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

Identify users and user needs for a product
Explain the functionality of a product

Preparation

Have post-its and pens and a collaborative board

Introduction

You will work together through these exercises to ensure everyone understands and can apply the concepts your read about.

Discuss the theory you read about

🎯 Goal: To explain the product, MVP, feature, and user story concepts (20 minutes)

Create a collaborative board with the following concepts
- Product
- MVP
- Feature
- User story
Briefly discuss as a class what we mean by each concepts.
Each trainee should write 1 phrase/word per Post-it (e.g. The first working software) and put it in against the concept (in this example, MVP) on the collaborative board
Review the posts as a group
Ensure any questions are clarified

Who will use your product?

🎯 Goal: To identify the users of a product (20 minutes)

During the previous week’s coursework, you defined your team’s product.

Discuss the following questions as a team to identify your product’s users.
- Who are your users?
- What different user profiles will be?
- What user needs does your product try to address?
Write down a a short description of your product, users, and user needs, which will be played back to the wider group.
One speaker will represent the team (ideally not the same person that talked in the previous lesson). Each speaker has only 1 minute to describe the product, user and user needs.

Make sure someone is the time keeper so all groups have the same amount of time.

Brainstorming about your users' problems

🎯 Goal: To identify how products achieve user needs (20 minutes)

In your teams, brainstorm the following questions to understand your product better.

What is the functionality of your product?
How does it address the user’s needs / solve their problem?

Pair with another team.

Share your answers to the questions above in turns.

Provide feedback, opinions, and additional suggestions to each other.

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.

Manchester | 25-ITP-May | Jennifer Isidienu | Sprint 3 | Quote Generator 🔗

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

Manchester | 25-ITP-May | Jennifer Isidienu | Sprint 3 | Alarm Clock 🔗

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

Manchester | 25-ITP-May | Jennifer Isidienu | Sprint 2 | Data Group 🔗

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

Manchester | ITP May 2025 | Chukwuemeke Ajuebor | Sprint 3 | Quote generator app 🔗

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

This PR involved more interactivity between the javascript html and css files helped to consolidate all the learning from previous exercises. Setting up code such that functions are available when called. I learned about deferring the activity on the javascript file until the HTML was fully loaded.

Questions

None

Start a review

Manchester | ITP May 2025 | Chukwuemeke Ajuebor | Sprint 3 | Alarm clock app 🔗

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

In this PR, I learnt about creating events and how javascript interacts with the webpage in the DOM I understood better the key differences global variables and function declarations can make in script of code. I also learned about function such as setInterval and clearInterval and their relevance to building setting types of projects.

Questions

No questions for now.

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.