Baden-Württemberg has just made Informatik compulsory for every pupil from grade 5, so many Karlsruhe parents are asking a fair question: should my child start before that, and how? This page answers the questions we hear most, in the order parents tend to ask them, from what the new school subject covers to whether a German-speaking child can learn in English. Along the way there is a project on Karlsruhe's registered dogs that teaches a nine year old to compare things fairly.
Live online classes for children since 2020 · 10,000+ students worldwide · the same mentor every week
Quick answer
Modern Age Coders runs coding classes for Karlsruhe children aged 6 to 12 that are live online and taught in English. Younger children build stories and games in Scratch; from about nine they type real Python and work on small projects with real city data. A regular mentor adapts to your child's pace and accent, classes fit Karlsruhe afternoons and weekend mornings, and children learn in an age group of 15 to 20 or one to one.
Where to begin
First coding courses for Karlsruhe children
A gentle start for the youngest, a long all-round course, and a Python course for children who are ready to type.
Will my child learn coding at school in Karlsruhe anyway?
From grade 5, yes, and more than children did a few years ago. Baden-Württemberg introduced a new compulsory subject in the 2025/26 school year.
The new subject
The Gesellschaft für Informatik reports in its Informatik-Monitor 2026/27 that Baden-Württemberg introduced Informatik und Medienbildung as a compulsory subject across all secondary school types from 2025/26, starting in grades 5 and 6 and growing year by year after that.
The same monitor counts Baden-Württemberg among four Länder that already meet the short-term recommendation of four compulsory Informatik hours. For Karlsruhe pupils that is a real change.
Before grade 5
In Baden-Württemberg, as in most Länder, Grundschule covers four years, grades 1 to 4, so the typical Karlsruhe pupil leaves it at around ten. Only then does the new subject begin.
Children who want to make games or understand how apps work before then have about four years to fill, which is where most of our Karlsruhe learners start.
Coding in a Karlsruhe child's first school years, and how our classes fit around it
School years
At school in Baden-Württemberg
With us
Grades 1 and 2
Grundschule
Scratch stories, sequences and simple games
Grades 3 and 4
Grundschule
Scratch games with scores, variables and lists
Grades 5 and 6
Informatik und Medienbildung, compulsory since 2025/26
Typed Python, which makes the new subject feel familiar
Grade 7 onwards
The subject continues as it grows year by year
Python projects, data and first AI ideas
Sources: GI Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, Baden-Württemberg entry and national comparison; KMK, Primarbereich. Read on 2 November 2026. The right-hand column is our own plan. We teach alongside school; the school subject and its marks are what count.
Question two: what will my child actually do?
Which part of Karlsruhe has the most dogs?
Here is a real example. Every dog older than three months in Karlsruhe has to be registered for dog tax, and the city publishes the numbers for each district under a CC BY 4.0 licence. Children love the topic, and it hides one of the most important ideas in all of data.
The data
The dataset is called Registrierte Hunde and comes from the city treasury, the Stadtkämmerei. We downloaded registrierte-hunde-hunde-insgesamt.csv on 3 November 2026. It covers 27 Stadtteile for each year from 2014 to 2020, the most recent year in the file.
For every district and year it gives the number of dogs and also the number of dogs per 1,000 residents, worked out by the city.
The question
Where in Karlsruhe are there the most dogs? Most children guess straight away, and many guess right. The trouble is that "most dogs" can mean two different things.
A ten year old can find the first answer with the program below in about ten minutes.
Program 1: which district has the most dogs?Python
import csv
with open("registrierte-hunde-hunde-insgesamt.csv", encoding="utf-8") as f:
rows = [r for r in csv.DictReader(f) if r["Jahr"] == "2020"]
most = max(rows, key=lambda r: int(r["Hunde"]))
print("Districts in 2020:", len(rows))
print("Most dogs:", most["Stadtteil"], most["Hunde"])
It prints Districts in 2020: 27 and Most dogs: Durlach 1034.
Durlach, with 1,034 registered dogs. True, but is Durlach really the doggiest part of the city, or simply one of the biggest? A district with more people will usually have more of everything: more dogs, more bicycles, more birthday cakes. To compare fairly, you need to know how many dogs there are for every 1,000 people, and the city has already worked that out for us.
Program 2: dogs for every 1,000 peoplePython
RATE = "Hunde je 1.000 Bewohner/-innen (Wohnberechtigte)"
by_rate = sorted(rows, key=lambda r: float(r[RATE]), reverse=True)
for r in by_rate[:3]:
print(r["Stadtteil"], r["Hunde"], "dogs,", r[RATE], "per 1,000 people")
print("Durlach is number", [r["Stadtteil"] for r in by_rate].index("Durlach") + 1, "by rate")
Run after Program 1. It prints Palmbach 113 dogs, 56.6 per 1,000 people, Hohenwettersbach 166 dogs, 54.1 per 1,000 people, Stupferich 152 dogs, 51.1 per 1,000 people and Durlach is number 15 by rate.
Karlsruhe dogs in 2020: the largest counts and the highest rates are different districts (our ranking of the city's figures)
District
Registered dogs
Dogs per 1,000 residents
Durlach
1,034
33.4
Palmbach
113
56.6
Hohenwettersbach
166
54.1
Stupferich
152
51.1
Innenstadt-Ost
94
14.3
Data: Stadt Karlsruhe, Stadtkämmerei, Registrierte Hunde, transparenz.karlsruhe.de via Open Data Baden-Württemberg, licence CC BY 4.0, file downloaded 3 November 2026. The rates are the city's own; the rankings are ours. The rate column is per 1,000 Wohnberechtigte, people registered as living in the district.
Palmbach has only 113 dogs, about a ninth of Durlach's, yet for every 1,000 people it has 56.6 dogs, the highest rate in the city. Durlach drops to fifteenth place. And the lowest rate of all is in Innenstadt-Ost, in the centre, with 14.3. Children usually have a theory about why the small districts on the edge of the city come out on top; the data does not say, so we treat their idea as a question to check, not an answer.
One more thing older children notice when they look at all seven years: in 25 of the 27 districts there were more registered dogs in 2020 than in 2014. Durlach went from 926 to 1,034. A child who spots that has started asking a third question, "how did it change?", all on their own.
Ages 6 to 8, at the kitchen table. Put 6 sweets on a plate for 2 children and 9 sweets on a plate for 6 children. Which plate has more sweets? Which children get more each?
Ages 8 to 10, Scratch. Make two lists, dogs and people, for three made-up villages. Work out dogs per 100 people for each and show the winner on the stage.
Ages 10 to 12, Python. Run both programs, then change them to rank by the dogs-per-household column. Does Palmbach still win?
Going further. Find the district whose dog count grew most between 2014 and 2020, first as a number and then as a percentage. Are they the same district?
Question three
Can a child who speaks German at home learn coding in English?
Yes, and it usually goes more smoothly than parents expect. All our lessons are in English only; here is why that works for young children.
Most of it is on screen
A sprite moving left, a score going up, a loop repeating: children understand these by watching, before they understand every word. The mentor shows first and explains second, so English is a help rather than a hurdle.
The mentor adapts
Mentors speak slowly, use short sentences and say things again in simpler words. They get used to how each child speaks, including German words dropped into an English sentence, and gently offer the English word back.
Code words are English
Python is written with English words such as print, if and while. A Karlsruhe child who learns in English learns those words in their own language, so to speak, and picks up a lot of school English along the way.
The mentors work from India over a live video call. Your child has the same mentor every week, which matters more for young children than for anyone: after a few lessons the mentor knows whether your child needs a quiet moment before answering, likes to be challenged, or learns most easily by changing a program that already works.
Question four
Are there free contests a primary pupil in Karlsruhe can try?
Three national contests accept primary pupils in the 2026/27 school year. They test thinking, not knowledge, and they are a good way to see a child enjoy a challenge.
Informatik-Biber, 9 to 20 November 2026. An online puzzle contest that costs nothing, open from grade 3 to grade 13, run by Bundesweite Informatikwettbewerbe and entered through the school. No coding needed.
Mathematik-Olympiade, Regionalrunde 11 November 2026. The 66th Mathematik-Olympiade has been offered to primary schools since 2005 and draws about 200,000 pupils a year across Germany. The school round ran until October 2026; pupils who did well there go on to the Regionalrunde.
Pangea, Vorrunde 23 February to 3 March 2027. Registration for the 2027 maths contest is open from 1 October 2026 to 17 February 2027. Pupils in grades 3 and 4 answer 15 questions, without a calculator.
Sources: BWINF, Informatik-Biber 2026; Mathematik-Olympiaden e.V., 66th Mathematik-Olympiade dates; Pangea-Mathematikwettbewerb, Termine 2027. Read on 2 November 2026.
We are not connected with any of these contests and never use their tasks in class. What we do is write our own puzzles of the same kind, sorting, patterns, fair comparisons like the dog project, so a child arrives at a contest used to thinking a problem through rather than guessing. Ask your child's teacher whether the school takes part.
Question five
When could my child have classes in Karlsruhe time?
After school or on weekend mornings. Because the mentors are in India, where it is later in the day, Karlsruhe afternoons are a natural fit.
Possible Karlsruhe lesson times and the time for a mentor in India
Karlsruhe time
Mentor, winter clock
Mentor, summer clock
14:15, early afternoon
18:45
17:45
17:15, later afternoon
21:45
20:45
Saturday 10:45
15:15
14:15
Sunday 09:15
13:45
12:45
Germany uses MEZ (UTC+1) and MESZ (UTC+2) under the Einheitenzeitgesetz; the winter clock has applied since 25 October 2026 and the summer clock starts again on 28 March 2027. India keeps UTC+5:30 throughout, which puts it four and a half hours ahead of Karlsruhe now and three and a half hours ahead from late March. Examples, not fixed groups.
Baden-Württemberg school holidays 2026/27
Holidays
Dates
Herbstferien
26 to 31 October 2026
Weihnachten
23 December 2026 to 9 January 2027
Ostern
25 March and 30 March to 3 April 2027
Pfingsten
18 to 29 May 2027
Sommerferien
29 July to 11 September 2027
Source: KMK, Ferien im Schuljahr 2026/2027, Baden-Württemberg row, Stand 9 October 2025, first and last holiday day.
Classes keep running in the holidays unless you tell us otherwise. The long Pfingsten break and the summer are popular for a short extra project. Karlsruhe had 309,050 residents on 31 December 2024 according to Destatis, and families from Ettlingen, Rastatt, Bruchsal and Pforzheim (134,912) learn with us in exactly the same way, since every lesson is online; they share the Baden-Württemberg holiday dates too.
Milestones
What a Karlsruhe child can do as they progress
Our milestones for ages 6 to 12, shared with parents in a short note each month.
Children's coding milestones (ours)
Milestone
Typical age
Your child can
First story
6 to 7
Make two characters talk and move in turn
First game
7 to 8
Build a game with a score and a way to lose
Lists
8 to 10
Store a list of things and find the largest
Typed Python
9 to 11
Write short programs and fix their own errors
Fair comparisons
10 to 12
Turn counts into rates before ranking them
For parents
When your child says "most", ask "most of what, compared with what?" The dog project is built on that question.
A child who explains a mistake has learned more than one who only shows a finished game.
For children
The biggest number is often just the biggest place.
Before you crown a winner, check whether the race was fair.
Later on
Nine more courses for Karlsruhe children
For when the first course is done or a child has a special interest. Each taught live and in English by the mentor your child already knows, shared or private.
I
Thinking and maths
Ages 6 to 15
CKK / THINK / 01
Problem solving for kids
Patterns, rules and plans, the backbone of every contest.
A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.
by Krish
Fees
Fees for Karlsruhe families
Your monthly fee covers eight live lessons. It is displayed in euro at the European Central Bank reference rate, while the actual payment is taken in US dollars; your bank handles the conversion, so the amount you see on your statement can be marginally different.
Reviews that parents and students left on Google, as written.
★★★★★
"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
Karlsruhe parents ask
Coding classes for kids in Karlsruhe: more questions
Are the classes in German?
No. All lessons are live and in English only. Mentors speak slowly, use simple words, adapt to each child's pace and accent, and show everything on screen, so children who mostly speak German at home can follow from the first lesson.
What is Informatik und Medienbildung?
It is the compulsory subject Baden-Württemberg introduced in the 2025/26 school year for all secondary school types. It started in grades 5 and 6 and grows year by year, according to the GI Informatik-Monitor 2026/27.
Is it worth starting before grade 5?
For a curious child, yes. The new compulsory subject begins only in grade 5, so grades 1 to 4 are open years for Scratch and puzzles. Children who arrive in grade 5 able to plan a program step by step usually enjoy the new subject.
What age is the youngest you teach?
Six. At that age children use Scratch, where blocks are dragged into place, so they do not need to type or read long instructions. Lessons are split into short tasks.
When can my child have lessons in Karlsruhe 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. Younger children often prefer early afternoon or weekend mornings.
Do lessons stop in the Baden-Württemberg holidays?
Only if you would like a pause. The mentors do not follow the BW school calendar, so lessons can continue through the Herbstferien, Christmas, Pfingsten and summer.
Can my child enter maths or computing contests?
Yes, through the school in most cases. The Informatik-Biber runs from 9 to 20 November 2026, the Mathematik-Olympiade Regionalrunde is on 11 November 2026, and the Pangea Vorrunde runs from 23 February to 3 March 2027.
Where are the mentors?
In India, teaching live over video. India is four and a half hours ahead of Karlsruhe in winter, so a 14:15 lesson in Karlsruhe is 18:45 for the mentor.
How much does it cost, and what currency is charged?
The fee is monthly, for eight lessons, shown here in euro at the European Central Bank reference rate. The charge itself is in US dollars and your bank converts it, so the euro amount on your statement can differ slightly. The first class is free.
Does my child use AI chatbots in class?
No. Children under 13 never use chatbot accounts with us. They learn how AI works by building small programs that sort and guess, which is both safer and more educational.
More reading
Related pages
Other pages for parents of young coders in Germany.
In the first class your child solves a short puzzle and makes a first Scratch program move. The mentor sees how they think and how comfortably they follow English, and suggests a course and an age group.
If you would like to know more about our approach, see how we teach; every syllabus is listed under courses.
Live online lessons in English only, with mentors in India. WhatsApp is the quickest way to reach us, in English.
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.
