A Cologne child will meet Informatik sooner than children in many other Länder: North Rhine-Westphalia makes it compulsory in grades 5 and 6 at every school type, and its Grundschule maths and Sachunterricht already touch on informatics in grades 3 and 4. Below: what that means for a child of 6 to 12, how our live classes in English work, the dates of the NRW school year 2026/27, and the city's own tree register, where the question "which tree is most common?" has two honest answers.
Live online since 2020 · 10,000+ students worldwide · one mentor per child, in English
In short
For children aged 6 to 12 in Cologne, Modern Age Coders teaches coding live online in English: Scratch games to begin, then typed Python and small projects on real Cologne data, such as the city's tree register. Each child keeps one mentor, who adapts to their pace and accent. Families choose one to one or a batch of fifteen to twenty, after school or on Saturdays, a good run-up to the compulsory Informatik that NRW starts in grade 5.
Where Cologne children begin
Three courses for Cologne children aged 6 to 12
For the years just before grade 5 there is typed Python; for the youngest, a long block-coding course; and to test the water, a short Scratch course.
Do children in Cologne learn Informatik at school?
Yes, and earlier than in many Länder. The Gesellschaft für Informatik's 2026/27 monitor sets out what North Rhine-Westphalia requires.
Grades 3 and 4: a first taste
Grundschule in NRW covers grades 1 to 4. The monitor reports that the Land's revised Grundschule curricula name informatics-related expectations inside two existing subjects, Mathematik and Sachunterricht, especially for grades 3 and 4.
It also mentions a project called Informatik an Grundschulen, IaG, run with children in grades 3 and 4 to teach basic informatics concepts, with a handbook for teachers. So a Cologne eight or nine year old may meet algorithms in class, but as part of maths or Sachunterricht, not as a subject of its own.
Grades 5 and 6: compulsory for everyone
From grade 5 the picture changes. At every general school type in NRW, the monitor says, Informatik is a compulsory subject in grades 5 and 6: Hauptschule, Realschule, Sekundarschule, Gesamtschule and Gymnasium alike.
After grade 6 it becomes a choice. Depending on the school type, pupils can pick Informatik as a Wahlpflicht subject in grades 7 to 10, or at the nine-year Gymnasium in grades 9 and 10.
Informatik in NRW secondary schools in 2026/27
Type of school
Grades 5 and 6
Later, as an elective (Wahlpflicht)
Hauptschule
Compulsory
Grades 7 to 10, up to eight weekly hours in total
Realschule
Compulsory
Grades 7 to 10, within a 14-hour elective block
Sekundarschule, Gesamtschule
Compulsory
Grades 7 to 10, within a 12-hour elective block
Gymnasium (nine years)
Compulsory
Grades 9 and 10, six weekly hours in total
Source: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, Nordrhein-Westfalen, compiled from the APO-S I; read on 2 November 2026. Weekly hours are totals across the grades named. In the Oberstufe, Informatik can be taken as a Grundkurs or a Leistungskurs.
For a parent, the useful fact is the timing. A child who is seven now will sit a compulsory Informatik lesson within a few years, whichever school they move to after grade 4. Children who arrive at grade 5 able to plan a sequence of steps and fix a small bug tend to enjoy the subject instead of fearing it. That is what our classes for six to ten year olds build, through games and stories rather than worksheets.
Taught in English
Are the classes taught in English, and is that hard for a young child?
All teaching is in English. Most children cope far better than parents expect, because so much of a coding lesson is shown on screen.
English, and only English
We do not run German-language classes, and we say so before the first lesson. For Cologne families who speak English at home or whose children attend an international or bilingual school, that is the point; for others it becomes a weekly hour of real, useful English.
Matched to your child
The mentor speaks at your child's speed, repeats with simpler words when needed and gets used to their accent within a few lessons. A child who mixes in a German word is understood, then gently given the English one.
Show, try, change
A typical lesson is mostly doing: the mentor shows a step, the child tries it and then changes it to make it their own. Coding words like loop, if and repeat appear again and again, so the vocabulary grows by itself.
Mentors teach from India over live video, which is why Cologne afternoons work well: they fall in the Indian evening. Your child keeps the same mentor every week, someone who soon knows whether they like a puzzle to wrestle with or a nudge in the right direction.
A real Cologne project
Which tree is most common on Cologne's register? Two programs, two answers
Stadt Köln publishes its register of individual trees as open data that anyone may reuse. Our older children count the trees by name and then by genus, and discover that the grouping you choose decides the winner.
The data
The Baumkataster Köln 2017 lists 134,189 trees, each with a location, a height, an estimated age, a genus in Latin (Gattung) and a German name (DeutscherN). The city notes that it includes species, genus and age of the recorded trees.
Not every row is complete: 52,660 trees have no German name and 51,380 no genus. We give the child the file as koeln_trees.csv and tell them to skip empty names rather than count them as a kind of tree.
The question
Which tree does Cologne have most of? The first program tallies the German names with a dictionary: every time a name appears, its count goes up by one. Then it sorts the names by count and prints the top three.
Before running it, children guess. Chestnut is a popular answer, and so is oak. Both are wrong, but the real surprise comes with the second program.
Version 1: tally the German namesPython
import csv
tally = {}
skipped = 0
with open("koeln_trees.csv", encoding="utf-8") as f:
for row in csv.DictReader(f, delimiter=";"):
name = row["DeutscherN"].strip()
if name == "":
skipped += 1
continue
tally[name] = tally.get(name, 0) + 1
top = sorted(tally, key=tally.get, reverse=True)[:3]
for name in top:
print(name, tally[name])
print("Rows with no name:", skipped)
It prints: Linde 11833, Platane 9070, Winterlinde 6249 and Rows with no name: 52660.
Linde, the lime tree, comes first with 11,833. But look at third place: Winterlinde, the small-leaved lime, with 6,249. That is also a lime. The register uses many names for trees of the same kind, so counting names splits one family into several smaller ones.
The second program counts by genus instead, the Latin family name in the Gattung column, so every lime lands in Tilia and every maple in Acer.
Version 2: tally by genusPython
import csv
tally = {}
with open("koeln_trees.csv", encoding="utf-8") as f:
for row in csv.DictReader(f, delimiter=";"):
genus = row["Gattung"].strip()
if genus != "":
tally[genus] = tally.get(genus, 0) + 1
top = sorted(tally, key=tally.get, reverse=True)[:3]
for genus in top:
print(genus, tally[genus])
print("Kinds of tree:", len(tally))
It prints: Tilia 19305, Acer 16498, Platanus 9072 and Kinds of tree: 120.
How the limes and maples on the Cologne register split by German name (our count)
German name in the register
Trees
Genus
Linde
11,833
Tilia
Winterlinde
6,249
Tilia
Silberlinde
468
Tilia
Ahorn
6,218
Acer
Spitzahorn
4,425
Acer
Bergahorn
2,749
Acer
Feldahorn
1,551
Acer
Data: Stadt Köln, Baumkataster Köln 2017, file Bestand_Einzelbaeume_Koeln_0.csv via Open.NRW, licence Datenlizenz Deutschland Zero 2.0, downloaded November 2026. All counts are our own; 82,809 rows have a genus. The register's state is 2017, so newer plantings are not in it.
Maples show the effect even more strongly. By name, Ahorn manages 6,218 and never reaches the top three; by genus, Acer is second with 16,498. Neither program is wrong. They answer different questions, and a good coder says which question they asked.
Ages 6 to 8, no screen. Collect ten leaves on a walk. Sort them once by colour and once by shape. Does the biggest pile stay the biggest?
Ages 8 to 10, Scratch. Make a list of tree names and a counter for each. Add a "lime family" counter that goes up for Linde and Winterlinde alike.
From 10, typed Python. Run Version 1 and Version 2, then print the top five for each and explain in one sentence why the lists differ.
Going further. The file has a height column. Find the average height of the limes and the maples, but first decide what to do with heights recorded as 0.
The Cologne school year
When are the NRW school holidays in 2026/27?
Our classes keep running through the holidays unless you pause. Here are the dates most Cologne families plan around.
NRW school holidays in 2026/27, first and last free day
Break
From and to
Herbstferien (autumn)
17 to 31 October 2026
Weihnachtsferien (Christmas)
23 December 2026 to 6 January 2027
Osterferien (Easter)
22 March to 3 April 2027
Pfingsten (Whit Tuesday)
18 May 2027
Sommerferien (summer)
19 July to 31 August 2027
Source: KMK holiday overview 2026/2027 (as of 9 October 2025), row for Nordrhein-Westfalen. NRW has no separate winter break in 2026/27, and the table marks three movable days off (bewegliche Ferientage) for the Land.
A free contest this month
The Informatik-Biber, run by Bundesweite Informatikwettbewerbe, takes place in the Biberwochen from 9 to 20 November 2026. It is a free online round of logic puzzles that any pupil from grade 3 to grade 13 can try without having coded before; well over half a million pupils took part in 2025.
Schools enter their classes, so ask your child's teacher whether their school takes part. Results arrive in December 2026, certificates in January 2027.
Using the long breaks
The six summer weeks from 19 July 2027 are a good time for a short, focused project, for example finishing a Scratch game or extending the tree tally to heights and ages.
In class we never use actual Biber tasks. We write puzzles of our own about order, hidden rules and shortest paths, which many children enjoy as practice.
Class times
What time are classes in Cologne?
Cologne afternoons sit in the Indian evening, so most classes start between the school bell and the evening meal, or on Saturday.
Sample Cologne start times and the matching time in India
Cologne time
India, until 28 March 2027
India, from 28 March 2027
14:15
18:45
17:45
15:50
20:20
19:20
Saturday 11:45
16:15
15:15
Germany keeps UTC+1 (MEZ) in winter and UTC+2 (MESZ) in summer under the Einheitenzeitgesetz; summer time ended on 25 October 2026 and resumes on 28 March 2027. India stays at UTC+5:30 all year: 4.5 hours later than Cologne in winter, 3.5 hours later in summer. Sample rows only; batches have no fixed times.
When you book, you choose a slot in your own clock and the mentor sees it in theirs. Children at an Offene Ganztagsschule often take the 15:50 slot or a Saturday, which gives the youngest a calm start.
Milestones
What a Cologne child can do at each stage
Five steps we use ourselves to place a child and to show parents how far they have come.
Our coding levels for ages 6 to 12
Level
Typical age
Your child is able to
1. Sequence
6 and 7
Arrange the steps of a story or a path so a sprite follows them
2. Repeat
7 to 8
Replace copied blocks with a loop
3. Count
8 to 10
Keep a separate counter for each kind of thing in a list
4. Group
9 to 11
Decide which category to count by, and explain the choice
5. Real data
10 to 12
Read a large file, tally it and explain what the top result means
For parents
Steps 3 and 4 are the tree project. Choosing how to group things is a real skill, and it is the same one grade 5 Informatik begins with: sorting and classifying information.
We report on finished pieces of work your child can talk you through; screen time is not a measure we use.
For children
Before you count, decide what counts as "the same".
Two programs can give two answers and both be right. Say which question yours answers.
More for children
Nine more courses for Cologne children
All taught live and in English by one regular mentor, privately or in a batch.
Two live hours a week with one mentor. Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.
Afternoons
From about 14:15 Cologne time, after Grundschule or the OGS.
Saturdays
Late morning, unhurried for the youngest.
1-on-1
A time you agree, at your child's pace.
Same mentor
One person all year, who knows your child.
Simple English
Short sentences, checked as you go.
Child at the controls
Mouse and keyboard from lesson one.
Batches by age
Seven year olds with seven year olds.
Parent notes
What was made and what comes next.
Batch or solo
Fifteen to twenty children, or one to one.
Student work
What our older students make
Some children who start in Grundschule are still building things years later. A handful of projects from our older students follows; the full set is on the student labs page.
AI and ML
NutriLife
An AI nutrition coach that reads what you eat and works you toward a target.
A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.
by Krish
Fees
Fees for Cologne families
You pay a monthly fee that covers eight live classes. This page shows it in euro at the European Central Bank reference rate; payment itself goes through in US dollars, and because your bank handles the exchange, the final amount can vary a little.
Parents' and students' Google reviews, quoted without edits.
★★★★★
"The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content."
Ria Mukherjee
Parent
★★★★★
"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."
Samriddha Mondal
Student
★★★★★
"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."
Vansh Agarwal
Student
★★★★★
"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."
Sonam Oswal
Parent of Dhairya
★★★★★
"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."
Sonu Goyal
Parent
★★★★★
"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."
Ritu Kedia
Parent
Cologne parents ask
Questions Cologne parents ask about coding classes
Are the classes in German?
No, never: all classes are live and taught only in English. The mentor slows down, rephrases and adjusts to your child's pace and accent, so a child with basic English can take part. Code keywords such as if and repeat are English anyway.
Is Informatik compulsory in NRW schools?
Yes, in grades 5 and 6 at every general school type, according to the Gesellschaft für Informatik's Informatik-Monitor 2026/27. After that, Informatik is an elective in most school types, and at the nine-year Gymnasium in grades 9 and 10.
Does my child learn any informatics in Grundschule?
Some, inside other subjects. The monitor reports that the revised NRW Grundschule curricula include informatics-related content in Mathematik and Sachunterricht, especially in grades 3 and 4, while the compulsory subject itself starts in grade 5.
What age is right to start?
Six is fine. The youngest begin in Scratch with blocks that click together, so almost nothing needs typing. Around 9, most children are ready for typed Python, which suits the year or two before grade 5.
What time are classes in Cologne?
Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays. Common Cologne slots are mid-afternoon, around 15:50, or late Saturday morning.
Who are the mentors and where are they?
They work from India and teach live over video in English, and each child stays with one of them. Until 28 March 2027, a 15:50 class in Cologne begins at 20:20 in India.
Do classes stop in the NRW holidays?
Only if you want them to. Lessons run on through autumn, Christmas and Easter breaks unless you ask for a pause; the KMK lists the summer holidays 2027 for NRW as 19 July to 31 August 2027.
How many children are in a batch?
Fifteen to twenty, all of a similar age. For a child who wants the mentor to themselves, one to one means two private classes a week at agreed times.
How much is it, and what currency is charged?
There is one monthly fee. We display it in euro, converted at the reference rate of the European Central Bank; the actual charge is in US dollars, which your bank changes into euro, so the booked sum can differ slightly. Your first class costs nothing and needs no card.
What will my child need at home?
A laptop or desktop with a real keyboard, a camera and decent internet. Scratch needs only a browser; for Python we help you install what is needed during the first typed lessons.
Your child solves a short logic puzzle and writes a first tiny program. Meanwhile the mentor notices how they approach a problem and how comfortable English feels, and then suggests a course and a batch.
All classes are live online, taught from India in English only. Send us a WhatsApp message, in English, with any question.
Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo
A priority demo is a full class of about 45 to 60 minutes. After the class the mentor sends a written skill report and a personal learning roadmap on WhatsApp. If you enrol, the demo fee is adjusted against your first month's fee. Share your demo Order ID with us on WhatsApp and we take it off.
