Des Moines native returns from U.K. to launch U.S. coding school
When Des Moines native Elizabeth Tweedale moved to London about 14 years ago she was applying her passion for coding in the architecture field — since then she has used it to teach children the skill and built the U.K.’s largest coding school, Cypher Coders.
Now she is moving back to the U.S. with her family to roll out a U.S. version of the curriculum, called Coco Coders, starting with her hometown and the San Francisco area.
Founded in 2016, Cypher Coders is an in-person, after-school program for children ages 6 to 12 that also started offering virtual courses during the pandemic. Tweedale took that opportunity to test some of the virtual courses in the U.S. and found a significant interest from American parents.
A U.S. expansion was also natural because Tweedale infused the creativity she knew in the American education system into Cypher’s model.
She designed the curriculum to teach coding by engaging students through their interests and then showing them “how they can use technology to make an impact in whatever they’re interested in.”
