A group of Ottey learners are looking forward to proving their mettle and clinching the top spot in the next round of a coding competition happening later this month.
The learners represent a non-profit school in Ottery, Christel House South Africa (CHSA), who hosted a coding contest at the school on Wednesday 30 July.
A group of Grade 4, Grade 5 and Grade 6 learners took part in the #Coding4Mandela tournament was hosted by Tangible Africa (TA).
This event is part of a national initiative by (TA), in collaboration with Nelson Mandela University (NMU).
Christel House South Africa’s Grade 7 winning teams sporting their medals with the Tangible Africa team. The winning teams were: Uze Nenya, The Reds and Peppa Pig (first, second and third place team). Photo: Jade Page. 
Christel House South Africa selected their top three teams from Grade 4, 6 and 7 to represent them in the national round of the #Coding4Mandela tournament. Photo: Keanan Harmse 
Christel House South Africa’s Grade 4 learners working in their groups to solve the coding excercises. Photo: Keanan Harmse.
On the day, learners were tasked to compete in teams of five.
Each team was given coded instructions to a virtual vehicle navigating through a maze using physical tokens and a mobile device.
The goal is to solve as many levels as possible within one hour.
“Teams are scored based on how efficiently they solve the mazes — using fewer tokens and completing more levels boosts their ranking. The top-three teams from this tournament will go on to compete in the National Online Coding Tournament, representing our school on a bigger stage,” said school spokesperson, Megan Losper.
Christel’s top-three Grade 7 teams swept their leaderboard and were known as: Team Uze Nenya, Team The Reds and Team Peppa Pig.
These teams are looking forward to competing in the next round later this month.
The venue and date of the next competition is yet to be announced.
“Thousands of learners from every province in South Africa, along with participants from other African countries, are taking part in this year’s #Coding4Mandela tournament. As part of Mandela Day celebrations, the tournament is helping to bridge the digital divide by making coding accessible, enjoyable and relevant to learners from all backgrounds. In 2024, more than 32 000 learners participated. By introducing coding through problem-solving and game-based learning, we are opening new doors for young people to build confidence in science, technology and mathematics.
“In Cape Town, we are making a meaningful investment through a targeted rollout to 50 schools,” said Prof Jean Greyling from NMU.
The next round of the competition will take place on a national scale where CHSA could battle it out against Europe, Asia and the Americas.
