Children in Leverkusen meet Informatik at school in grade 5, at about ten. Many parents wonder whether their six, seven or eight year old is ready sooner, and how they would know. This page gives five signs to look for, explains what NRW schools teach and when, describes how our live classes in English work for young children, lists the free contests this school year, and shows a project where a child finds out how often it really rains in Leverkusen, and why looking at two weeks is not enough.
Teaching live online since 2020 · 10,000+ students worldwide · your child keeps one mentor, in English
In short
Modern Age Coders teaches coding classes for kids in Leverkusen live online in English, for ages 6 to 12. Younger children make Scratch games and stories; from about nine they move to typed Python with Python and AI for Kids. A regular mentor in India keeps the same child week after week and fits pace and accent to them, in a class of fifteen to twenty or alone. NRW schools start Informatik in grade 5.
First courses
Which course should a Leverkusen child start with?
A long course for a child of six who will grow with it, a puzzle course for a child who loves riddles more than screens, and Python for a child who is already typing.
Is my child ready to start coding? Five signs to look for
Age matters less than you might think. These are the signs our mentors look for in the free first class, and you can look for them at home.
They follow a short sequence. A child who can follow three steps of a recipe or a Lego plan in order can follow the steps of a Scratch program.
They ask "what if". What if the cat jumps twice? What if the game is faster? That question is the start of every program.
They can sit with a puzzle for ten minutes. Not an hour; ten minutes of trying before asking for help is plenty at six or seven.
They use a mouse or trackpad. Scratch is dragging and dropping. Typing comes later, usually from about nine.
They enjoy making, not only playing. A child who builds worlds, draws comics or invents rules for games usually loves coding.
A first project at each age (ours)
Age
First project
What it teaches
6 to 7
A cat that walks, meows and changes colour
Order of steps
7 to 8
A maze game you steer with arrow keys
Events and repeats
8 to 10
A quiz that keeps score
Variables and choices
10 to 12
A Python program that counts rainy days
Lists, loops and fair samples
If only two or three of the five signs fit, that is normal. The free first class is the real test: the mentor sees within half an hour whether your child is ready for Scratch, ready for Python, or would enjoy the puzzle course first.
NRW schools
What will my child meet in Informatik at a Leverkusen school?
Nothing compulsory in Grundschule, then two compulsory years. The facts are from the Gesellschaft für Informatik and the KMK, read on 2 November 2026.
Grades 1 to 4
A Leverkusen child spends the first four school years in Grundschule, as children do in almost every Land, and none of those years has Informatik as a required subject.
Children of six to nine therefore depend on home, clubs or classes like ours if they want to make things with code.
Grades 5 and 6
According to the Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, Informatik is compulsory in grades 5 and 6 at all general school types in NRW. Every Leverkusen pupil, whatever school they move to, has it.
A child who has spent a year or two on Scratch and simple Python arrives in grade 5 knowing loops and conditions, and can spend those lessons going deeper instead of catching up.
Computing in a Leverkusen school career, 2026/27 rules
Grades
School
Informatik
First four years
Grundschule
Not a compulsory subject
5 and 6
Every general school type
Compulsory
7 onwards
Depends on the school
Elective or course, where offered
Sources: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, North Rhine-Westphalia page; KMK, Primarbereich. Read 2 November 2026. NRW holidays in 2026/27, from the KMK Ferienkalender: Herbstferien until 31 October 2026, Christmas from 23 December 2026 to 6 January 2027, Easter from 22 March to 3 April 2027, summer from 19 July to 31 August 2027. Neither those bodies nor the NRW ministry has any tie to Modern Age Coders.
In English
How can a young child learn coding in English?
Lessons are given live, in English and nothing else. For a young child that matters less than parents fear, because so much is shown rather than said.
No German, said early
Mentors teach in English and there is no German-language option. We would rather you know that now. The mentors are based in India and teach by live video.
Short, clear sentences
Mentors use few words, repeat them, point at the screen and wait. They get used to your child's way of speaking, and a German word in the middle of an answer is understood and gently swapped for the English one.
Words a child picks up fast
Move, turn, repeat, if, score, start. Most of a young child's coding vocabulary is a few dozen words, and children use them comfortably within a few weeks.
Because the mentor stays the same, your child is not meeting a stranger every week. Quiet children often speak more by the third or fourth class, once they know who is on the other side of the screen.
A real Leverkusen project
How often does it rain in Leverkusen? A lesson in fair samples
The Deutscher Wetterdienst has measured rain at Leverkusen-Pattscheid for decades. Our older children use the 365 days of 2025 to discover that looking at a few days can give almost any answer you like.
The data
Station 2970, Leverkusen-Pattscheid, sits 140 metres above sea level inside the city boundary. Its daily rain totals are free to reuse with credit (CC BY 4.0) from the DWD Climate Data Center. Our copy was fetched on 3 November 2026, and the 2025 part became pattscheid_2025.csv.
We call a day rainy when at least 1 millimetre fell. That is our choice for the project, written down before counting so it cannot be changed to suit the answer.
The question
Out of every hundred days in 2025, how many were rainy? A child guesses first. Then the program looks at only two weeks, then at a different two weeks, then at the whole year.
The total for the year was 830.8 millimetres, and the wettest single day was 8 September 2025 with 35.6 millimetres. Both are our sums from the file.
Version 1: the whole year against two weeksPython
import csv
days = []
with open("pattscheid_2025.csv", encoding="utf-8") as sheet:
for row in csv.DictReader(sheet):
days.append((row["date"], float(row["rain_mm"])))
def rainy_share(sample):
rainy = [d for d in sample if d[1] >= 1.0]
return round(100 * len(rainy) / len(sample))
print("All", len(days), "days:", rainy_share(days), "% rainy")
print("First two weeks of January:", rainy_share(days[:14]), "% rainy")
print("First two weeks of March:", rainy_share(days[59:73]), "% rainy")
It prints All 365 days: 34 % rainy, First two weeks of January: 64 % rainy and First two weeks of March: 0 % rainy.
Two weeks in January say nearly two days in three are rainy. Two weeks in March say it never rains at all. The whole year says about one day in three. A sample of days all bunched together only tells you about those days.
Version 2: spread the days out, and take more of themPython
import random
every_week = days[::7]
print("One day a week,", len(every_week), "days:", rainy_share(every_week), "% rainy")
random.seed(2025)
for size in [10, 30, 100]:
tries = [rainy_share(random.sample(days, size)) for _ in range(5)]
print(size, "random days, five tries:", tries)
Run after Version 1. It prints One day a week, 53 days: 40 % rainy, then five random tries each: 10 random days, five tries: [40, 30, 30, 40, 30], 30 random days, five tries: [27, 53, 33, 20, 20] and 100 random days, five tries: [32, 45, 31, 36, 35].
Spreading the sample across the year helps: one day a week gives 40 percent, much closer than either fortnight. Random days help too, but a small random sample still jumps about. With 100 days most tries land within a few points of the true 34. The lesson children remember: look at enough days, from all over the year.
Share of rainy days in 2025 by sample (our calculation)
Sample
Days
Rainy, %
First two weeks of January
14
64
First two weeks of March
14
0
One day a week
53
40
The whole year
365
34
Rain figures: DWD station 2970 Leverkusen-Pattscheid, daily totals from the Climate Data Center, reused under CC BY 4.0 (file fetched 3 November 2026). The 1 millimetre threshold, the samples and all shares are ours. The random tries use a fixed seed, so anyone who runs the code gets the same numbers.
Ages 6 to 8, no screen. Put 10 red and 20 blue counters in a bag. Pull out three. Does your handful say "one in three are red"? Try again.
Scratch, 8 to 10. Build a list of 30 days, ten of them rainy. Pick five at random and show the share. Press the green flag ten times and watch it change.
Python, 10 to 12. Change Version 2 to take 200 random days. Do the five tries get closer to 34?
Going further. Change the rule to "at least 0.1 millimetre". How many rainy days now, and why is the choice of rule part of the answer?
Free contests
Which free contests can a Leverkusen primary child enter this year?
Two national ones that start in grade 3, both entered through the school. We have no connection with either organiser.
Informatik-Biber
A free online puzzle quiz for grades 3 to 13 that needs no prior knowledge. More than 580,000 pupils took part in 2025. The Biberwochen 2026 run from 9 to 20 November 2026, inside a school lesson.
Schools register their pupils, so the class teacher is the person to ask.
Mathematik-Olympiade
About 200,000 pupils take part every year, and it has been open to primary schools since 2005. In the 66th Olympiade the Regionalrunde is on 11 November 2026 and the Landesrunde from 26 to 28 February 2027.
The first round is set at school. For a child who enjoys puzzles, it is a good reason to practise careful written reasoning.
We never copy either contest's tasks. In class, mentors invent their own puzzles in the same spirit, marked as ours, and send families to the organisers' own pages for real past rounds.
Times
When are coding classes for Leverkusen children?
After school or at the weekend, whatever suits your family. A German afternoon is an Indian evening, which is when the mentors teach.
Sample Leverkusen times and the mentor's time
Leverkusen
India in winter, until 28 March 2027
India in summer, from 28 March 2027
14:40
19:10
18:10
16:50
21:20
20:20
Saturday 10:15
14:45
13:45
Sunday 09:30
14:00
13:00
Clock note: Germany switched from summer time (MESZ, two hours ahead of UTC) to standard time (MEZ, one hour ahead) on 25 October 2026, as the Einheitenzeitgesetz provides, and switches back on 28 March 2027. India keeps one setting, UTC+5:30, all year. A mentor is therefore 4 h 30 ahead of a Leverkusen family until late March and 3 h 30 ahead after that. Every row above is an example; no batch is tied to it.
Families in Köln, Langenfeld, Leichlingen, Burscheid or Monheim join the same classes. Booking happens in the time zone of your own device.
Milestones
What can a Leverkusen child do as they progress?
Five stages we use to group children and to write to parents.
Stages for young coders (ours)
Stage
Age, roughly
A child at this stage
1. Order
6 to 7
Plans steps and puts them in the right order
2. Repeat
7 to 9
Uses a loop instead of copying blocks
3. Decide
8 to 10
Lets a game choose between two paths
4. Type
9 to 11
Writes short Python programs
5. Sample
10 to 12
Checks whether enough data was used before trusting an answer
For parents
The rain sample belongs to stage 5. Once a child has watched 64 percent and 0 percent come out of one and the same year, they start asking how much of anything they have really seen.
Progress notes say what your child made and could explain.
For children
A handful of days is a guess. A year of days is an answer.
Spread your sample out, and take enough of it.
More courses
Nine more courses for Leverkusen children
All live, in English, with the same mentor every week, in a group or one to one.
A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.
by Krish
Fees
Fees for Leverkusen families
Payment is monthly and covers eight live classes. The euro figure on this page uses the European Central Bank reference rate; the actual charge is in US dollars, which your bank converts, so your statement might show a slightly different amount.
Parents' and students' reviews on Google, quoted 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
Leverkusen parents ask
Coding classes for kids in Leverkusen: answers for parents
Are the classes in German?
No. Classes run live, and the teaching language is English alone. The mentors, based in India, speak simply, show each step on the screen and adjust to your child's pace and accent, so a young child with little English can take part.
How do I know if my child is ready to code?
Look for five signs: following a short sequence, asking what if, staying with a puzzle for ten minutes, using a mouse, and enjoying making things. The free first class confirms it either way.
Do Leverkusen schools teach coding?
Not in Grundschule. From grade 5, Informatik is compulsory in grades 5 and 6 at every general school type in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to the Gesellschaft für Informatik.
Is six too young?
Usually not, as long as the start is Scratch, where blocks snap together and almost nothing is typed. Six year olds have short lessons with small wins and are grouped only with children their age.
When are classes in Leverkusen 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. Leverkusen children mostly pick a weekday afternoon or Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Can my child take part in the Biber or the Mathematik-Olympiade?
Yes, both start from grade 3 and run through schools. This school year the Biber falls between 9 and 20 November 2026, and the Regionalrunde of the 66th Mathematik-Olympiade is on 11 November 2026. Ask the class teacher.
Is the rain project real Leverkusen data?
Yes. It uses the 2025 daily rain at Deutscher Wetterdienst station 2970, Leverkusen-Pattscheid, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0; our copy dates from 3 November 2026. Samples and percentages are our work.
What will my child build in the first months?
Scratch stories and games for the youngest, a scoring quiz around eight, and from about nine or ten, short Python programs such as the rainy-day counter on this page.
How large is a class?
Between fifteen and twenty children close in age. If you prefer, the one-to-one plan books the mentor for your child alone, two lessons each week.
Which currency is the fee in?
The page shows the monthly fee in euro at the European Central Bank reference rate. The payment itself is taken in US dollars and converted by your bank, so the euro amount on your statement may differ a little. The first class is free.
Your child solves a small puzzle and makes something move in Scratch. Meanwhile the mentor watches how they think and how much English help they need, and afterwards suggests a course and an age group.
Live online classes, taught in English only by mentors in India. WhatsApp in English gets the fastest reply.
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.
