaluate your progress with peers and mentors

What are we doing now?

You’re going to use this time to work through coursework. Your cohort will collectively self-organise to work through the coursework together in your own way. Sort yourselves into groups that work for you.

Use this time wisely

You will have study time in almost every class day. Don’t waste it. Use it to:

work through the coursework
ask questions and get unblocked
give and receive code review
work on your portfolio
develop your own projects

🛎️ Code waiting for review 🔗

Below are trainee coursework Pull Requests that need to be reviewed by volunteers.

WESTMIDLANDS| ITP-MAY-2025| SARA TAHIR| SPRINT 3| PROGRAMMING HUMOUR. 🔗

Learners, PR Template

Self checklist

I have committed my files one by one, on purpose, and for a reason
I have titled my PR with Region | Cohort | FirstName LastName | Sprint | Assignment Title
I have tested my changes
My changes follow the style guide
My changes meet the requirements of this task

Changelist

Briefly explain your PR.

Questions

Ask any questions you have for your reviewer.

Start a review

London | ITP-May-2025 | Aida Eslamimoghadam | Module-Data-Flows | Sprint 2- My Book Library 🔗

Learners, PR Template

Self checklist

I have committed my files one by one, on purpose, and for a reason
I have titled my PR with Region | Cohort | FirstName LastName | Sprint | Assignment Title
I have tested my changes
My changes follow the style guide
My changes meet the requirements of this task

Changelist

Fixed syntax errors
Removed only rows (not full table)
Improved form validation
Fixed adding new book issue

Questions

I would appreciate it if you could check my files and provide a review.

Start a review

ZA | ITP-May-2025 | Revive Munashe Mapfumo | Module-Data-Flows | Debug book library 🔗

Learners, PR Template

Self checklist

I have committed my files one by one, on purpose, and for a reason
I have titled my PR with Region | Cohort | FirstName LastName | Sprint | Assignment Title
I have tested my changes
My changes follow the style guide
My changes meet the requirements of this task

Changelist

Adds defer to script for improved rendering Implements typo fixes in the script.js file Addresses several bugs in the program such as wrong variable names

Questions

Ask any questions you have for your reviewer.

Start a review

Learners, PR Template

Self checklist

I have committed my files one by one, on purpose, and for a reason
have titled my PR with Region | Cohort | FirstName LastName | Sprint | Assignment Title
I have tested my changes
My changes follow the style guide
My changes meet the requirements of this task

Changelist

Implemented a book list app with features to add, view, and delete books, including title, author, page count, and read status. Fixed bugs related to incorrect author assignment, broken delete button, read status display, and form validation.

Questions

Ask any questions you have for your reviewer.

Start a review

Glasgow | ITP-May-2025 | Nataliia Volkova | Sprint 2 | book library 🔗

Learners, PR Template

Self checklist

I have committed my files one by one, on purpose, and for a reason
I have titled my PR with Region | Cohort | FirstName LastName | Sprint | Assignment Title
I have tested my changes
My changes follow the style guide
My changes meet the requirements of this task

Changelist

Briefly explain your PR.

Questions

Ask any questions you have for your reviewer.

Start a review

See more pull requests

Please feel comfortable and welcome to pray at this time if this is part of your religion.

If you are breastfeeding and would like a private space, please let us know.

Learning Objectives

Resolve blockers in your coursework
Express and resolve problems effectively by writing tickets and asking questions
Give and receive code review
Develop your personal portfolio
Pair programme
Evaluate your progress with peers and mentors

What are we doing now?

You’re going to use this time to work through coursework. Your cohort will collectively self-organise to work through the coursework together in your own way. Sort yourselves into groups that work for you.

Use this time wisely

You will have study time in almost every class day. Don’t waste it. Use it to:

work through the coursework
ask questions and get unblocked
give and receive code review
work on your portfolio
develop your own projects

🕹️Retro (20 minutes)

A retro is a chance to reflect. You can do this on RetroTool (create a free anonymous retro and share the link with the class) or on sticky notes on a wall.

Set a timer for 5 minutes. There’s one on the RetroTool too.
Write down as many things as you can think of that you’d like to start, stop, and continue doing next sprint.
Write one point per note and keep it short.
When the timer goes off, one person should set a timer for 1 minute and group the notes into themes.
Next, set a timer for 2 minutes and all vote on the most important themes by adding a dot or a +1 to the note.
Finally, set a timer for 8 minutes and all discuss the top three themes.