// Software engineering
Coding club, coding tuition or a tutor: what the words mean and what your child gets
An after-school coding club, live online group tuition or a one-to-one tutor for a 10 to 16 year old: UK prices per hour and what each one is good for.
Three things get called 'coding for kids' and they work quite differently. An after-school coding club runs in a school hall or community space, usually once a week, with a leader following a provider's lesson plan for the term. A one-to-one tutor meets your child privately, most often to lift a GCSE grade or cover a language the school does not teach. Live online group tuition sits between the two: a small class, a live teacher, a structured programme, delivered over video.
The words matter because the cost, the teaching quality, and what your child actually learns vary by more than the price suggests. A club session costs far less per hour than a private tutor, but a club leader and a specialist tutor are not doing the same job, and neither is doing the same job as a live class with a small group and a working engineer.
This guide explains each option honestly, gives current UK price ranges with sources, and says plainly what each is suited for.
What an after-school coding club is
An after-school coding club runs in a school hall, community centre, or leisure venue, usually for 60 to 90 minutes once a week during term time. A trained club leader follows the provider's lesson plan. Group sizes vary: 8 to 20 children is typical, and some school-based clubs are larger.
Most clubs teach block-based coding before moving to beginner Python or game-making. The curriculum is fixed for the term: all children move through the same material at the same pace. There is no placement by experience or ability, and the pace is set for the group rather than any individual child.
Club leaders are trained by the franchise or provider. Some are qualified teachers; some are undergraduates or hobbyists. The provider designs the lesson plan and the leader delivers it. What your child takes away depends on the quality of that plan and how well the leader can explain it, often in a noisy hall with twice as many children as a small-group class.
What a one-to-one tutor is
A one-to-one tutor works privately with your child, usually for 60 minutes a week, on whatever you ask. For computing at secondary level that most often means GCSE Computer Science: algorithms, data structures, programming theory, and the Python the exam requires. Some tutors specialise in a language or topic; most follow the exam board specification.
The tutor is a single person, and you choose them. Their background ranges from university undergraduates to ex-teachers to working developers. A tutor who sat GCSE Computer Science recently will know the exam well. A developer who has never taught may understand the subject deeply but struggle to explain it to a 14-year-old.
One-to-one tuition scales precisely to your child's level: if they are stuck on one concept you spend the whole session on it, and if they are ready to move faster you move faster. That precision is the main thing a tutor offers. The limitation is that the quality and continuity depend entirely on one person.
What live online group tuition is
Live online group tuition is a small class that meets over video, with a live teacher, a structured programme, and defined outcomes each session. Unlike a club, each session has defined objectives and the children build towards a finished project. Unlike a private tutor, your child is in a group and the teacher is managing several children at once.
Group size is the variable that changes this format most. In a group of 20 you are close to a classroom: the teacher can answer questions but cannot watch everyone's screen. In a group of 6 to 8 the teacher knows every name, can see when a child has gone quiet or taken a wrong turn, and can stop the group for a minute to fix it.
The quality difference between providers is wide. At the basic end this is a video call with screen sharing and children typing along. At the better end the teacher monitors every screen live, sessions have checkpoints, and the work children produce ends up somewhere real: a website at an address you can visit, or a working program another person can use.
What each option costs per hour
After-school coding clubs typically cost £14 to £30 an hour for live group sessions in the UK, from published price pages of UK providers in 2026. The range is wide because it covers both budget in-school programmes and premium franchise clubs that include materials and a structured year-long plan.
A one-to-one tutor for GCSE Computer Science typically costs £30 to £45 an hour, from published averages on tutoring marketplaces such as tutorful.co.uk and tutorperch.com for 2024 to 2026. Rates are higher in London and for subjects with fewer specialist tutors. Computing sits at the higher end of the general tutor range because there are fewer qualified teachers in this subject than in maths or English.
Live online group tuition prices vary by group size and programme depth. When the group is small (6 to 8) and the teacher is a specialist, the hourly cost can land in a similar range to a well-run club, because the cost of specialist time is shared across the group. At larger group sizes the hourly rate per child comes down further, but so does the individual attention.
Which option suits which child
A coding club works well as a first step. It is low-commitment, usually affordable, and gives a child a first look at what coding feels like. If they go once and lose interest, you have spent little. The limitation is depth: most clubs are designed to hold interest across a wide age range, not to take any child through a structured multi-year progression.
A one-to-one tutor works well when the goal is specific: GCSE Computer Science prep, catching up on a topic, or working in a language the school does not teach. A tutor who specialises in that exact thing delivers it efficiently. If your child is younger than secondary age, or does not yet have a specific exam or language goal, a private tutor is often not the right fit.
Live online group tuition works well when a club is not enough but a private tutor is more than you need. A structured programme in a small group gives your child progression: each term builds on the last, projects increase in complexity, and there is a teacher who can tell the difference between a child who is stuck and one who is bored and ready for more.
What Builders Club is
Builders Club is live online group tuition. Sessions are 90 minutes, groups are 6 to 8 children, and you choose once or twice a week. Sessions cost £40, £45 or £55 depending on the level (Foundations for ages 10 to 12, Intermediate for 12 to 14, Advanced for 14 to 16), which works out to about £27 to £37 an hour. You are billed monthly, the first session is free, and you can cancel any time. A second child gets 25% off.
The programme runs in three levels. At 10 to 12, your child builds a website, a game, an app and their own AI chatbot, all live on the internet, all under our supervision. At 12 to 14, they write real Python, run their own Linux server that we host, and build an AI assistant that remembers the conversation. At 14 to 16, they deploy to Amazon Web Services in a sandbox we own and pay for, ship code the way engineering teams do, and build an AI tool that answers questions from their own notes.
Live online sessions run by engineers who work at AWS.
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