Hello everyone! It’s been a long time since our last update. Today (well, 29 Feb) is the tenth anniversary of the first Raspberry Pi.
During lockdown we refurbished 60 old laptops with Raspberry Pi OS so that children could participate in remote learning with their schools in the Tewkesbury area. We were rewarded with certificates of recognition by both Tewkesbury and Northway councils. More details at: http://cotswoldjam.org/lockdown/
We are considering a return to our Jam events later in the year. We have been approached by Gloucestershire Libraries who may be able to provide suitable venues.
However we are not yet in a suitable position to restart:
* It’s almost impossible to buy a Raspberry Pi due to the ongoing chip supply problems. See https://rpilocator.com/ for live stock updates. So we would be encouraging children to pester parents to buy something that just can’t realistically be bought.
* We’re not quite over Covid yet. Close, but not quite. Although restrictions have ended in England, many people are still quite nervous about gathering in large numbers in crowded spaces.
* We need to revise our existing tutorials or create new tutorials to match the new Raspberry Pi operating system that has been released in the time since our last events.
* Some of our regular volunteers suffered badly from Covid and are still having trouble finding the energy for new voluntary work.
So, keep us in mind and we’ll have a re-think sometime in late Spring / early Summer.