A Düsseldorf child will have Informatik on the timetable at about ten: Nordrhein-Westfalen teaches it as a compulsory subject in Klasse 5 and 6 at every school type, which most Länder do not. That makes the years before Klasse 5 a real chance to arrive ready, and the years after it a question of what comes next. This page covers both, describes what our live English lessons are like for children of 6 to 12, gives the dates of a free puzzle contest, and walks through a project on the city's own list of new street trees, where the obvious answer turns out to be about time rather than trees.
Live online since 2020 · 10,000+ students worldwide · English lessons with a regular mentor
In short
Coding classes for kids in Düsseldorf: Modern Age Coders runs live online coding lessons, taught in English, for Düsseldorf children between 6 and 12, from Scratch games to typed Python and small data projects, plus help with the compulsory Informatik that NRW schools teach in Klasse 5 and 6. A regular mentor adapts pace and accent to your child. Lessons fit Düsseldorf afternoons and weekend mornings, in a class of fifteen to twenty or with the mentor alone.
Where Düsseldorf children start
Three courses for Düsseldorf children aged 6 to 12
Typed Python from nine, a blocks course that starts at six, and a companion to the Informatik lessons of Klasse 5 and 6.
When does a Düsseldorf child start Informatik at school?
In Klasse 5, at every school type. Nordrhein-Westfalen is one of the ten Länder with compulsory Informatik, and it starts earlier than most.
Compulsory in Klasse 5 and 6
The Informatik-Monitor 2026/27 states for NRW: "An allen allgemeinbildenden Schularten wird das Pflichtfach Informatik in den Jahrgangsstufen 5 und 6 unterrichtet." Every Hauptschule, Realschule, Sekundarschule, Gesamtschule and Gymnasium in Düsseldorf teaches it in those two years.
Grundschule in NRW runs from Klasse 1 to 4, so a Düsseldorf child usually meets the compulsory subject at ten. Children in the six Länder without compulsory Informatik, from Hessen to Berlin, may never meet it at all.
After Klasse 6, it depends
From Klasse 7 Informatik becomes a choice. A Realschule may offer it as a Wahlpflicht subject within 14 weekly hours across Klassen 7 to 10, a Gesamtschule or Sekundarschule within 12, a Hauptschule within up to 8.
A nine-year Gymnasium must offer Informatik in the Wahlpflicht area in Klassen 9 and 10, six weekly hours in total, either on its own or combined with another subject. Between Klasse 6 and Klasse 9, then, a Gymnasium pupil may have no Informatik at all.
Informatik in a Düsseldorf school career (NRW rules, 2026/27)
Klasse
School type
Informatik
1 to 4
Grundschule
Not part of the compulsory subject
5 and 6
All school types
Compulsory subject
7 to 10
Realschule
Wahlpflicht, up to 14 weekly hours over four years
7 to 10
Gesamtschule, Sekundarschule
Wahlpflicht, up to 12 weekly hours over four years
9 and 10
Gymnasium (G9)
Wahlpflicht offer, 6 weekly hours over two years
Source: Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, NRW page (Gesellschaft für Informatik, citing the APO-S I) and Länder comparison; KMK, Primarbereich. Read 2 November 2026. Hours are totals across the years shown, as the Monitor gives them.
For parents this gives two clear windows. Before Klasse 5, a child who has built games in Scratch and typed a few lines of Python walks into the compulsory course already confident. After Klasse 6, a child who enjoyed it can keep going while the school timetable pauses, so that the Wahlpflicht choice in Klasse 7 or 9 is made from experience rather than guesswork.
Taught in English
What does learning to code in English look like for a Düsseldorf child?
All lessons are live and in English, and the pace is set around the child.
English, plainly
Lessons are in English. There is no German option, and we would rather you knew that now. For children at the international and bilingual schools in and around Düsseldorf, English is already a school language; for children at a German school, coding in English adds a second skill at no extra cost.
Pace and accent
The mentor speaks slowly, checks often, and repeats in shorter sentences. Within a few weeks they are used to how your child speaks, and a child who answers half in German is helped to the English words without any fuss.
The same words as school
NRW Informatik uses the same ideas a coding class does: sequence, loop, condition, variable. When a mentor knows your child has the compulsory course, they point out the German school term next to the English one, so the two support each other.
Our mentors teach from India over live video, which is why Düsseldorf afternoons work well: it is evening for the mentor. Your child keeps the same mentor every week, someone who soon knows whether they like a hard puzzle, need a minute of quiet, or learn best by changing a game that already works.
A real Düsseldorf project
Düsseldorf's new street trees: which season planted the fewest?
The city publishes every new tree planted under its Stadtbaumkonzept, the street tree plan, as open data that anyone may use. Our older children use it to learn a check that is easy to forget: is the last part of the data finished?
The data
The Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf publishes Stadtbaumkonzept Düsseldorf through Open.NRW under the Datenlizenz Deutschland Zero 2.0. The city describes it as the new tree plantings made under the plan. On the day we downloaded it, 2 November 2026, the file Stadtbaumkonzept.csv had 805 rows, one per tree.
Each row gives a planting season such as 2021/2022, the species, whether a parking space was given up for the tree, and a last-update date. That date is the same on every row: 29 January 2026.
The question
In which planting season did Düsseldorf plant the fewest new trees? The first program counts the rows for each season, prints them in order and picks the smallest.
Before running it, a child should guess. Was there a season when the plan slowed down?
Version 1: count trees per seasonPython
import csv
trees = {}
with open("Stadtbaumkonzept.csv", encoding="utf-8-sig") as planting:
for row in csv.DictReader(planting, delimiter=";"):
season = row["saison"]
trees[season] = trees.get(season, 0) + 1
for season in sorted(trees):
print(season, trees[season])
fewest = min(trees, key=trees.get)
print("Fewest new trees:", fewest, trees[fewest])
It prints the seasons from 2019/2020 101 to 2025/2026 37, then Fewest new trees: 2025/2026 37.
A season with only 37 trees, after six seasons of 99 to 182, looks like a big drop. But look at the last-update date on every row: 29 January 2026. The 2025/2026 season carries 2026 in its own name, and the file was saved in January of that year. Whatever the city planted after 29 January 2026 is not in this file yet. The program did not compare seasons; it compared six whole seasons with part of a seventh.
Version 2: compare only finished seasonsPython
updated = "2026-01-29" # the _last_update date on every row of the file
finished = {}
for season in trees:
last_year = season[5:]
if last_year < updated[:4]:
finished[season] = trees[season]
fewest = min(finished, key=finished.get)
print("Finished seasons:", len(finished))
print("Fewest in a finished season:", fewest, finished[fewest])
Run after Version 1. It prints Finished seasons: 6 and Fewest in a finished season: 2024/2025 99.
Our rule is simple and cautious: a season counts as finished only if its second year ended before the file was saved. By that rule 2025/2026 is left out, and the fewest trees among finished seasons were planted in 2024/2025, with 99. The busiest was 2021/2022, with 182. Whether the 2025/2026 season will end higher or lower than 99, nobody can tell from this file; a later download will say.
New trees per planting season in the Stadtbaumkonzept file (our count, file updated 29 January 2026)
Season
Trees in the file
2019/2020
101
2020/2021
106
2021/2022
182
2022/2023
135
2023/2024
145
2024/2025
99
2025/2026, not finished
37
Data: Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Stadtbaumkonzept Düsseldorf, Datenlizenz Deutschland Zero 2.0, downloaded 2 November 2026. The counts and the rule for finished seasons are ours. The most planted species in the file is the Zierkirsche (ornamental cherry), with 91 trees, and 22 of the 805 trees took the place of a parking space.
Ages 6 to 8, no screen. Count the books on a shelf every evening for a week, but stop on Wednesday. Is Wednesday the "smallest week"?
Ages 8 to 10, Scratch. Store the seven totals in a Scratch list, let a sprite name the smallest, then teach it to ignore the final item.
10 to 12, typed Python. Try Version 1 first, explain why 37 misleads, and only then attempt Version 2 on your own.
Going further. Count the species and find the top three. Then look closely at the names: is "Spitzahorn" really in the file only once?
A free contest
Is there a free computing contest for Düsseldorf children?
There is: the Informatik-Biber, a quiz of logic puzzles that schools run in class. No coding is needed, and the 2026 round is happening now.
The contest
The organiser, Bundesweite Informatikwettbewerbe, calls the Informatik-Biber the largest school informatics competition in Germany. It is free and online, open to Klassen 3 to 13 without any previous experience; more than 580,000 pupils entered in 2025.
For a primary child it means nine puzzles in 30 minutes. In Klassen 5 and 6, the years of compulsory Informatik in NRW, it is twelve puzzles in 35 minutes.
Dates for 2026
This year's contest weeks fall between 9 and 20 November 2026; registration is by schools only. A Düsseldorf parent should ask the class teacher or the Informatik teacher whether the school takes part.
Results appear in December 2026 and certificates follow in January 2027. Anyone can try the practice puzzles of the Schnupper-Biber.
The puzzles are about rules, order, routes and codes, the thinking behind Informatik in Klasse 5 and 6. We do not reuse the real tasks; mentors write their own puzzles in the same style, and children who like ours tend to enjoy the Biber too. We have no connection with the organiser.
Class times
What time are the classes in Düsseldorf?
Many families choose an afternoon after homework or a weekend morning. Here are a few sample times with the mentor's clock.
Sample Düsseldorf class times and India time
Düsseldorf
India, winter (to 28 March 2027)
India, summer (from 28 March 2027)
15:05
19:35
18:35
16:55
21:25
20:25
Sunday 09:40
14:10
13:10
Germany runs on UTC+1 in winter and UTC+2 in summer under the Einheitenzeitgesetz; the 2026 summer time ended on 25 October 2026 and the 2027 one begins on 28 March 2027. India stays at UTC+5:30 all year, so a Düsseldorf afternoon is the mentor's evening: four and a half hours later now, three and a half from late March. The times are samples, not set batch times.
NRW school holidays in the 2026/27 school year
Break
First and last day
Autumn (Herbstferien)
17 October to 31 October 2026
Christmas
23 December 2026 to 6 January 2027
Easter
22 March to 3 April 2027
Whitsun
18 May 2027
Summer
19 July to 31 August 2027
Holiday dates from the KMK Ferienkalender for 2026/27, NRW line. There is no winter break in NRW that school year.
Our classes continue through NRW holidays. The summer break in 2027 starts late, on 19 July, and runs to the last day of August, so travelling families can carry on with a weekly class while away.
Milestones
From first block to Klasse 5 and beyond
Our own milestones, mapped loosely to the point where compulsory Informatik begins in NRW. Mentors use them to place a child and to report progress to you.
Milestones we use for 6 to 12 year olds, next to the NRW timetable
Milestone
Usual age
What the child does
At school in NRW
1. Steps in order
6 to 7
Gives a sprite a list of moves and watches it follow them
Grundschule
2. Loops and keys
7 to 9
Repeats a move and makes a game respond to keys
Grundschule
3. Scores and lists
8 to 10
Keeps a score and stores several values
Klasse 3 and 4
4. Typed code
9 to 11
Types Python with if and for
Klasse 5: Informatik begins
5. Reading data
10 to 12
Loads a real file and asks whether the answer is fair
Klasse 5 and 6: compulsory Informatik
For parents
Milestone 5 is the tree project. The skill is not counting; it is noticing that the last season was cut off by the date of the file.
Progress reports describe what your child made and could explain.
For children
Before you say something went down, check whether it has finished.
Every data file has a date. Find it first.
More for children
Nine more courses for Düsseldorf children
Each course is taught live in English by one mentor, to a group or to a single child.
I
Getting started
Ages 6 to 14
CKD / START / 01
Scratch coding
From blocks to finished games, a short course for 6 to 12.
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
Düsseldorf after-school hours, once homework is done.
Weekends
Saturday or Sunday mornings, good for the youngest.
1-on-1
Agreed with the mentor, at your child's pace.
Regular mentor
One person, week after week.
Patient English
Slow, simple, said again when needed.
Child at the keys
Building from the first lesson.
Right age group
Six year olds with six year olds.
Parent notes
A short note on each month's work.
Two formats
A class of fifteen to twenty, or private.
Student work
What older students build
Children who start young are often building real apps in their teens. Here are some projects by our older students; the student labs page shows plenty more.
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 Düsseldorf families
One monthly payment covers eight live classes. Prices here are converted to euro with the European Central Bank reference rate so you can compare; the card payment itself is in US dollars, converted by your bank, which is why the statement can show a slightly different euro sum.
Reviews from parents and students on Google, exactly as posted.
★★★★★
"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
Düsseldorf parents ask
Coding classes for kids in Düsseldorf: common questions
Are the classes in German?
No. Lessons are given only in English, always live. The mentor talks calmly, adjusts to the way your child speaks, and repeats things more simply when needed, which lets a beginner in English keep up. Blocks and code read the same in a German or an English home.
Is Informatik compulsory in NRW schools?
Yes, in Klasse 5 and 6. The Informatik-Monitor 2026/27 says the compulsory subject is taught in those two years at every general school type in Nordrhein-Westfalen. After Klasse 6 it becomes an elective, with different rules for each school type.
Is it worth starting before Klasse 5?
For many children, yes. A child who has made Scratch games and typed a little Python starts the compulsory course relaxed and curious rather than catching up. Children can start with us from 6.
Can you help with Informatik homework in Klasse 5 and 6?
Yes. Our Informatik Companion course, for ages 10 to 16, runs alongside school Informatik in English, and a one-to-one mentor can work through your child's own worksheets. We teach alongside school; the school course and its marks are what count.
When are the classes in Düsseldorf time?
Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays. Popular choices in Düsseldorf are the hours after school until about six in the evening, and weekend mornings.
How does a Düsseldorf child join the Informatik-Biber?
Through the school, which registers its pupils. In 2026 the contest weeks are 9 to 20 November; it is free and needs no coding, and Klasse 5 and 6 pupils get twelve puzzles in 35 minutes. The class teacher will know if the school is signed up.
Do classes continue in the NRW holidays?
Yes. Mentors do not follow the NRW calendar, so classes run through every break. Some families take a break during the long summer holidays (19 July to 31 August 2027) and pick up again in September.
Where are the mentors?
In India, teaching live over video. 16:55 in Düsseldorf is 21:25 for the mentor in winter. Your child has the same mentor every week.
How are fees charged?
Monthly. You see the fee here in euro, worked out with the European Central Bank reference rate; the actual payment is in US dollars and is converted by your bank, so a small difference on the statement is normal. The trial class costs nothing and needs no card.
What will my child make?
Younger children make Scratch games and animated stories. Nine and ten year olds move to Python: drawings, quizzes and small games. Around ten to twelve they start real data work, like the Düsseldorf tree register above.
Elsewhere on this site
Related pages
More for families in Düsseldorf and across Germany.
Your child solves a short puzzle and makes a first program with the mentor, who watches how your child reasons and whether the English is comfortable, and afterwards suggests a course and group.
If you would like to read first, how we teach describes a live class and all courses has the full syllabuses.
Live online classes with mentors in India, in English only. WhatsApp is the quickest way to reach us.
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.
