The third annual Holiday Hackathon was deemed a success by organisers and participants alike, giving students hands-on programming experience.

However, this year organiser Jahde Eve said the event took a slightly different approach, with the students also being tasked with developing a solution for common problems.

“In the morning session we had them learn a little about JavaScript and they were able to learn a little bit more about coding, but in the afternoon we took a new approach modelled after how Hackathons are elsewhere, where you come up with a problem and a solution,” he said.

“The students were broken up into groups and they brainstormed the different problems in their daily lives, whether school or homework or catching the bus.

“They they came up with a solution, created a presentation, and presented it before their classmates.

“It’s important because it taps into another area of creativity for the students. Technology, particularly computer science and coding, allows children to create something from their head in a way that most schooling doesn’t do as much.

“If they have an idea of an application, once they develop those skills they can bring it to life.”

Mr Eve said that the children involved in the course seemed to have a great time, saying: “For a lot of them this is their first experience coding and they have been picking it up like mad. They went through the first tutorial in about 30 minutes.

“We have seen some returning faces. I would say about 20 have come back from past years.”

Thanking Connectech, the Fairmont Southampton and XL Catlin for their assistance, he added: “We are hoping next year will be even bigger and better.”

Meanwhile the young participants of the event praised their experiences, saying they would be interested in learning more about coding.

Kristy Sanchez said: “I was very interested in coding and learning new things, so I thought the Hackathon would be a good place to start. We brought up problems we experience in our everyday lives and tried to come up with a solution for it. It is definitely something I want to pursue more.”

Caleb Fubler added: “It was a really enjoyable experience. We learnt how to code and how to JavaScript. We were playing around with Instagram things and changing that code. I also learnt how to string. It’s definitely something I want to do more of. It’s a good thing to learn.”

Quayan Watson described the day as a “great experience”, and Michael Simons said he had learnt some new Instagram skills at the event.