An after-school club where 11–16 year olds learn to code by making things that actually work. Twelve weeks, six students to an instructor, something finished at the end of every term.
Ages 11–16beginners welcome
Six students per instructor — never more
The tools they’ll actually use — every one free to keep using at home
Both start from nothing — the Cadet term assumes your child has never written a line of code. The difference is what they build on the way.
Three steps, and the first one is free.
One full session, no commitment and nothing to sign. Your child leaves having made something, whatever you decide afterwards.
The Logic Line for programming, the Arcade Line for games. Most children decide for themselves once they've tried a session — and plenty do one, then the other.
One session a week, six students to an instructor. Finish the term and they move up a level — Cadet to Driver to Engineer, one term each.
Each level is one twelve-week term. A child joins where they are, moves up at the end of each term, and never repeats a year — which is why most families stay past the first one.
Programming
For students who have never written a line of code. Week one assumes nothing.
A working program of their own — a quiz, a tool or a bot — that runs and does something useful.
For students who have finished Cadet, or who already tinker at home and can explain what a loop does.
A program with a real interface and real data — something a stranger can use without being told how.
For students who have finished Driver and can build something unaided. The term is mostly their own project.
A project they specified, built and released themselves, with the code public and readable on GitHub.
Game Development
For students who have never made a game. No coding experience assumed.
A playable game published online, with a link they can send to anyone.
For students who have finished Cadet, or who have already made something playable on their own.
A game with enemies that think, a save system and a title screen — the shape of a real release.
For students who have finished Driver. The term is built around a game of their own design.
A released game with systems of their own design, and players who were not asked to play it.
Chess teaches a child to think three moves ahead. Football teaches them to work under pressure inside a team. This teaches both, and leaves something behind that they own.
The tools in these sessions are the tools people are paid to use. A fourteen-year-old who can build and deploy a working website is holding something genuinely uncommon, and it stays on the internet where anyone can see it.
Debugging is problem-solving with the answer hidden. Students learn to break a problem into parts, test a guess, and be wrong without giving up. That habit shows up again in maths, in science, and in every exam that asks them to work something out.
Anyone can ask a machine to write code. The valuable skill is knowing when the answer it gave you is confidently wrong — and that takes understanding what the code actually does. We teach both halves.
Not a certificate. A game other people play, or a program that does something they actually needed doing.
Coding is a subject where a stuck child stays stuck until somebody sits down next to them. That doesn't happen in a room of thirty.
Lead — Logic Line
Innovation engineer, and a lecturer at NDU
Firas has spent six years building products and experiences, and lectures at NDU alongside the work. He takes the Logic Line, where the aim is that a student can explain why their code works — not just that it does.
Lead — Arcade Line
Six years in multimedia development
Daniel builds interactive experiences for a living and has done for six years. He takes the Arcade Line, where most of the job is the gap between a game that works and a game that feels good.
If yours isn't here, email us and we'll answer it properly.
The taster is a full session and it’s free. Your child leaves with something they made, and nobody will ask you to sign anything on the way out.
Or email us directly at hello@thetechtrain.co