When an Essen child finishes grade 4, the family picks a secondary school. Few parents realise that this is also a choice about computing: every NRW school type teaches the same Informatik in grades 5 and 6, but from grade 7 the hours on offer differ a great deal. This page lays out those differences, explains how our live lessons in English give a child aged 6 to 12 a head start that does not depend on the school, introduces a national contest open from grade 3, and walks through a project on the size of Essen's playgrounds.
Live online lessons since 2020 · more than 10,000 students worldwide · taught in English, in Essen afternoons
Quick answer
Modern Age Coders teaches coding to Essen children aged 6 to 12 in live online classes held in English: Scratch to begin with, then Python that the child types, with small AI projects in our Python and AI for Kids course. A mentor matches your child's pace and accent, in a group of fifteen to twenty or one to one, on weekday afternoons or weekend mornings. It works the same whichever secondary school your child later attends.
Good first courses
Three courses for Essen children from 6 to 12
A Scratch course for the youngest, the Python course most children reach around nine, and a course that runs alongside school Informatik from grade 5.
Which Essen secondary school teaches the most Informatik?
In grades 5 and 6, none: they all teach the same compulsory subject. The differences begin in grade 7, and the GI Informatik-Monitor 2026/27 sets them out school type by school type.
The common start
Essen children attend Grundschule from grade 1 to grade 4. After that, NRW teaches Informatik as a compulsory subject in grades 5 and 6 at every general school type, so a Gymnasium pupil and a Gesamtschule pupil anywhere in the city sit the same kind of lessons.
The KMK also notes that grades 5 and 6 are a stage where moving to another track is still possible, which takes some pressure off the decision at the end of grade 4.
Where paths split
From grade 7 Informatik is an elective in NRW, chosen inside a block of elective hours. A Realschule can offer it within 14 weekly hours spread over grades 7 to 10, usually as a three-hour subject; a Gesamtschule or Sekundarschule within twelve; a Hauptschule up to eight.
The nine-year Gymnasium waits longer: its elective begins in grade 9, with six weekly hours across grades 9 and 10.
Informatik by NRW school type after the compulsory grades, 2026/27
School type
Compulsory
Elective later on
Realschule
Grades 5 and 6
Grades 7 to 10, in a 14-hour elective block, usually three hours a week
Gesamtschule or Sekundarschule
Grades 5 and 6
Grades 7 to 10, in a 12-hour elective block, usually three hours a week
Hauptschule
Grades 5 and 6
Grades 7 to 10, up to eight weekly hours in total
Gymnasium (G9)
Grades 5 and 6
Grades 9 and 10, six weekly hours in total; then Oberstufe courses
Source: GI Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, Nordrhein-Westfalen page; KMK pages on Primarbereich and Sekundarstufe I; all read 2 November 2026. Hours are totals across the grades named, as the monitor lists them. In the Gymnasium Oberstufe a three-hour Grundkurs is available in the Einführungsphase, and the written Informatik Abitur is set centrally and taken on paper, without a computer.
So for an Essen family the honest summary is: Informatik is guaranteed for two years, and after that it depends on the school and on your child's choice. A child who already enjoys building programs by the end of grade 6 is the child who picks the elective in grade 7, or waits for it in grade 9. That enjoyment can start much earlier, at home or online, and it does not care which school your child goes to.
In English
How do coding lessons in English work for a child from Essen?
They are live, they are only in English, and the mentor shapes the language around the child. Here is what that looks like in practice.
One teaching language
We do not offer German-language lessons, and we prefer to say so up front. Parents at German schools often see a plus in it: a weekly dose of spoken English with a purpose, on top of the coding itself.
Words chosen for the child
A mentor uses short sentences, checks understanding with a quick question, and tries a second explanation when the first does not land. Accent and speed are adjusted to the child, and the mentor learns how that child speaks too.
Learning by changing
Children see a working example, change one thing, and watch what happens. Because the result is on screen, the English mostly labels what the child already sees, and the vocabulary repeats from week to week.
The mentors work from India, which is why weekday afternoons in Essen suit them well: it is evening there. A group keeps the same mentor over the months, so the person teaching your child knows by the second or third week whether a challenge or a slower pace works better.
A real Essen project
How big is a typical Essen playground? The average and the middle
Essen publishes the outline and area of every public playground as open data. A child can work out the average size in five lines of Python. The more interesting question is whether that average describes a typical playground at all.
The data
The register comes from the City of Essen, compiled by its parks department Grün und Gruga and its land survey office, and is published through Open.NRW under the Datenlizenz Deutschland Namensnennung 2.0, which allows reuse with credit. We downloaded the GeoJSON file on 2 November 2026.
It holds 415 playgrounds. For each one it gives the Stadtbezirk, the Stadtteil, a name and the area in square metres in a field called FLAECHE.
The question
How big is a typical playground in Essen? Most children answer "work out the average", and that is where we start.
Then we ask them to imagine a class where one child is 2 metres tall. The average height of the class goes up, but nobody else has grown. Could the playgrounds have a giant of their own?
Version 1: the averagePython
import json
source = open("Spielplaetze.geojson", encoding="utf-8")
playgrounds = json.load(source)["features"]
sizes = [p["properties"]["FLAECHE"] for p in playgrounds]
mean = sum(sizes) / len(sizes)
print("Playgrounds:", len(sizes))
print("Average size:", round(mean), "m2")
Our program. It prints Playgrounds: 415 and Average size: 2483 m2.
So the average Essen playground covers about 2,483 square metres. To check whether that is typical, we sort the sizes from smallest to largest and look at the one in the middle, the value with as many playgrounds below it as above. Statisticians call it the median; children call it "the middle one".
Version 2: the middle onePython
sizes.sort()
middle = sizes[len(sizes) // 2]
above = [s for s in sizes if s > mean]
print("Middle size:", round(middle), "m2")
print("Above the average:", len(above))
print("Largest:", round(sizes[-1]), "Smallest:", round(sizes[0]))
Our program, run after Version 1. It adds Middle size: 1822 m2, Above the average: 156 and Largest: 13438 Smallest: 122.
The middle playground is only 1,822 square metres, and just 156 of the 415 are bigger than the average. Most Essen playgrounds are smaller than "average". A handful of very large ones, led by the Brehminsel playground in Werden at 13,438 square metres, pull the average up, exactly like the 2-metre child. Neither number is wrong. They answer different questions, and a good programmer says which one they are giving.
Essen playgrounds by size (our calculation from the register)
Area
Playgrounds
Under 500 m2
32
500 to 999 m2
84
1,000 to 1,999 m2
101
2,000 to 4,999 m2
151
5,000 to 9,999 m2
42
10,000 m2 and more
5
Data: Stadt Essen, Spielplätze, via Open.NRW and GovData, licence Datenlizenz Deutschland Namensnennung 2.0, downloaded 2 November 2026. Counts and sizes are ours. The five playgrounds of 10,000 square metres or more are in Werden, Frohnhausen, Vogelheim, Altendorf and Karnap; the smallest, at 122 square metres, is in the Westviertel. Altenessen-Süd has the most playgrounds of any Stadtteil (18), Frohnhausen the most playground area.
Ages 6 to 8, with sticks. Cut seven paper strips of different lengths, one very long. Line them up from short to long and pick the middle one. Is it longer or shorter than "all the strips shared out equally"?
Ages 8 to 10, in Scratch. Put ten sizes in a list, work out the average, then sort the list and find the middle item. Change one size to 50,000 and watch which number moves.
Ages 10 to 12, in Python. Run both versions, then work out the average and the middle size for one Stadtteil of your choice.
Going further. With an even number of values there are two middle ones. Change Version 2 so that it handles both cases, and test it on 414 playgrounds.
A contest from grade 3
Is there a coding contest for an Essen primary or grade 5 pupil?
Yes: the Jugendwettbewerb Informatik. It is designed for secondary pupils but open from grade 3, and since 2026 it has a level aimed squarely at grades 5 and 6.
What it asks
The Jugendwettbewerb Informatik is run by BWINF, the organisers of the national informatics contests. Unlike a pure puzzle quiz, it asks children to solve programming and algorithm tasks within a time limit.
From 2026 the first round has three levels, all open to everyone. Bronze, recommended for grades 5 and 6, has three tasks in 30 minutes; Silver, for grades 7 to 9, four tasks in 40 minutes; Gold, from grade 10, six tasks in 60 minutes. BWINF reports a record 71,971 participants and 7,190 first prizes.
The 2026 rounds
In 2026 the first round ran from 23 February to 8 March and the second from 17 April to 3 May. The third round runs together with the Bundeswettbewerb Informatik from 1 September, with a closing date of 23 November 2026.
Pupils may register themselves or be signed up by a teacher, and in rounds 1 and 2 they can work alone or in a team of two. The organisers will publish the 2027 dates on bwinf.de; if your child is in grade 4 or 5 now, round 1 of 2027 is the one to aim for.
We are independent of BWINF and never copy its tasks. Our own practice problems for this contest are short programs with a twist, of the kind in the playground project: one instruction that gives a surprising answer until the child thinks it through.
When classes happen
When do classes take place in Essen time?
After school or on weekend mornings. Every booking shows the slot in Essen time and in the mentor's own time.
Example class times in Essen and in India
Essen
India, winter time (to 28 March 2027)
India, summer time (from 28 March 2027)
14:20
18:50
17:50
16:40
21:10
20:10
Saturday 12:00
16:30
15:30
The Einheitenzeitgesetz sets German time: MEZ, one hour ahead of UTC, for the winter, and MESZ, two hours ahead, for the summer. The 2026 switch back to MEZ was on 25 October, and MESZ returns on 28 March 2027. India uses UTC+5:30 all year round, so the difference is 4 h 30 min until late March and 3 h 30 min afterwards. Rows are examples; there are no fixed batch times.
The NRW holiday dates in the KMK table for 2026 to 2027: Christmas from 23 December to 6 January, Easter from 22 March to 3 April 2027, a Whitsun day on 18 May and summer from 19 July to 31 August 2027. Classes carry on in the holidays. Families from Mülheim, Gelsenkirchen, Bottrop or Bochum join the same online groups.
How children progress
From first blocks to real data: the steps we use
These stages are ours. They help us put each child in the right group and give parents a plain answer to "what can she do now?"
Stages of learning to code, ages 6 to 12 (our scheme)
Stage
Around age
What it looks like
1. Instructions
6 to 7
Moves a sprite with a short chain of blocks
2. Patterns
7 to 9
Spots repetition and turns it into a loop
3. Variables
8 to 10
Keeps a score and a list, and changes them
4. Python
9 to 11
Types small programs and fixes simple errors
5. Data
10 to 12
Loads a real file and chooses the right summary for a question
For parents
Stage 5 is the playground project: knowing when to use the middle value instead of the average is a skill children keep for every news chart.
Updates describe what your child built and could explain.
For children
Before you trust an average, look for a giant in the list.
Sort it, find the middle, and compare.
Further courses
Nine more courses for Essen children
All taught live in English, and all available in a group or privately.
I
Starting out
Ages 6 to 12
CKE / FIRST / 01
Coding for Kids, the long course
Age-grouped batches that move from Scratch to apps and AI basics.
A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.
by Krish
Fees
Fees for Essen families
The fee is paid each month and buys eight live classes. We display it in euro using the European Central Bank reference rate; the card payment is made in US dollars, and your bank converts it, so the euro amount you see on the statement may vary slightly.
Google reviews from families and students, as they posted them.
★★★★★
"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
What Essen parents ask
Coding classes for kids in Essen: your questions
Are the classes in German?
No. Our lessons are taught in English and only in English, always live. Mentors keep their language simple, adjust speed and accent to your child and repeat things in other words when needed. Python and Scratch commands are English words anyway.
Does my child get Informatik at school in Essen?
Yes, in grades 5 and 6, which are compulsory Informatik years at every general school type in NRW. After that it is an elective whose size depends on the school type: from grade 7 at Realschule, Gesamtschule, Sekundarschule and Hauptschule, from grade 9 at the Gymnasium.
Should the choice of secondary school depend on Informatik?
That is a family decision we do not advise on. What we can say is that the compulsory lessons in grades 5 and 6 are the same everywhere, and that the elective hours later on differ by school type, as the GI Informatik-Monitor lists them.
How young can my child begin?
At 6. Children of six and seven start with Scratch and puzzles, which need no typing. Most children move on to typed Python at around nine.
When are classes in Essen 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. Afternoons after school are the most popular in Essen.
Who are the mentors?
Coding mentors based in India who teach live over video. A 16:40 class in Essen is 21:10 in India in winter and 20:10 in summer, and your child keeps the same mentor.
What is the Jugendwettbewerb Informatik?
A national programming contest run by BWINF, open from grade 3, with a Bronze level of three tasks in 30 minutes for grades 5 and 6. Children can register themselves or through a teacher. We are not connected with BWINF.
What is the playground project?
An original Python project on the Essen playground register. Children compute the average size, 2,483 square metres, then the middle size, 1,822, and learn why a few very large playgrounds make the two differ.
How many children are in a group?
Between fifteen and twenty, all close in age. One-to-one lessons are available if your child would rather have a mentor alone.
How do I pay, and in which currency?
Fees are monthly. We show them in euro, calculated with the European Central Bank reference rate, and charge in US dollars, which your bank converts. The first lesson is free.
Also useful
Related pages
Further reading for families in Essen and the Ruhr.
The trial lesson is short and friendly: your child meets a mentor, tries a puzzle and builds a first small program. Afterwards we suggest the course and the age group that suit them.
Every class is live online, in English only, with a mentor based in India. Send us a WhatsApp message if anything is unclear.
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.
