Coding Classes in the West Midlands | Live Online, Ages 6 to 67

Courses for the West Midlands

West Midlands learners often start with these

A seven-year-old in Tipton who builds worlds in Minecraft, an eleven-year-old in Solihull who loves logic, a Year 11 in Sutton Coldfield taking maths seriously, and a stock controller in Walsall who wants spreadsheets that think. Four courses, one free first lesson each.

Ages 6 to 12

Coding for Kids

From a first Scratch game to Minecraft and Roblox coding, kid-safe AI and a first look at Python.

See the syllabus

Ages 10 to 13

Python and AI for Kids

Real Python for children, with variables and conditions that check whether a rule is met.

See the syllabus

Ages 14 to 18

High School Mathematics

Algebra, trigonometry, calculus and statistics for secondary students, including optimisation problems.

See the syllabus

Adults

Data Analysis Course

Excel, statistics and SQL, then Python with pandas and dashboards, finishing in a portfolio project.

See the syllabus

Browse the course atlas for more than one hundred options and use the coding roadmap to check prerequisites.

The four we are known for

Python, AI, vibe coding and agentic coding

These run underneath everything above. Every one is live and online, placed by ability rather than by age, and the first class is free.

Vibe codingAges 13 to 17

Vibe Coding for Teens

Python, web and AI projects where the learner still owns the thinking.

See the syllabus

Python and AICollege and adult

Python Automation Course

Automate the work you already do, then let AI carry part of it.

See the syllabus

AI and MLAges 14 to 18

AI and Machine Learning for Teens

Train a model, read what it learned, and be able to say why it is wrong.

See the syllabus

Agentic codingProfessionals

Codex & Claude Code

Run AI coding agents on real work without losing control of the codebase.

See the syllabus

The county in figures

Seven boroughs, 2,919,653 people and a city of more than a million

Population per borough comes from the 2021 Census tables on Nomis. For towns we take the ONS built-up areas, then add up the census output areas ourselves to spot where a town spills over a boundary.

The seven West Midlands boroughs, usual residents at Census 2021, largest first
Borough	Usual residents	Main towns
Birmingham	1,144,919	Birmingham, Royal Sutton Coldfield
Coventry	345,325	Coventry
Sandwell	341,832	West Bromwich, Smethwick, Tipton, Oldbury, Wednesbury
Dudley	323,486	Dudley, Halesowen, Stourbridge, Kingswinford, Brierley Hill
Walsall	284,124	Walsall, Bloxwich, Willenhall, Brownhills, Aldridge
Wolverhampton	263,727	Wolverhampton, Bilston in part
Solihull	216,240	Solihull, Knowle and Dorridge, Balsall Common

Birmingham borough holds 1,144,919 people, more than the other six boroughs' largest three put together. The ONS draws its Birmingham built-up area across Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull, but counts Royal Sutton Coldfield, inside Birmingham borough, as a separate built-up area. Between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, the Black Country towns merge so closely that our count shows Coseley touching three boroughs at once. For a family in Wednesbury or Rowley Regis, the nearest centre offering a particular class may be in another borough entirely.

West Midlands built-up areas above five thousand residents, 2021 Census, in size order
Built-up area	Residents	Built-up area	Residents
Birmingham	1,121,375	Bilston	34,640
Coventry	344,285	Brierley Hill	32,305
Wolverhampton	234,025	Sedgley	31,990
Solihull	107,735	Coseley	25,205
West Bromwich	103,110	Darlaston	21,540
Royal Sutton Coldfield	93,375	Brownhills	21,240
Walsall	70,775	Wednesbury	20,315
Dudley	64,270	Knowle and Dorridge	19,320
Halesowen	60,110	Cradley Heath	18,820
Stourbridge	56,950	Streetly	16,785
Smethwick	56,340	Aldridge	15,835
Kingswinford	51,910	Rushall and Shelfield	12,845
Bloxwich	51,875	Pelsall	10,455
Willenhall	49,580	Pheasey	9,495
Tipton	47,200	Balsall Common	7,095
Oldbury	45,180	Blackheath	6,950
Rowley Regis	39,050

Most rows match our output-area count within rounding. Four do not, because the places reach beyond the county: the Birmingham built-up area has about 10,000 residents outside the seven boroughs, Coventry about 2,800 in Warwickshire, Wolverhampton about 2,300 and Streetly about 2,800 in Staffordshire. For those we print the ONS figure for the whole place. Royal Sutton Coldfield's small gap is within the same county.

Seven calendars, not one

Each of the seven borough councils sets its own term dates for community schools, and academies may choose differently. We did not read them for this page and print none; lesson breaks are agreed with each family. Birmingham and Wolverhampton with Walsall have selective schools covered on separate maths pages for Birmingham and Wolverhampton and Walsall; nothing here is school advice.

The West Midlands project

The least fine gold that still earns an 18 carat hallmark

A real standard from the Birmingham Assay Office, stock amounts we invented for teaching, and a program that finds the leanest mix or proves there is none.

The Assay Office calls this millesimal fineness: 750 means 750 parts of pure gold in every thousand, which is 18 carat, while 916 is 22 carat, 585 is 14 carat and 375 is 9 carat. Our imaginary workshop has 20 g of 22 carat scrap, 30 g of 14 carat and 40 g of 9 carat, plus as much fine gold (999) and gold-free base alloy as it likes. It must make 50 g of metal that is at least 750, and it wants to use as little of the precious fine gold as possible. Each quantity becomes a variable, each rule a constraint, and the aim, least fine gold, the objective.

Our run of 26 September 2026: making 50 g of at least 750 gold from our teaching stocks
Approach	Fine gold used	What else goes in	Result
Fine gold and base alloy only	37.54 g	Base alloy to make up the weight	750, but wasteful
Linear program, least fine gold	3.94 g	All 20 g of 22 carat, 26.06 g of 14 carat	Exactly 750.0
Brute-force check on a 0.1 g grid	3.97 g	All 20 g of 22 carat, 26.0 g of 14 carat	Agrees, to the grid's precision
Scrap only, no fine gold at all	None	Everything in the drawer	Impossible: at most 40.12 g of 750 can be made

Three lessons sit in that table. The first is the size of the saving: thinking the problem through uses about a tenth of the fine gold that the obvious method does. The second is where the answer lands. The winning mix uses every gram of the richest scrap, then exactly enough 14 carat to balance, and the gold content comes out at precisely 750 parts per thousand, not a fraction more. Linear programs always put their optimum at a corner like this, where constraints meet, which is why the "at least" becomes "exactly".

The third lesson is the last row. Without any fine gold, the drawer cannot make 50 g of 18 carat, however cleverly it is mixed; the most it can make is 40.12 g. A good solver does not return a nearly-right answer in that case. It reports that the problem is infeasible, and a good programmer checks for that before printing anything. The brute-force grid is the fourth, quieter lesson: a slow, simple method that agrees with the clever one is the strongest evidence the clever one is right.

Ages 10 to 13

Work out by hand how much 22 carat and 9 carat make 18 carat, then write the calculation as a Python function.

Ages 13 to 16

Write the brute-force search over a grid of amounts, find the least fine gold, and see how the answer changes with the grid size.

Ages 16 and up

Set the problem up as a linear program, solve it with a library, and test what happens as each stock limit is raised or lowered.

What is real and what is ours

The fineness standards, the anchor, 1773 and the 1 gram rule are the Birmingham Assay Office's. The stock amounts are values we chose for teaching, the mixes are our calculations, and nothing here is advice on making, buying or valuing jewellery. Real alloying also involves other metals and processes this model leaves out.

Why the Jewellery Quarter

An anchor, a number and 250 years of testing

The county link, from the Birmingham Assay Office's own pages.

The Birmingham Assay Office, in its own words
Topic	What it says
Its mark	If you see an anchor, your item was hallmarked by Birmingham Assay Office.
Its age	An archive of Birmingham date letters going back to the Assay Office's foundation in 1773.
The UK system	Four UK assay offices, marked for Birmingham, London, Sheffield and Edinburgh.
The law	Hallmarking is a legal requirement in the UK for gold items weighing 1 gram and over.
The detail	The smallest hallmark it applies is just 0.25mm.

Assaying is testing, and testing is the part of programming beginners skip. A hallmark exists because nobody should have to take a maker's word for what a ring contains; a test suite exists because nobody should have to take a programmer's word for what a function does. The brute-force check in this project is the software version of the assay: an independent measurement that either confirms the claim or exposes it.

We are independent of the Birmingham Assay Office and of every West Midlands council, and this page should not be read as suggesting otherwise. The fineness standards come from the Assay Office; the invented stocks, the solver set-up and any slip in them are our own.

Nearby pages

Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton have pages of their own, and Warwickshire surrounds Coventry.

Levels of learning

From following a rule to finding the leanest way to meet one

The free lesson decides where each learner starts; age helps us guess, ability settles it.

Ages 6 to 10

Rules and checks

Block-coding games with win conditions, where children learn that a program checks a rule before it moves on.

Coding for Kids Scratch Coding for Kids

Ages 10 to 13

Mixtures and ratios

Python with fractions, percentages and parts per thousand, turning word problems into small programs.

Python and AI for Kids Maths Through Coding

Ages 13 to 18

Optimisation

Algebra, inequalities and optimisation in maths lessons, and search and solvers in code, each checking the other.

High School Mathematics Problem Solving for Teens

Ages 18 to 67

Decisions from data

Spreadsheets, SQL and Python for adults who plan stock, shifts or budgets, with constraints written down properly.

Data Analysis Course Statistics & Probability

AI and optimisation

An AI will suggest a gold mix. Will it notice when no mix is possible?

Not always, and the difference matters whenever a real limit is involved.

Ask a chatbot how to make 50 g of 18 carat gold from a drawer of scrap and it will usually produce a confident recipe. If the scrap cannot do it, some replies still offer numbers that look reasonable and quietly fall short, because a fluent paragraph does not check a constraint the way a solver does. In jewellery that means a failed assay; in a factory rota, a hospital schedule or a delivery plan it means a plan that cannot be carried out.

A West Midlands student who has written the constraints down and watched a solver report "infeasible" knows to ask the hard questions of any suggested plan: does it meet every rule exactly, could any other mix do better, and has something independent checked it? Those questions are how operations planners work, and they are the questions to put to any AI-generated plan.

So a West Midlands teenager should learn to program in 2026 to be the person who can say, with evidence, that a plan is impossible before anyone tries to follow it. The longer argument is in why teenagers should still learn to code in 2026.

Practical details

Brownhills to Balsall Common, no bus needed

The county is dense but its journeys are slow at school pick-up time. Online lessons avoid them completely.

At your own desk

A bedroom in Pelsall, a kitchen in Cradley Heath, a spare room in Knowle. Teacher and learner share one screen, and the learner does the typing.

School language, in English

Year groups, GCSE options and A levels are called what West Midlands schools call them, and teaching is always in English.

First lesson on us

A real lesson of real work and a clear view of the right course afterwards. We never ask for card details.

Peers at your level

Five to ten learners who are at the same stage, from many towns and countries, so the lesson is pitched right.

Your school's holidays

Usually two lessons a week, with breaks matched to your own school, since the seven boroughs and academies differ.

Booked in UK time

Our teachers keep India time, four and a half hours ahead in UK summer and five and a half in UK winter; you always see UK time.

Why groups are formed by level

Even among nearly three million people, the learners at exactly one stage on one evening are spread thinly across many towns. Level-based groups let a Kingswinford learner and a Coventry learner share one class.

Fees

West Midlands fees

One set of prices for all seven boroughs, and for every country apart from India.

First classUSD 0

A full lesson of genuine work, ending with a suggested level and course.

Group tuitionUSD 100

Around eight lessons each month in a group of five to ten at one level.

Private tuitionUSD 150

Around eight lessons each month, one teacher with one learner.

Outside India every family is billed in US dollars, so no pound figures appear anywhere. The first invoice follows the free lesson, once a course and a regular weekly slot are agreed, and the pricing page sets out what happens if you pause, miss a lesson or change between a group and one-to-one.

Request placement Check availability

Reviews

In the words of families, from Google

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews. These are real reviews, reproduced 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

Free placement class

Try a lesson free

Give us a school year or age and mention one thing the learner likes. The first lesson could be a block-coding game, a first Python ratio calculator, or the 18 carat puzzle on this page.

FAQ

West Midlands questions

The county, the gold project and the lessons.

How many people live in the West Midlands county?

Adding the 2021 Census counts of the seven boroughs from Nomis gives 2,919,653 usual residents. Birmingham had 1,144,919 and Solihull, the smallest, 216,240.

What are the largest towns in the West Midlands?

By ONS built-up area: Birmingham 1,121,375, Coventry 344,285, Wolverhampton 234,025, Solihull 107,735 and West Bromwich 103,110. Our table lists thirty-three places above five thousand residents.

What is the gold project?

Learners set up a linear program to make 50 g of at least 750 gold from scrap while using the least fine gold. Our run needs 3.94 g, against 37.54 g for the naive method, and a brute-force check agrees.

What does 750 on a hallmark mean?

The Birmingham Assay Office explains that it means 750 parts per thousand of pure gold, which is 18 carat. 375 is 9 carat, 585 is 14 carat and 916 is 22 carat.

What does the anchor mean on a hallmark?

It is the assay office mark of the Birmingham Assay Office, which traces its foundation to 1773. London, Sheffield and Edinburgh have their own marks.

Is there a classroom in Birmingham or Coventry?

We have no premises in either city. Classes meet over live video, which is how an Aldridge learner and a Stourbridge learner can sit in the same lesson from their own homes.

What ages do you teach?

Six to sixty-seven. Block coding for young children, typed Python from about ten, maths and algorithms for teenagers, and data, AI and software for adults. The free lesson chooses the level.

Do you teach secondary maths as well as coding?

Yes. The high school maths course covers algebra, geometry, trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus and statistics, including optimisation problems.

What do lessons cost?

Your first lesson costs nothing at all. Should you carry on, a monthly group seat is USD 100 and a monthly private teacher is USD 150; there is no enrolment fee and no minimum number of months.

When are school holidays in the West Midlands?

Each of the seven borough councils sets its own dates, and academies can differ. We arrange lesson breaks around your own school's calendar.

More of the UK

Pages around the West Midlands

Read the Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton pages for the cities, or the county pages for Warwickshire and Greater Manchester. The UK hub has the rest.

Book the free class WhatsApp our team

West Midlands learners often start with these

Coding for Kids

Python and AI for Kids

High School Mathematics

Data Analysis Course

Python, AI, vibe coding and agentic coding

Vibe Coding for Teens

Python Automation Course

AI and Machine Learning for Teens

Codex & Claude Code

Seven boroughs, 2,919,653 people and a city of more than a million

Seven calendars, not one

The least fine gold that still earns an 18 carat hallmark

Ages 10 to 13

Ages 13 to 16

Ages 16 and up

What is real and what is ours

An anchor, a number and 250 years of testing

From following a rule to finding the leanest way to meet one

Rules and checks

Mixtures and ratios

Optimisation

Decisions from data

An AI will suggest a gold mix. Will it notice when no mix is possible?

Brownhills to Balsall Common, no bus needed

At your own desk

School language, in English

First lesson on us

Peers at your level

Your school's holidays

Booked in UK time

West Midlands fees

In the words of families, from Google

Try a lesson free

West Midlands questions

How many people live in the West Midlands county?

What are the largest towns in the West Midlands?

What is the gold project?

What does 750 on a hallmark mean?

What does the anchor mean on a hallmark?

Is there a classroom in Birmingham or Coventry?

What ages do you teach?

Do you teach secondary maths as well as coding?

What do lessons cost?

When are school holidays in the West Midlands?

Pages around the West Midlands

Keep exploring Modern Age Coders

Coding classes in nearby places

Free resources

From the blog

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