Today, Year 10 students from the Girls’ School dedicated their field day to coding HTML games using artificial intelligence. The games were all themed around International Women’s Day, and will be played as part of the 50/150 celebrations in the Girls’ School. This innovative project not only developed their technological skills but deepened their appreciation of women’s educational history.
The event began with a really thought-provoking and inspiring introduction from the Headmistress, Dr Hazel Bagworth-Mann, whose post-doctorate research focussed on the development of middle-class women’s education in the nineteenth century. Her talk provided expert insight, and valuable historical context on the foundation of the Girls’ School back in 1875. Her reflections highlighted the school’s enduring legacy in promoting women’s education and the continuing relevance of perseverance and ambition in education today.
Following this historical context, I guided the students through the day’s tasks, emphasising crucial pitfalls to avoid when coding with AI—such as inaccuracies in content, formatting errors, and recognising biases in datasets used by AI. By understanding these potential issues, students were better equipped to create accurate, informative, and engaging educational games.
Working closely with librarians and academic staff, and with visits from the school archivist, the girls delved into research, constructing robust and reliable knowledge bases for the AI to utilise effectively. With this solid foundation, they embarked on coding their games. The project catered to experienced coders and total novices alike, with plenty of scope to be more ambitious. Students proficient in coding had the freedom to craft HTML directly, or use other platforms, while others benefited immensely from AI tools designed to generate initial code and assist with debugging. It was wonderful to see the ambition in the initial designs for the project, and to work with students to try to achieve something close to their hopes!
Even those with no prior coding experience could confidently create engaging interactive games like matching pairs, timelines, and gap-fill exercises. Moreover, for students seeking additional challenges, opportunities existed to explore advanced formatting and aesthetics, refining the visual appeal and functionality of their games. One group wanted to create a magical world that players could explore, which pushed us to think of ways to achieve what they were setting out to do!
Throughout this creative process, students encountered genuine challenges. AI prompts didn’t always produce the anticipated results, requiring perseverance and multiple iterations. It is very quick to code something very simple and with limited depth, but we found it takes time to do something really good. Here, core school values—ambition, curiosity, courage – were really in evidence in the persistence the girls showed. Students learned first-hand the importance of resilience in the face of initial setbacks, developing skills essential for future success.
The outcomes of this enriching day were impressive. The Year 10 students produced a collection of engaging and informative games that will be showcased to Year 7 and 8 pupils as part of the school’s upcoming 50/150 celebrations. Yet beyond the immediate success of these games, students acquired an invaluable new skill: effectively using AI for coding.
Looking forward, integrating such coding projects, based on a reliable knowledge-base, into regular studies could greatly enhance revision techniques and deepen learning, equipping students with powerful tools for ongoing academic success.
I am immensely grateful to all the staff who worked with the students on this project, spending their time, and in many cases offering their expertise to support students to create something brilliant.
