Reviews

Roblox-Lua Coder

Riley enjoyed his time at this day camp and the careful and insightful attention of the teacher. He learned things he can apply as he goes forward, which is also great.

Roblox virtual camp

Hello Gabriele enjoyed the class especially last day when he had the chance to do a one to one lesson. He found in the beginning some difficulties to find the right buttons to press, perhaps is due to the fact that this was his first camp. Overall a nice experience. Let's see if he wants to j...

Hello
Gabriele enjoyed the class especially last day when he had the chance to do a one to one lesson.
He found in the beginning some difficulties to find the right buttons to press, perhaps is due to the fact that this was his first camp.
Overall a nice experience.
Let's see if he wants to join other camps in the future.
Personally I like your approach and it shows that you really care about the children and their learning.
Appreciated you contacted me when you have seen the feedback from Gabriele and took immediate action.
Thanks
Matteo

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FunTech Python Review

Lara enjoyed the Python class. It was her first time doing Python and coding that isn't Scratch Junior. The instructors were great -- energetic and encouraging. She had fun coding programs and was excited about having me try them at the end of each day.

Very engaged coding lesson, very good overall

The coding lessons seems well- structured, could be better to spend a bit time in each day to explain the learning objects and outcomes, and have a summary at the end of each lesson for study focus. There are some teaching contents delivered by direct recorded videos, which seems not very eff...

The coding lessons seems well- structured, could be better to spend a bit time in each day to explain the learning objects and outcomes, and have a summary at the end of each lesson for study focus.

There are some teaching contents delivered by direct recorded videos, which seems not very effective and kids may think they are not very interesting. Hand-on projects are embedded in the lesson which is very good, maybe some blend in more quiz or mini games in a group setting could keep students more concentrated in the study.

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Excellent course

My son thoroughly enjoyed the course and the tutor was brilliant! My only issue is the python dev environment. It was a bit intrusive for the tutors to have full control of our home computer. My son as a matter of principle and his age doesn’t have his own computer so has to use mine. Oth...

My son thoroughly enjoyed the course and the tutor was brilliant!

My only issue is the python dev environment. It was a bit intrusive for the tutors to have full control of our home computer.

My son as a matter of principle and his age doesn’t have his own computer so has to use mine. Other providers use a virtual environment which has python embedded for similar courses.

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A good experience overall of the Roblox - Game Developer camp

It was my son's first time of attending a coding camp with Fun Tech. He found his tutors fun and enjoyed the structure of the day. There were good break periods, however, from Weds - Friday the space they had to run around in after lunch was restricted which meant they spent more time on screen...

It was my son's first time of attending a coding camp with Fun Tech.
He found his tutors fun and enjoyed the structure of the day. There were good break periods, however, from Weds - Friday the space they had to run around in after lunch was restricted which meant they spent more time on screens than they should have.
Finally, I think given the cost of the course that a USB should be given to children, it is just a small token, but takes the pressure of having to remember and ensures that children get to take their work home.

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Great Experience with Funtech

Akein has told me that he has enjoyed his 3D Game Design Course very much, although he experienced a few problems, like his laptop crashing because of 'Unreal Engine', but he has said that he loved it and has lots of fun learning about different elements of 3D Game Design, so I think that overall...

Akein has told me that he has enjoyed his 3D Game Design Course very much, although he experienced a few problems, like his laptop crashing because of 'Unreal Engine', but he has said that he loved it and has lots of fun learning about different elements of 3D Game Design, so I think that overall, he had a brilliant time in the FunTech Course!

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Python Coder Residential Camp

My son enjoyed his week long residential camp with Funtech at Tonbridge. He learned a lot and from my perspective the camp was very well organised. While it's not Funtech's fault that some children are disruptive to the point of impacting negatively other participants' experience, nevertheless ...

My son enjoyed his week long residential camp with Funtech at Tonbridge. He learned a lot and from my perspective the camp was very well organised. While it's not Funtech's fault that some children are disruptive to the point of impacting negatively other participants' experience, nevertheless Funtech staff should be trained to deal with such situations. My son said there was virtually no discipline, and one particular child's behaviour was completely out of order to the point of extremely inappropriate, yet he was allowed to carry on like that through out the week. This would be the main area of improvement I would recommend.

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The camp was excellent.

The teachers were so friendly and helpful. They went over the most important aspects in cybersecurity. My kids learnt a lot. However, Arar has experienced bullying from the two boys who are 14 and 15r years old. The problem is that the trainers have no control on the students in class which may c...

The teachers were so friendly and helpful. They went over the most important aspects in cybersecurity. My kids learnt a lot. However, Arar has experienced bullying from the two boys who are 14 and 15r years old. The problem is that the trainers have no control on the students in class which may cause bit disruption in class. I would recommend more control policy on bullying. Other than that, everything was excellent.

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3D Coding at Barbican Centre 1st Aug to 5th Aug 2022 - Great fun and staff was very responsible

My daughter Bethan had a great experience at the above course. The instructor (Jamie I think it was) was very patient and had a good balance between discipline and fun. The only feedback I could see was that the waiting /lunch room felt a bit stuffy during that particular week. The lady who's in ...

My daughter Bethan had a great experience at the above course. The instructor (Jamie I think it was) was very patient and had a good balance between discipline and fun. The only feedback I could see was that the waiting /lunch room felt a bit stuffy during that particular week. The lady who's in charge of the registration was top notch ensuring the children's safety. Another feedback towards the end was that the laptop or connection might have been better in that it took my daughter a look time to download her game to the USB sticker and it wasn't properly saved and so she couldn't open it again afterwards.
Thanks.

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3Dgame design

Thomas really enjoyed this and learnt a lot. He’s continuing to practise at home over the holidays.
He did find the first day very slow, so maybe the pace needs to move faster or be more practical to improve it.

Python

Our two boys (10 & 12) had a great week's residential at Tonbridge School. Both are more excited and knowledgeable about coding than before. They enjoyed the tuition (thank you Isaac and Robin), scuba diving, made some good friends and assure me they ate well! They are both keen to return for Lev...

Our two boys (10 & 12) had a great week's residential at Tonbridge School. Both are more excited and knowledgeable about coding than before. They enjoyed the tuition (thank you Isaac and Robin), scuba diving, made some good friends and assure me they ate well! They are both keen to return for Level 2.

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3D Games Design

We had amassed a large amount Childcare Vouchers over the past few years, which we needed to off-load before our children got too old. We were looking for something that might be appropriate for our son, who is 11, loves gaming, and has been looking for a way to level-up from Scratch and Roblox f...

We had amassed a large amount Childcare Vouchers over the past few years, which we needed to off-load before our children got too old. We were looking for something that might be appropriate for our son, who is 11, loves gaming, and has been looking for a way to level-up from Scratch and Roblox for a while now - and this seemed to fit the bill. He was a bit dubious at first though - "this feels a bit like school" - he said when I dropped him off on the first day, and he had a point. When I picked him up at the end of the first day, he was very tired - it was a long day for him. He told me it was "good", but the last two hours were a bit boring. I started to get a bit worried about the rest of the week. When I picked him up at the end of the second day he was much happier and told me that he didn't get bored at the end of the day this time. On the third day, he was tired, but absolutely buzzing when I picked him up, and he was surprised at how fast the day had gone. By Thursday he was really into it, and was telling me all about the game he was making which had 5 different endings. At the end of Friday we had a show-and-tell, where the children were able to show their parents what they had made, and transfer their projects onto USB thumb-drives to take home with them.

Overall I think our son was very happy with the experience, and he has learnt a lot - I think I will have to try and get him to teach me some Unreal now. Thank you!

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Summer Camp

Riley had a fantastic time at his camp and came back each day brimming with ideas. He liked the teacher and the pace of the teaching.

Indie game course review

My son did enjoy the virtual course but it was a lot of screen time. Some longer breaks may have been good

Worthwhile

Long days - might be better as a school day length.
Would be nice if there were more older kids.
Worthwhile course though.

Kept my 9yo engaged and enthused

The course was really good. My daughter was really happy to see her creations progress from design and build to published status. The teacher was great and small groups made it easy to learn. If I could say anything constructive it would be that maybe they could be offered a bit shorter too a...

The course was really good. My daughter was really happy to see her creations progress from design and build to published status.
The teacher was great and small groups made it easy to learn.
If I could say anything constructive it would be that maybe they could be offered a bit shorter too as a full time week (or 10 mornings 9-1) felt a little long.

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Well run, excellent instructors and great support provided

Lessons were well conducted, enthusiastic instructors. I was particularly impressed by the additional consolidation sessions provided if the child requires it as that meant no kid would be left behind in subsequent lessons if he/she didn’t understand a particular concept.

Great experience

My son enjoyed his time studying with FunTech. The follow up 'prep sessions' to ensure full understanding were a definite asset.

Purecoder 1

My son really enjoyed the Purecoder 1 course. The pace of the course was just about right - not too fast or slow and seemed fairly age appropriate too for a 10-11 year old. The tutor was quite patient and on a couple of instances we were offered extra makeup class to help my son cope. Overall we ...

My son really enjoyed the Purecoder 1 course. The pace of the course was just about right - not too fast or slow and seemed fairly age appropriate too for a 10-11 year old. The tutor was quite patient and on a couple of instances we were offered extra makeup class to help my son cope. Overall we were very happy and satisfied.

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Virtual Bots

My son enjoyed the course, and liked the teachers and other boys, but I didn't think the venue was really very appropriate for a group of this age group (predominantly 7-9). A school setting with much quicker and easier access to the outside to burn off steam would be better for the children and ...

My son enjoyed the course, and liked the teachers and other boys, but I didn't think the venue was really very appropriate for a group of this age group (predominantly 7-9). A school setting with much quicker and easier access to the outside to burn off steam would be better for the children and for the staff, with the serviced offices saved for older groups. I don't think it is healthy for young children to be kept inside for hours on end without fresh air. I would certainly be keen for him to attend another Funtech course, but would not book at this venue again.

I was disappointed that the original course we booked was cancelled, Lego Robotics Coder, as I think my son would have got more out of getting to build a physical robot. I hope that course will be offered again another session.
I was also disappointed that the original mid-July dates were cancelled. I am sure I am not the only parent who was delighted to find a course early in the school holidays, as many things only start when state school holidays do. It was a blow when it was cancelled.

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2020-21 pure code level 3

Oscar has enjoyed the course and we are happy with the progress he has made

Very good

My son really enjoyed this course and found it useful

My son enjoyed it thoroughly

My son really enjoyed the Roblox Game Developer Holiday Camp. I was advised to send him to this course after stating that he had only ever played Roblox but no knowledge of anything behind the scenes. He did some simple scripting and, as mentioned, he enjoyed it very much and gave it 5 stars. Fro...

My son really enjoyed the Roblox Game Developer Holiday Camp. I was advised to send him to this course after stating that he had only ever played Roblox but no knowledge of anything behind the scenes. He did some simple scripting and, as mentioned, he enjoyed it very much and gave it 5 stars. From the parent's viewpoint I am not convinced whether he would have been better off in the other Roblox course.

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Python coder

Very happy with the camp. We would consider a term-time coding course online.

My son enjoyed the virtual camp, but he is not using anything he learned

I am happy my son Nick enjoyed the half-term virtual camp on Minecraft with mods and this is why he is now enrolled in a term time year long course with FunTech. I am not experienced in Minecraft at all, so it is difficult for me to evaluate how much he learned to be able to do mods himself in Mi...

I am happy my son Nick enjoyed the half-term virtual camp on Minecraft with mods and this is why he is now enrolled in a term time year long course with FunTech. I am not experienced in Minecraft at all, so it is difficult for me to evaluate how much he learned to be able to do mods himself in Minecraft, but I see that he is not doing it. It might be because he is interested more in playing with friends on servers, a topic which was not in the scope of this virtual camp. Nevertheless he had a positive experience and I am happy to keep enrolling him in different FunTech courses.

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Minecraft Engineering Course

Happy with the camp

Python Game Developer

A bit of a slow start as Jamie had already worked with Python. But after initial 2 sessions he found it really good. Worked well doing half a day over 2 weeks worked well.

Very useful

Got my 12 year old daughter enrolled in a 2 week "online camp" for Java coding, after much of deliberation.
Pleased to say - she made the most of it and has found it very useful !
Definitely recommend it !!!

Python Coder

My 11yr old son really enjoyed the Python Coder course. This course was recommended as he had already worked out Minecraft Redstone engineering himself. Before the course he was intrigued but concerned everyone else would know more than him. I explained this to Funtech and they were very appro...

My 11yr old son really enjoyed the Python Coder course. This course was recommended as he had already worked out Minecraft Redstone engineering himself. Before the course he was intrigued but concerned everyone else would know more than him. I explained this to Funtech and they were very approachable and offered a 10 min taster session so he could see how it worked and maybe talk about Minecraft - which he didn't want to do but was happy about the course. There were only 3 on the course.

A few weeks later, my son did the Python Game Developer course. There were 8 on the course, and straight away, my son felt out of his depth and was lost. I think he was too shy to ask for help, When I explained this to Funtech mid course, they offered 1-2-1 consolidation course in the afternoon, but my son was too lost by then and not interested. Funtech kindly offered Java Coder instead, which my son started, felt a lot better about, still needed a consolidation afternoon and chose not to continue the course.

To conclude, I think the course and opportunity is great. Funtech really did everything they could to make sure my son felt some level of success, growing on from his experience of the Python Coder course. It may be some children are overwhelmed or don't feel they can ask for help, and so it was a shame that I wasn't aware of the potential consolidation lessons until it was too late on the Python Game Developer course, especially as another boy had one, a boy who attended the same Python Coder course as my son. In my son's case, I know he would feel shame if he showed he had fallen behind and so was not equipped confidence-wise to ask for help in front of others. Funtech did tell me that not everyone likes the style/format of teaching, hence their offer of the consolidation lessons which really goes a very long way to hopefully provide an element of success int heir learning.

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Python coder, Good course, those with certain learning difficulties may struggle

Good course, my daughter learnt lots of code for User interface creation. But did struggle with her slow auditory processing speed and dyslexia on this course as very tutor verbal describe and text type heavy. Being asked to type certain words in the script or create folders with certain name...

Good course, my daughter learnt lots of code for User interface creation.
But did struggle with her slow auditory processing speed and dyslexia on this course as very tutor verbal describe and text type heavy.

Being asked to type certain words in the script or create folders with certain names is also problematic if you don't know how to spell them.

But overall she enjoyed it despite these issues.

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Minecraft redstone

My son had a really good time on the minecraft redstone camp and learnt a lot. He particularly enjoyed applying his skills to make a house full of redstone gadgets. Sometimes both he and I felt that too much content was being presented in a single session - particularly when learning about gate...

My son had a really good time on the minecraft redstone camp and learnt a lot. He particularly enjoyed applying his skills to make a house full of redstone gadgets. Sometimes both he and I felt that too much content was being presented in a single session - particularly when learning about gates. One thing which could usefully improve the camp would be having a pdf document with some notes to refer back to, both during the course and after it has finished.

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From a newbie coder's point of view

"Actually quite fun" - for someone who has no knowledge of coding to one who is adamant he has to get his code correct and play the game he just created. Good fun and 2 weeks pace is just nice to dip into Python for a 12 year old.

Well run course which my daughter enjoyed.

The course provides the attendees with a basic overview of Java, using a procedural programming style. The course was well run, with a good pace through the week and my daughter enjoyed it a lot and learned about Java. There was some interaction between the participants and the tutor seemed t...

The course provides the attendees with a basic overview of Java, using a procedural programming style.

The course was well run, with a good pace through the week and my daughter enjoyed it a lot and learned about Java. There was some interaction between the participants and the tutor seemed to be friendly and experienced.

My only slight negative comment is that I think the content of the course could be more ambitous given it is 5 days long. It seems quite odd to teach Java and not introduce classes (or in Java 14 records). Java is an object-oriented language and so classes and objects are central to understanding and using it. If the attendees have done any Python, a lot of the content of the course is very familiar, they're just changing syntax so I would think that classes could be introduced gently on day 2 or 3 without overwhelming the students.

All in all though, a good use of my daughter's week which she enjoyed.

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My Review

Luca enjoyed some parts of this course but struggled with the virtual side. With his dyslexia he struggles remembering the instructions so we ended up taking a photo because the instructions moved on. He also found the constant chattering of some students very off putting, making it hard to conc...

Luca enjoyed some parts of this course but struggled with the virtual side. With his dyslexia he struggles remembering the instructions so we ended up taking a photo because the instructions moved on. He also found the constant chattering of some students very off putting, making it hard to concentrate and hear. The instructor was very helpful and Luca gained confidence to use the messaging chat to ask for help over the first few days. Its a hard course but very interesting and Luca said he would have preferred a classroom - at least he tried!

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Alex review

Alex enjoyed the camp but felt the lunchtime could have been made more interesting

Max review

Max enjoyed the camp but felt the lunchtimes could have been made more interesting

Logistics

Hi - thank you very much, my son, had a great time at the FunTyper course and many thanks again for allowing him to attend for just 4 days and to have extended access to the online facility following the course. I've only given a 4 rating as the logistics were very hard. It was quite a long day ...

Hi - thank you very much, my son, had a great time at the FunTyper course and many thanks again for allowing him to attend for just 4 days and to have extended access to the online facility following the course.
I've only given a 4 rating as the logistics were very hard. It was quite a long day plus the time travelling at the beginning and end of each day - unfortunately, a car journey and then the bus transfer for Nat - it was just exhausting for him. A later start time / shorter day would have helped us with that.

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I'd come again.

I think my child enjoyed the week and has learnt the fundamentals of touch typing. I look forward to helping her practice and returning to a further class. Thanks

Lot of Fun

My 11 year old son really enjoyed the course. He was very enthusiastic to attend each day, making sure we arrived on time! He has learnt some coding skills and I hope he will take this further. Despite the school setting there has been no complaint of this being a "summer school", however I sti...

My 11 year old son really enjoyed the course. He was very enthusiastic to attend each day, making sure we arrived on time! He has learnt some coding skills and I hope he will take this further.
Despite the school setting there has been no complaint of this being a "summer school", however I still feel there has been educational value.
Only disappointment has been that we are told we cannot take the robots home with us at the end of the course. I suspect there will be further spending on equipment in the future.
Overall a worthwhile investment and a different experience from the traditional holiday camps.

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