// Software engineering
Software engineering tuition for 12 to 16 year olds
Software engineering tuition here means your child learns how real software is saved, reviewed, tested, published and kept running, and does each of those things to their own code.
Live online sessions run by engineers who work at AWS.
What it is, in plain words
Coding is writing a program. Software engineering is everything that makes a program something other people can rely on: saving every change so you can go back, having someone else read your work before it goes live, testing it automatically, publishing it, and watching it once it is out there.
We teach it as habits, one at a time, at the age a child can use them. From 13 their code lives in a GitHub account they hold, created with you present. From 14 they work in a shared repository the way an engineering team does.
Why a 10 to 16 year old should learn it now
The gap between a child who can write code and one who can ship it is the gap the industry hires across. A reviewed change, a passing test, a published project and a README someone else can follow say more about a 16 year old than a certificate.
From 14, your child deploys to Amazon Web Services in a sandbox we own and pay for, ships code the way engineering teams do, and builds an AI tool that answers questions from their own notes. A GitHub portfolio from age 13.
What your child builds at each level
At 12 to 14, in Real web development, your child builds a multi-page website in real files and saves their work with Git. In Python that does things they write a command-line tool that does a useful job, with a test that proves it works. In Put it online properly they run their own web server on a Linux server we host.
At 14 to 16, in Ship like a team, they work in a team repository where their change is reviewed by a classmate, then automatically tested and published, and they run their app as a container. In Build an AI product end to end their chatbot goes live with rate limits, a spending cap and an honest one-page description of what it does and does not do.
The Advanced capstone is a self-directed project on the same stack, scoped small enough to finish, checked for secrets and spend, documented in a README, and presented to you in a 15-minute demo with questions.
Who teaches it
Two of us. Ismail is an applied AI and machine learning engineer at AWS. Sami is a platform engineer at AWS. We wrote the curriculum and we teach every session. If we bring in other tutors as the programme grows, they will be engineers we have worked with, and we'll tell you before your child's group changes.
Accounts, supervision and safety
Under 13, nothing is in your child's name: they work in the browser on platforms we manage, and we publish their work to their club address. From 13, they create a GitHub account in a session with you present; it is the portfolio they keep. Everything else (the Linux server, the AI tools, the AWS sandbox, the publishing) is ours: we own the accounts and pay the bills. Your child never sees a password or a key for any of it.
Every tutor holds an enhanced DBS check. Sessions are recorded and recordings are deleted after 90 days. Tutors never message a child directly. We have a designated safeguarding lead.
Levels and prices
From 12, your child runs their own Linux server that we host, writes Python that does real jobs, and builds an AI assistant that remembers the conversation.
From 14, your child deploys to Amazon Web Services in a sandbox we own and pay for, ships code the way engineering teams do, and builds an AI tool that answers questions from their own notes.
A GitHub portfolio from age 13.
- Level 01 · Ages 10–12
Foundations
No experience needed
£40a session£320 a month · 8 sessions
Their first website, game and chatbot, all live on the internet
- Level 02 · Ages 12–14
Intermediate
Has done some coding
£45a session£360 a month · 8 sessions
Real Python, a proper code editor, and a Linux server we host for them
- Level 03 · Ages 14–16
Advanced
Has built things before
£55a session£440 a month · 8 sessions
Amazon Web Services, shipping code the way teams do, and an AI product built end to end
- Live 90-minute sessions in a group of 6 to 8
- A deployed project at the end of every module
- A Parent Showcase where they demo it to you
- An email every Saturday with what they built
- A certificate at the end of each level
Sessions are 90 minutes in a group of 6 to 8. £40 to £55 a session is £26.67 to £36.67 an hour. Billed monthly, cancel anytime, first session free.