Term-Time Dev Squad (age 12+, invitation-only)
£495Per Term (pro rata)
This course is currently unavailable. For information on our active Term-Time courses, please visit this page: Spark4kids’ Term Time Courses
To book this course, select your options from the “Book Course” section on this page and then click on “Add to Basket”. You can also add other courses (on other pages) to the basket. Once you are happy with the courses you have selected, click “View Basket” to complete your booking.
Course Information
The Spark4Kids Dev Squad is an invitation-only course that extends the “Games Design 4 Kids” course, with a focus on building and releasing mobile games to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The course will introduce attendees to the real world process of ideation, games design and development, app store certification, release as well as post-release app management. Members of the Dev Squad will also be attendees on the “Games Design 4 Kids” course (see below for enrolment information).
The number of attendees of the Dev Squad will be limited to 10 attendees per term.
Pre-requisites and Enrolling
To join the Dev Squad, attendees will either have to have attained app development experience on our existing “Games Design 4 Kids” course and then been invited to join the Dev Squad, or be able to present a portfolio of games or applications for review by Spark4Kids before joining (external applicants).
For external applicants looking to join the Dev Squad, the fees for joining are the same as existing Spark4Kids members, however as stated above, a review of potential attendee’s portfolio of apps/games is a pre-requisite for joining.
External applicants wishing to join the Dev Squad should get in touch with us using the contact details at the bottom of this web page, in order to initiate the process of joining. Note that newly registered attendees on the “Games Design 4 Kids” course will be required to build up knowledge of the course before being invited to join the Dev Squad.
Summer Term 2024
The Online Summer Term 2024 starts Saturday 27th April and will run until Saturday 6th July 2024 (inclusive).
Classes run 12pm-1pm, and are accessed online through Microsoft Teams.
Please note that there will be no coding sessions on Saturday 1st June due to the Half-Term break.
All times shown are UK times – please convert to your local time to ensure the online classes work for you.
Please contact us if you have any questions.
Session Structure
With a tutor-to-child ratio of 1:6, attendees complete their coding challenges in their own time, and at their own pace – and always with a tutor on hand to provide support. Sessions for each course are held weekly, on the day and time chosen at the time of course registration.
Taster Sessions
We offer Taster Sessions for any child wishing to experience our courses before committing to attend for the rest of the term.
During the Taster Session, we will evaluate the child’s ability with a view to making a recommendation regarding which course they might want to consider. Of course, if the child (or parent) has their own views on what course they want to attend, we will do our best to accommodate or suggest a path towards being able to eventually take the preferred course.
- Further information about our In-Person Taster Sessions can be found here: Book an In-Person Taster Session
- If you wish to register for a Taster Session for one of our Online courses, please get in touch with your preferred course, date and time.
Starting After The Term Has Begun
With Spark4Kids, there is no such thing as a late start – your child can start with us any week during the term and they will not miss out on any course material (they start working on their coding challenges from the beginning of the syllabus).
The earlier you book your child on a course though, the more likely you are to obtain a space.
Safeguarding Policy
All of our tutors are DBS-checked, and our website as well as virtual LIVE! classrooms have high levels of security built-in, using standard security protocols to secure yours and our data.
All sessions are also monitored continuously, and our tutors will not tolerate bullying, bad language or inappropriate questions, conversations or content.
Follow this link to access our Safeguarding Policy.
Further Information
Attending a Course Multiple Times
You can re-book your child onto the same Spark4Kids course multiple times if they wish to continue working through the course material. We are constantly updating our courses and there are always new coding challenges to tackle. We are also able to tailor coding challenges to suit your child if they have a clear idea as to what they would like to work on (kindly email us about this prior to the course starting).
Discounts for Siblings, Friends and Multiple Bookings
We offer discounts on bookings that feature multiple course registrations, whether they be for the same or different children. A discount of 10% is automatically applied to every subsequent course at Checkout.
Please be aware that to receive discounts all courses must feature together in the same shopping basket and be paid for at the same time. They do not apply if sessions for siblings or other multiple sessions are booked and paid for in separate transactions.
New! Group Discounts
We now support group bookings where you get a Spark4Kids Group Discount applied when you book as a group of two or more. We have always automatically applied discounts to orders for multiple course bookings for siblings – now we are extending this discount to general group bookings.
If your child has friends who share their interest in computer coding, games design or touch-typing, speak to the other parents to see if they are interested in a Group Discount, and then use our brand new Group Discounts page to invite them to book.
Paying by Instalments
Spark4Kids accepts payment by instalments on some of our courses, provided that the booking is placed over a month before the course start date.
To pay for a course by instalments, kindly select the course you want, add to basket, and then proceed to Checkout by clicking “View Basket” (you may need access to your email account). At Checkout, choose “Pay by Instalments” as the payment option, and follow the on-screen prompts to complete your booking.
Childcare Vouchers
Spark4Kids accepts childcare vouchers as fee payment towards all of our courses from a variety of childcare voucher providers.
A full list is available here: Spark4Kids Childcare Providers
To pay for a course using childcare vouchers, select the course you want, add to basket, and then proceed to Checkout by clicking “View Basket” (you may need access to your email account). When at Checkout, choose “Pay with Childcare Vouchers” as the payment option, and follow the on-screen prompts to complete your booking (you will soon be emailed the voucher payment details for Spark4Kids in order to complete the payment.
We can also accept a fee payment that is split between a childcare voucher payment and a standard debit/credit card payment (e.g. if your remaining childcare voucher balance isn’t enough to cover the course fee). To do this, kindly get in touch using the contact details listed in the footer of this page.
Stencyl System Requirements
The system requirements below only apply if your child is attending the online, remotely accessible version of this course.
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Icons courtesy of Icon8
- Hardware: Desktop or laptop computer, microphone and speakers (or headset with mic), mouse and keyboard, a fast internet connection.
- Operating System: Windows 7 or above, Macs (OS X 10.14 Mojave or above) and Linux (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS or later/ Debian Jessie or later/or libc6 2.15 or later)
- License: Free
- Memory: 1GB
- Disk Space: 390MB
To find out what your computers’ technical specifications are, kindly use the links below:
Our online classroom software requires minimum internet speeds of 5 Mbps for upload and 15 Mbps for download. The vast majority of broadband providers’ packages will exceed these speeds. To test the speed of your broadband click the link below:
Unity3D System Requirements
The system requirements below only apply if your child is attending the online, remotely accessible version of this course.
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Icons courtesy of Icon8
- Hardware: Desktop or laptop computer, microphone and speakers (or headset with mic), mouse and keyboard, a fast internet connection.
- Operating System: Windows 7 or above (64bit only), Mac (10.12 or above), Chromebook (Linux Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04 and CentOS 7)
- License: Free
- Memory: 8GB RAM (minimum, preferably 16GB)
- Disk Space: 8GB
- Processor: X64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support (most modern devices support this)
- Graphics: DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities
To find out what your computers’ technical specifications are, kindly use the links below:
Our online classroom software requires minimum internet speeds of 5 Mbps for upload and 15 Mbps for download. The vast majority of broadband providers’ packages will exceed these speeds. To test the speed of your broadband click the link below:
Book Course
Please enter your booking details below, including preferred day, time and type of booking. You will need to provide details about all the attendees who will be participating in the course.
If you intend to book additional places on other courses, please add this course booking to your 'basket' and then visit the other course pages, add more participants' details there, and add those bookings to the 'basket' as well.
Once you have provided all details for all the attendees, you can securely pay online for your bookings by clicking on the 'View Basket' icon at the top of the page.