Coding for Kids

[NzJamesk]

I just had a question for any mum's out there who have thought about giving their kids a head start in life and open up fantastic job prospects by the time they leave school, by helping their kids learn the most in-demand skill today - coding.

Very brief background, I've spent twenty years in the industry in some fantastic jobs and now I've decided it's something I want to pass on and help the younger generation also benefit from, as I know how easy it can make life when you have such an in-demand skill and jobs filling up your inbox every day. So I'm currently in the process of starting up a children's coding school and wanted just a little bit of feedback from parents who would potentially be interested in something like this, as not being a parent myself I don't exactly understand the constraints around times that kids are available, what you are looking for from your kids educational providers etc.

If anyone has the time to answer any of the below questions, it would be brilliant and help me fine tune my coaching (which I hope to expand nationwide) to exactly fit your needs.

1. What age would you consider starting your kids down this path?

2. What time during the week is too late for a coding workshop? What about weekends, what other commitments do you usually have? In short, what would be the ideal times for these courses - for various ages.

3. What sort of things would you be looking for in order to determine if you thought a course like this was a good way forward for your child?

As a rough guide, the framework I am looking at setting up is a long-term progression environment, not one off summer camps or half a dozen evening classes to give them a taster. I want kids to start at the beginning and be nurtured right through the full development to be building and developing high level projects - obviously dependent on age.

The framework I envisage is something akin to martial arts, where you have belts. Kids would start at the entry level and once they passed the course and completed the homework assignments and assessment, they would be judged ready to be granted the next level of achievement and they would move up to the next group. Groups would range from very basic introduction in coding via Scratch, right up to the higher end where they would be designing full scale web applications that they could theoretically charge good money for in the commercial market.

The age range I was thinking of targeting was 9-16, which I think would suit the appropriate skills at either end of my framework, though if kids proved especially adept they would obviously be able to progress at their own rate.

Eventually once the programme was established I would look at getting it accredited nationally so that if a child invested say 2 years in moving up through the grades, it would then be a recognised level of achievement that could be utilised in school or when applying for their first jobs. Very similar to how martial arts or learning musical instruments works - you study until you can pass the grade 1 exam and continue up to and including grade 8.

The syllabus would likely be along the lines of this (from beginner to advanced grades)

1. Scratch and programming basics
2. Basic Javascript, HTML and CSS
3. Visual Basic
4. Intermediate Javascript, HTML and CSS
5. Basic ASP.NET MVC web application with basic database
6. Intermediate ASP.NET MVC web application with intermediate database
7. Basic Asp.NET MVC web application with C#
8. Intermediate Asp.NET MVC web application with C#
9. React web application
10. React web application with C# back-end
11. Intermediate C# core
12. Client server applications with C# core
13. Real time applications with C# core
14. Basic machine learning and AI concepts

That's as far as I have planned ahead, but there is much more to go beyond that.

Please let me know your thoughts on this and also the area of the country you are in, so I can take that into consideration when choosing the first venues.

Thanks in advance!
James

I applaud the idea of encouraging coding. But your syllabus looks far too much like a Microsoft marketing exercise and very dated. Staring off with Scratch, and HTML for the web is just fine, but why not focus on something like Python thereafter. My son’s GCSE coding component of his CS course is all being done in Python, as is a lot of modern industry work especially in data science applications. I personally am a big Mathematica fan, but also like Python, but any language with a lot of built in functionality makes a lot of sense. Above all make sure everything is agnostic with regard to OS as much as possible. Kids
might be working on Android, iOS, Linux, MacOS or Windows....

Would agree with python. Daughter doing a level in Computing now and is doing a lot of python.

I’m a primary school teacher and our children in LSK2 use Scratch so I’d be prepared for older children to move on from it quite quickly

DS has been interested in coding since age 6. The latest library book we got shows scratch v python.
Re timings, at this age 3:30-6:30 latest for DS but I know others of similar ages who stay up later. Local library runs coding groups 5:30-6:30 weekly.

Talking to DD doing a level computing

She says - scratch, small basic and python.

We've just started our 8 year old on python

I think I'd be more interested in having the syllabus much more pared down. Start with scratch and move onto python then only introduce other data structures/languages as absolutely necessary to achieve something specific. I would focus on basic principles rather than specifics. I think it would be very difficult to develop your own competitive qualification - so many already exist and I don't know if there's much demand for a qualification at school level. I would approach it from the perspective of encouraging a basic understanding and enthusiasm for coding which can then be developed at university.

I like the plan. My 9 year old has done scratch, html and css beginner courses.

The course that he absolutely loved was by youth digital. They are aimed at 8 to 14 year old and it's an online course with live help.

I would happily pay for him to learn more but the limitation of code clubs is location.

Plus he does his code courses between 7 and 8 am everyday!

Oh sorry, we are in the east Mids, I am happy to Pm a more detailed location.

Thanks everyone for the responses, it’s really incredibly helpful and has given me a lot to ponder. I’m currently re assessing some ideas to be more in line with what you’ve suggested and what’s achievable.

One point I would raise though as a personal viewpoint is that from my own experience, school and university are merely one route to learn the basics to get you in the door of the first day at your first job. I did both and after a three year bachelors in computer science, I started my first day and felt that I knew nothing. Everything that has built my career up to where it is today has been entirely self taught and learned on the job. What I really believe would be of the highest value is “fast tracking” kids to the point that by the time they were 16-17 that they wouldn’t even need university, they would already be highly employable just from their skills and project portfolio and probably more advanced than most third year grad students!