PUPILS from a Barry primary school threw down their UK chocolate to visit another chocolate-known nation following their Easter break.

Colcot Primary School Year 6 pupils Bobbie Mccarthy and Charlee Fowler jetted out of the country after they were asked by Stuart Ball, from Microsoft to attend the launch of the Kodu Kup Europe at the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Brussels, Belgium.

Kodu is a visual programming language made specifically by Microsoft for children to create games on the PC and Xbox.

It is easily integrated throughout the curriculum, with strong links to literacy and numeracy, as well science, maths and geography, and can be used to teach creativity, problem solving and storytelling.

Kodu is used as part of the ICT curriculum at Colcot primary to teach children how to code on devices, whilst allowing a high degree of computational thinking and programming fundamentals.

The userface is easy to use and visually attractive for pupils from 6 years of age.

The girls presented on April, 29 at the Kodu Kup launch event to delegates from all over Europe and were the only female and primary age representatives on the day.

They joined a team of Kodu experts from the United Kingdom, Norway, Portugal and Belgium, and met Belgian students and teachers, institutions and representatives of the gaming industry in Europe.

They represented the UK having been chosen to exchange their inspiring coding examples of success with many gaming experts, including Alexandre Reidl, a deputy commissioner from the European Commission on Education.

They joined a panel of Kodu experts, including Stuart Ball, representing the Kodu Kup in the UK, a teacher from Norway and Portugal, both expert educators, and a moderator from Belgium.

Both answered challenging questions and spoke expressively and with confidence during the interactive discussions.

They talked about themselves and Colcot primary and their experiences of using ICT and Kodu as a programme for coding, and how this had impacted upon their learning.

Deputy head teacher, Mark Ellis said: “The girls were centre stage in front of a large audience of school representatives, researchers, institutions and industry representatives from all around Europe. Comments made by both young ladies such as, “It’s ok to make mistakes, you learn more from it and Kodu helps you to do that,” and “It uses all of your skills,” inspired many of the gaming representatives in the audience.

Both young ladies are an absolute credit to Colcot primary school, and represented themselves and the school in a very positive manner.”