Welcome to the August 2026 Software Development Bootcamp.
Across eight weeks, you will develop an individual prototype in response to a real Directors Notes project brief. You will plan, build, test, improve and present your work while learning the foundations of modern web development.
MarBelle, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Directors Notes, will introduce the client context in Week 1 and return for the Week 8 prototype presentations. Your work may inspire ideas for the publication, but you are creating an independent learning prototype rather than production software for its live website.
My goal isn't to build software with AI. My goal is to become a software developer who knows how to use AI well.
Choose one of the ten supplied Directors Notes prototype briefs. Your project remains closely connected to that brief throughout the bootcamp.
Several learners may choose the same brief. Every response remains individual: you will create your own repository, Project board, design, code and Week 8 presentation.
Begin with the brief's Starting Point. Possible Directions are optional ideas for later, after your current prototype works and you can explain it.
| Week | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Choose a Directors Notes brief and establish your development workflow |
| 2 | Create the first visible interface with HTML and CSS |
| 3 | Add meaningful behaviour with JavaScript and the DOM |
| 4 | Begin a staged migration using React components and props |
| 5 | Read, review and restore important behaviour in React |
| 6 | Make an appropriate part of the application remember information |
| 7 | Test, improve, deploy where practical and prepare to present |
| 8 | Present your prototype to MarBelle and reflect on your development |
The course gives you more independence over time. A small prototype you understand is more valuable than a larger application you cannot explain.
From Week 2, the tutor will demonstrate weekly concepts through a Short Film Programme Builder. It explores how someone might assemble a screening programme within a running-time limit.
The reference application demonstrates development patterns without solving your Directors Notes brief for you. You will decide how each useful pattern applies to your own prototype.
Reference states and later course materials will be added to this repository week by week as they are delivered.
Week 2 Starter was used for the guided build. Complete and Showcase are now available as reference and extension material.
Begin from Week 3 Starter during the guided build. Complete and Showcase are published after the demonstration as reference and extension material.
Week 4 introduces React. The Starter is a working React project, so it must be installed before it will run:
cd src/week-04/starter
npm ci
npm run devRun npm ci at the start of the session. The first install downloads a large
number of files and takes several minutes on shared wifi.
Complete and Showcase are published after the demonstration as reference and extension material.
This cohort repository contains shared course material. Your prototype belongs in a separate repository under your own GitHub account.
Your individual repository should contain:
- Your README
- Your source code
- Your project history
- A link to your GitHub Project board
- Evidence of your decisions and progress
Create small commits with messages that explain what changed. Push regularly so GitHub contains a recoverable history of your work.
Do not copy Directors Notes photographs, film stills, videos, logos, article text or archive records into your repository or deployed prototype.
The course will provide a wholly fictional film dataset in progressive stages,
including abstract poster artwork in datasets/fictional-film-archive/images/.
You may adapt, commit and publish that teaching data and artwork. You may also
use your own writing or artwork, abstract placeholders, HTML and CSS visual
treatments, or
openly licensed assets with the required attribution. Record the source and
licence of anything created by someone else.
The original Directors Notes project pack is private client reference material and will not be distributed through this repository.
AI can help you ask questions, understand errors, compare options and review your thinking. It should not replace understanding or ownership.
Before using generated code, make sure you can:
- Read it
- Explain it
- Test it
- Change it
- Take responsibility for it
Use the AI Charter throughout the course.