Industry news, updates and reactions from The Code Zone

What is happening in coding and technology education more widely, and what we make of it. AI and whether it is still worth a child learning to code. Changes to the computing curriculum. Research on screen time that is more nuanced than the headline suggested.

We write these because parents ask us about them, usually after reading something alarming. The honest answer is often less dramatic than the coverage, and occasionally more so.

We run coding clubs for children aged 6 to 16, online across the UK and in person across Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, with over 1,000 children enrolled. That gives us a reasonable view of what children are actually doing with technology, which is not always what the industry assumes they are doing.

If you want practical advice rather than commentary, the guides section covers what comes after Scratch, how to choose a coding club and what works for autistic and ADHD children.

The Code Zone teaches children aged 6 to 16 to code by building their own games. Outside the UK that is the Game Dev Academy, which is self-paced: there is no fixed session time, so a child works at whatever hour suits them in any time zone.

A STEM-certified, background-checked mentor answers by text and video message during the week, so nobody is left on their own with it, and children build their own games rather than working through a set course. Creating an account is free and takes no card details, so you can see the platform before deciding anything.

Children start in Scratch, and the mentor sets harder work as soon as they are ready for it. Levels move down as readily as up so the work always fits, and staying where you are is a perfectly good outcome.

Mentors write a note on every child, which is how we know when somebody is ready to move on, and it is why a child who has gone quiet for three weeks does not simply go unnoticed.

More than a third of our members are autistic or have ADHD, based on what parents tell us when they join.

In 2025 we received the Autism Inclusion Award from the National Autistic Society, the UK's leading autism charity, and in 2026 we were ranked second in the UK in Club Hub UK’s Top 100 Children’s Activity Providers, scored by five independent judges on safeguarding, inclusivity and community impact.