Tech Camps for Kids director and co-founder Brenda van Rensburg. Below: A child at the workshop.
Camera IconTech Camps for Kids director and co-founder Brenda van Rensburg. Below: A child at the workshop. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Balga-based business Tech Camps for Kids offers game design, coding and cyber safety workshops

Kate LeaverStirling Times

Tech Camps for Kids offers game design, coding and cyber safety workshops while teaching literacy skills for ages 6-12.

Co-founder Brenda van Rensburg, who is from a science, technology and education background, said the start-up business had grown rapidly from humble beginnings in 2015.

“It’s about teaching kids to use coding to design apps and games to aid in learning,” she said.

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“They learn coding themselves to develop their own unique games.

“One 12-year-old boy has made 21 games since Tech Camps for Kids and we even helped him take his original game to market.”

Ms van Rensburg said her background in holistic learning meant the groups did not have a “one size fits all approach”.

“We have many spectrum level students, ADD and ADHD kids and it helps them learn to communicate, which is really empowering,” she said.

“There are over 20 types of learning styles – we try adapt our teaching method to suit a child.

“If they don’t understand it is not their fault, we need to change our communication and the way we teach; it is their responsibility to put their hand up and say they don’t understand.”

With a strong focus on cyber safety, Ms van Rensburg said she also provided information to parents and children about staying safe online.

“We unfortunately have to teach that what you see is not what you get and you really have to question everything online,” she said.

“We did a demo; someone pretended they were chatting to kids in another room.

“Eventually they learnt the ‘12-year-old girl’ that came from a school around the corner was actually a 53-year-old man – that is an eye-opener for kids.”

Tech Camps for Kids recently won the 2017 Judges Award at the annual Stirling Small Business Awards, an award given to businesses driven by passion and determination.