Baden-Württemberg · Coding and Informatik · Klasse 5 to Abitur
Coding classes in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg made Informatik und Medienbildung a compulsory subject in 2025/26, then started teaching it before its own Bildungsplan was finished: that plan is due in August 2027. This page sets out what pupils in each grade actually get in 2026/27, what the written Informatik Abitur allows and forbids, the holiday dates for the year, how our live classes in English fit around school, and a Stuttgart data project in which the first answer is right and still misleading.
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In short
Modern Age Coders teaches coding to learners in Baden-Württemberg through live online lessons in English, for pupils from about 8 to 19 and for adults, in a group of fifteen to twenty or one to one. Younger pupils start with Scratch and Python alongside the new compulsory subject Informatik und Medienbildung; Oberstufe pupils work on Python or Java for the Basisfach or Leistungsfach. Our Informatik Companion course follows the school stages from Klasse 5 to 10.
Where to start in Baden-Württemberg
Three courses that follow the Baden-Württemberg school path
One course runs beside the new compulsory subject, one prepares for Informatik in the Kursstufe, and one feeds the contests many schools in the Land already enter.
Is Informatik a compulsory subject in Baden-Württemberg?
Yes, since the 2025/26 school year, but it arrives one year group at a time, and the grades above the wave still learn under the old rules. Every fact below names its source.
A subject that grows upwards
The Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) compiles every Land's rules in its Informatik-Monitor 2026/27. For Baden-Württemberg it records that the compulsory subject Informatik und Medienbildung was introduced across all school types of Sekundarstufe I from 2025/26, starting in grades 5 and 6 and then growing year by year. The same page says the subject is eventually planned for grades 5 to 11.
At the Werkrealschule, Hauptschule, Realschule and Gemeinschaftsschule the monitor gives the subject four weekly hours in total across the lower secondary years. The GI's national summary therefore counts Baden-Württemberg among four Länder that meet the short-term recommendation of four compulsory hours made by the KMK's Standing Scientific Commission.
The plan comes later
One detail matters for parents. The monitor states that no Bildungsplan yet exists for the new subject: the consultation is planned for the 2026/27 school year and the plan is to come into force in August 2027. Until then teachers in grades 5 to 7 can lean on older plans for the former Aufbaukurs Informatik and Basiskurs Medienbildung, with a reading aid (Lesehilfe) from the ministry.
Pupils in grade 7 in 2026/27 therefore still take the Aufbaukurs Informatik, which the monitor says is taught from 2026/27 together with the new reading aid. A new profile subject, Naturwissenschaft, Informatik und Technik (NIT), is due at Gemeinschaftsschulen and Gymnasien from 2027/28, while the older profile subject IMP is being phased out.
Informatik for a pupil in Baden-Württemberg, by stage (school year 2026/27)
Stage
Grades
What the rules give
Grundschule
1 to 4
No Informatik subject
Sekundarstufe I, all types
5 and 6
Informatik und Medienbildung, compulsory since 2025/26
Sekundarstufe I, all types
7
Aufbaukurs Informatik, with the new reading aid
Gemeinschaftsschule
8 to 10
Profile subject IMP (phasing out): eight hours, about three of them informatics
Werkreal-, Haupt-, Realschule
8 to 10
Wahlfach Informatik, if offered
Oberstufe, Qualifikationsphase
Kursstufe
Wahlfach (2 hours), Basisfach (3 hours) or Leistungsfach (5 hours)
Source: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, Baden-Württemberg page, read on 2 November 2026; it compiles the Land's school ordinances and the Kultusministerium's Organisationserlass. The Gymnasium in Baden-Württemberg runs mostly as G8, with the Einführungsphase in grade 10 and the Qualifikationsphase in grades 11 and 12; the Oberstufe of a Gemeinschaftsschule covers grades 11 to 13.
Who takes it at the top
Few pupils keep Informatik to the end. The monitor gives 7 % as the share of upper secondary pupils taking Informatik in Baden-Württemberg in 2024/25, from KMK figures, and its national page names Baden-Württemberg among the three Länder where only about one pupil in twelve takes the subject in the Oberstufe. The national average it quotes is about 15 %.
Who teaches it
For 2025/26 the monitor reports 717 Informatik teachers at the school types it counts, 2 % of all teachers, and 26 new Informatik teachers hired in the year, 25 of them through a teaching degree and one through a lateral entry route. Its figure leaves out Werkreal and Hauptschulen, Gemeinschaftsschulen and special schools, so read it as a floor.
What this means in practice: a ten year old in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe or Ulm now meets computing at school, which is new, but the teaching is still being built, and the step from grade 10 to a Kursstufe course in Informatik is one most pupils do not take. Our classes are not a replacement for that subject. They give a pupil enough programming that the school lesson feels like practice rather than a first encounter, and they keep a teenager programming in the years the timetable does not.
School types
Which school types are there in Baden-Württemberg?
Five secondary school types serve a Land of 11,245,898 people, 612,663 of them in the capital, Stuttgart (Destatis, 31 December 2024). The Gymnasium is still mostly on the eight-year route.
Four years of Grundschule
Children spend grades 1 to 4 in the Grundschule, as in most Länder. The KMK states that there is no leaving exam at the end of it.
Five secondary types
The monitor lists the Werkrealschule, Hauptschule, Realschule, Gemeinschaftsschule and Gymnasium for grades 5 to 10. The KMK names the Gemeinschaftsschule in Baden-Württemberg among the schools that offer all three tracks under one roof.
Two routes to the Abitur
At the Gymnasium the Abitur mostly comes after grade 12. At a Gemeinschaftsschule with its own Oberstufe it comes after grade 13. Berufliche Gymnasien are a third door, with their own exam schedule.
Families moving into the Land, often for work in the Stuttgart region, ask whether an English-speaking child should start at a Gymnasium or a Gemeinschaftsschule. That is a school decision, not ours, and we do not advise on placement. What we can say is that both school types now teach Informatik und Medienbildung in grades 5 and 6, so the computing a pupil meets in the first two secondary years is the same subject whichever door they walk through.
The Informatik Abitur
How is the Informatik Abitur set in Baden-Württemberg?
Centrally for the Leistungsfach, on paper, with very little allowed on the desk. The facts come from the Informatik-Monitor and the Kultusministerium.
Written, central, without a computer
According to the GI's Baden-Württemberg page, a written Abitur exam is taken in the Leistungsfach Informatik and it is organised centrally, the same across the Land. The only permitted aids are a German spelling dictionary and a scientific calculator. Programming tasks may be answered in the language used in the course, but a programming environment is not allowed, and practical parts at a computer are neither planned nor permitted.
In the Wahlfach and the Basisfach an oral Abitur exam is possible instead. The monitor adds that Informatik is not assigned to any of the Abitur subject fields and so is not treated as equal to the sciences when pupils choose exam subjects.
What that asks of a pupil
A pupil who has only ever written code with an editor that completes brackets and flags errors will find a paper exam hard, even if they program well. The skill being tested is reading and writing correct code without help: tracing a loop by hand, writing a class from memory, explaining why an algorithm stops.
That is why our Oberstufe course mixes live programming with written practice on paper, timed and marked line by line. The school course and its teachers are what counts for the Abitur; we teach alongside them and do not set or mark school work.
Abitur 2027 at the berufliche Gymnasien in Baden-Württemberg (Kultusministerium schedule)
Step
Date
Written exams, main dates
16 April to 5 May 2027
Written Informatik exam
Tuesday 20 April 2027
Written resits (Nachtermin)
10 May to 2 June 2027
Oral exams
28 June to 8 July 2027
Abitur certificates, at the latest
8 July 2027
Source: Kultusministerium Baden-Württemberg, Terminplan für die Abiturprüfung 2027 an den Beruflichen Gymnasien, read on 3 November 2026. This schedule covers the berufliche Gymnasien only. We did not find the matching schedule for the allgemein bildende Gymnasien on the ministry's pages, so we print no date for it; your school publishes its own timetable. Across Germany, the KMK notes that written Abitur tasks are now set centrally in almost all Länder.
The school year
When are the school holidays in Baden-Württemberg in 2026/27?
Baden-Württemberg has one of the latest summer holidays in Germany. Our classes run through the year, so these dates are for planning, not for stopping.
School holidays in Baden-Württemberg, 2026/27 (first and last day)
Holiday
Dates
Autumn (Herbstferien)
26 to 30 October 2026; the table also lists 31 October
Christmas
23 December 2026 to 9 January 2027
Easter
30 March to 3 April 2027; the table also lists 25 March
Whitsun (Pfingsten)
18 to 29 May 2027
Summer
29 July to 11 September 2027
Source: KMK, Ferien im Schuljahr 2026/2027, as of 9 October 2025, and the KMK long-term summer holiday table for 2025 to 2030. The KMK fixes the summer dates years ahead; the Land sets the others. Baden-Württemberg has four movable holiday days that schools place themselves.
Because the summer break runs to 11 September 2027, a pupil in Baden-Württemberg is often still on holiday when pupils in the north have been back for weeks. Some families use the first fortnight of September for a short, intense block of one-to-one lessons before a new school year, especially before the step into the Kursstufe.
Taught in English
Are the classes in English, and who teaches them?
Every class is live and in English. Our mentors are based in India and adapt to each learner's speed and accent.
English, said up front
We teach only in English, never in German. For a pupil at an international or bilingual school in the Land this matches the classroom; for a pupil at a German school it adds a second language to the coding at no extra cost.
Matched to the learner
Mentors slow down, rephrase and check understanding. They get used to how a pupil speaks, and a teenager who mixes in a German technical word is answered in plain English rather than corrected for it.
German terms explained
School Informatik in the Land uses German terms such as Algorithmus, Schleife or Datenbank. We name the German word next to the English one, so a pupil can use both in class.
A Stuttgart data project
Which Stuttgart library branch is the busiest? A project in three versions
The Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart publishes the stock and the loans of every branch of its city library as open data. Our pupils use the 2024 figures to learn a habit that matters well beyond libraries: a total and a rate answer different questions, and a rate is only fair across rows that are alike.
The data
The file is stadtbibliotheken_stuttgart_bis-2024.csv from the city's statistics office, published under the CC BY 4.0 licence, which allows reuse including commercial reuse with credit. Each row gives a year, a library, a branch, a measure (Medienbestand for items held, Entleihungen for loans) and a value. We downloaded it on 3 November 2026.
For 2024 it lists 20 branches under Stadtteilbibliotheken, from large ones such as Vaihingen and Bad Cannstatt to two pop-up branches and a tiny collection in the Rathauspassage.
The question
Which branch is the busiest? A first-time programmer sorts by loans and is done. A better question follows at once: busy compared with what? A branch with three times as many books will lend more simply because it is bigger.
So the project has three versions, and each one is right about the question it answers.
Version 1: the branch with the most loansPython
import csv
stock, loans, years = {}, {}, {}
with open("stadtbibliotheken_stuttgart_bis-2024.csv", encoding="utf-8-sig") as f:
for row in csv.DictReader(f, delimiter=";"):
if row["Bibliothek"] != "Stadtteilbibliotheken" or not row["Stichtag"].endswith("12-31"):
continue
name = row["Zweigstelle"]
years.setdefault(name, set()).add(row["Jahr"])
if row["Jahr"] == "2024":
target = stock if row["Ausprägung"] == "Medienbestand" else loans
target[name] = int(row["Wert"])
busiest = max(loans, key=loans.get)
print("Branches in 2024:", len(loans))
print("Most loans:", busiest, loans[busiest])
It prints: Branches in 2024: 20 and Most loans: Vaihingen 274027.
Vaihingen lent 274,027 items in 2024. True, and useful if the question is where most books leave the shelf. But Vaihingen also holds 50,715 items, the largest stock of the 20. Version 2 divides loans by stock, which librarians call turnover: how many times, on average, each item went out in the year.
Version 2: loans per item heldPython
turnover = {name: loans[name] / stock[name] for name in loans}
top = max(turnover, key=turnover.get)
low = min(turnover, key=turnover.get)
print("Loans per item, top:", top, round(turnover[top], 2))
print("Loans per item, bottom:", low, round(turnover[low], 2))
It prints: Loans per item, top: West 6.43 and Loans per item, bottom: Popup Hedelfingen 0.0.
Stuttgart-West, with 25,587 items and 164,462 loans, works its stock hardest: each item went out more than six times. The bottom of the list is stranger. Popup Hedelfingen held 4,106 items but recorded only 10 loans. Before anyone calls it a failure, a good programmer asks whether it is comparable at all, and the data can answer that: Hedelfingen appears in the file only in 2024.
Version 3: compare like with likePython
full = [name for name in turnover if "2023" in years[name]]
low = min(full, key=turnover.get)
print("Branches with a 2023 row too:", len(full))
print("Bottom among them:", low, round(turnover[low], 2))
print("Only in 2024:", sorted(set(turnover) - set(full)))
It prints: Branches with a 2023 row too: 17, Bottom among them: Stammheim 3.38 and Only in 2024: ['Popup Hedelfingen', 'Popup Obertürkheim', 'Rathauspassage'].
Stuttgart branch libraries in 2024: stock, loans and turnover (our calculation)
Branch
Items held
Loans
Loans per item
Vaihingen
50,715
274,027
5.40
West
25,587
164,462
6.43
Heslach
21,176
126,247
5.96
Stammheim
23,817
80,461
3.38
Rathauspassage
57
271
4.75
Popup Hedelfingen
4,106
10
0.00
Data: Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart, Statistisches Amt, Medienbestände und Entleihungen in Stuttgarter Bibliotheken, licence CC BY 4.0, downloaded 3 November 2026. Year-end rows (31 December 2024) for the Stadtteilbibliotheken only. Turnover and the three filters are our own; the file gives no reason why a branch first appears in 2024, so we give none.
Ages 8 to 10, no screen. Two classes collect books for a fair. Class A brings 60 books for 30 children, class B brings 40 for 10. Which class gave more? Then: which class gave more per child?
Ages 10 to 12, Scratch. Store loans and stock for five branches in two lists, find the largest loan count, then the largest loans divided by stock, and see whether the winner changes.
Ages 13 to 16, Python. Run Version 1, predict the result of Version 2 before you run it, then write Version 3 yourself and explain why the three answers are all correct.
Going further. The tiny Rathauspassage collection has 57 items and a turnover of 4.75. Write a rule that only ranks branches above a minimum stock, and argue for the threshold you chose.
A first contest
Can pupils in Baden-Württemberg enter the Informatik-Biber in 2026?
Yes, through their school. It is free and needs no programming.
Bundesweite Informatikwettbewerbe (BWINF) runs the Informatik-Biber for pupils from grade 3 up to grade 13, and nobody needs to have programmed before. This year the Biber is held from 9 to 20 November 2026; schools register their pupils and run the quiz in a lesson. For a pupil in grade 5 or 6 who has just met Informatik und Medienbildung, it is a short, friendly test of the same thinking. We do not reuse or copy any real Biber task; in our competitions course every puzzle is written by us, and families who want the originals get a link to the free archive the organiser keeps. We are not connected to BWINF.
Class times
What time are classes in Baden-Württemberg?
In the afternoon and early evening after school, or on weekend mornings. You choose the time in your own clock when you book.
Three sample lesson times, seen from both ends
Clock in Baden-Württemberg
Mentor in India until 27 March 2027
Mentor in India after the change
15:15
19:45
18:45
16:45
21:15
20:15
Saturday 11:00
15:30
14:30
German law (the Einheitenzeitgesetz) sets UTC+1 for the winter months and UTC+2 for summer; the clocks went back on 25 October 2026 and go forward on 28 March 2027. India does not change its clocks (UTC+5:30), so the gap is four and a half hours now and three and a half hours from late March. The rows are illustrations; no batch is fixed to them.
Milestones
What a learner in Baden-Württemberg can do at each stage
These stages are ours: they help us place a new learner and tell parents what has changed. School grades are a separate matter.
Programming milestones from Klasse 5 to the Kursstufe (ours)
Stage
Typical grade
The learner can
1. Steps and repeats
5
Write an algorithm in everyday words, then as Scratch blocks
2. Decisions and variables
6 to 7
Use conditions and a counter, and test a program with a planned input
3. Lists and files
8 to 9
Read a small data file in Python and compute a total and a rate
4. Functions and classes
10
Split a program into functions and model an object with a class
5. Code on paper
Kursstufe
Write and trace correct code by hand, without an editor, in a set time
For parents
Stage 3 is where the Stuttgart project sits: a pupil learns that the biggest number and the fairest number are often different.
Our reports describe programs your child wrote and can talk through, not hours logged.
For learners
Before you rank anything, ask what you are dividing by, and whether every row had the same chance.
If your exam is on paper, practise on paper. The editor will not be there to help.
More courses
Nine more courses for learners in Baden-Württemberg
Each of these runs live over video in English, taught by a mentor who stays with the learner, as a group batch or privately.
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Fees
Fees for families in Baden-Württemberg
You pay monthly for eight live classes. The fees on this page are euro amounts worked out at the European Central Bank reference rate, while the payment itself goes through in US dollars, so your bank does the conversion and the final figure can move a little.
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Families in Baden-Württemberg ask
Coding classes in Baden-Württemberg: common questions
Are the classes in German?
No, never. We teach in English alone, live, and the mentors (who are based in India) tune their speed and accent to the learner. Where school uses a German word such as Schleife, the mentor names it and explains it in English.
Is Informatik compulsory in Baden-Württemberg?
Yes. According to the Gesellschaft für Informatik's Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, the compulsory subject Informatik und Medienbildung started in grades 5 and 6 in 2025/26 at all secondary school types and grows a year at a time.
Does the new subject already have a curriculum?
Not yet. The Informatik-Monitor states that the consultation on the new Bildungsplan is planned for the 2026/27 school year and that it should come into force in August 2027. Until then teachers use older plans with a ministry reading aid.
Can my child use a computer in the written Informatik Abitur?
No. The Informatik-Monitor says the written Leistungsfach exam is set centrally, a programming environment is not allowed and there are no practical parts at a computer. The aids are a spelling dictionary and a scientific calculator.
Do you prepare pupils for the Abitur?
We teach alongside school, with programming and written practice on paper for the Kursstufe. The school course is what counts for the Abitur; we do not set, mark or award any school grade.
When are classes in German 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 from about a quarter past three are popular across the Land.
What happens in the long summer holidays?
Classes continue. The KMK dates for Baden-Württemberg run from 29 July to 11 September 2027, and many families keep a lighter rhythm or switch to one to one for a few weeks.
How many learners share a class?
A batch brings together fifteen to twenty learners at a similar level. Choose one to one if your child would rather have the mentor alone, with lessons built around their own questions.
Why is the fee shown in euro but charged in dollars?
We display each monthly fee in euro, worked out from the ECB reference rate, so families in Germany can compare easily. The card payment itself runs in US dollars, which means your bank converts it on the day and a cent or two of difference is normal. Trying a first lesson costs nothing.
Are you connected to the Kultusministerium or a school?
No. We are an independent online school. We are not connected to the Kultusministerium, the KMK, BWINF, any competition or any school in Baden-Württemberg.
In the free lesson the learner solves one small programming task set for their grade. That gives the mentor a sense of how they reason and how easily they follow spoken English, and the mentor then recommends a course and a batch.
Curious about the format first? Our page on live teaching walks through a typical lesson, and the course list holds each full syllabus.
Lessons happen live over video with India-based mentors, and English is the only teaching language. For a quick answer, message us on WhatsApp.
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.
