Why is 13 the age everything changes?
Because the tool providers wrote it into their terms, not because of anything about the brain at 13. ChatGPT admits users from 13 with parental permission up to 17, Google Gemini admits most 13 year olds depending on country, and Microsoft Copilot admits 13 year olds in the UK and US but not in India, where its floor is 18. Below those ages a child cannot lawfully hold the account at all, which is why our under-13 track uses Scratch and teacher-operated tools instead.
My teenager already uses ChatGPT for everything. Is a class not redundant?
Using a model a lot and using it well are different things, and the gap shows the first time a project fights back. Most self-taught teen vibe coders can start projects and cannot finish them, because nobody ever showed them what to do when the model loops on a bug or writes code they cannot follow. The class exists for exactly the parts heavy usage never teaches: reading, testing, versioning and knowing when to stop prompting and start thinking.
Will this help with school computer science?
It runs alongside school rather than replacing it. School curricula still assess handwritten code and algorithmic thinking, so we keep a deliberate no-AI track in every week's build work: the fundamentals practised bare, because exams and interviews test them bare. Students tell us the two reinforce each other, the AI work supplying motivation and the fundamentals supplying the ability to read what the AI wrote.
What will my teen actually have made after one term?
Three small finished builds in the first eight weeks, then one chosen project taken from idea to something shareable in the last four. Recent chosen projects include a football stats dashboard, a revision timetable generator, and a recipe scaler for a grandmother who cooks for twelve. Finished and small beats ambitious and abandoned at this stage, and we hold the line on that.
Is vibe coding enough, or does my teen still need Python?
They need both, and the honest version of this answer is on the whole page above: teenagers who only prompt plateau at the first project the model cannot carry alone. Our teen track pairs every AI-assisted session with unassisted fundamentals, so the model is a lever rather than a crutch. A teen who wants pure Python first can start there instead and add the AI workflow later.
What does a parent have to consent to?
Two separate things, and we keep them separate on purpose: enrolment with us, and the tool accounts, which are created in line with each provider's own terms, with your knowledge, in the student's or family's name as each provider requires. We tell you exactly which accounts a course needs before it starts, and we never ask a student to create an account behind a parent's back.
Are the classes group or private, and which suits a teenager?
Both exist. Groups of five to eight suit most teens because watching a peer get unstuck teaches almost as much as getting unstuck yourself, and the demo day at the end of term matters more with an audience. One to one suits a teen chasing a specific deadline, one who is far ahead, or one who goes quiet in groups. The free class usually settles which is right.
How many hours a week does it take?
One live session plus two to three hours of build work between sessions. The build work is where the skill consolidates, so we would rather a student do it across two evenings than not at all. It is designed to fit around school, sport and exams, and teachers adjust load in assessment season rather than pretending it does not exist.
What is the fee for the teen track?
The same flat international figures as every course we run: USD 100 a month for a group batch, USD 150 a month for one to one, billed monthly with no joining fee and no notice period. The first class is free, and it is a working class with a real build, not a presentation.
How do we start?
Send the form and a mentor calls you back to book the free session at a time that works for your time zone. Bring the teenager's own project idea if they have one, because the free class builds the first slice of it live, and a project they care about is worth three lectures on motivation.
