Christmas Gifting

What to buy a child who has got into coding, from people who spend every week watching children aged 6 to 16 actually use this stuff. Mostly it is not what the packaging suggests.

The honest summary: most coding toys are worth less than they cost, the good ones are the ones a child can still do something unexpected with in six months, and a laptop that already works is better than a gadget that needs one. Free platforms like Scratch and Code.org will take a child a very long way without any of it.

These posts go through the things we have seen work and the things that ended up in a cupboard by February. If you would rather give something that is not an object, a term of club sessions is one hour a week in a group of no more than six with the same mentor, and the first session is a free taster with no card details required.

One thing worth knowing before you spend anything: a child who is enthusiastic in December is often a child who has run out of ideas by February, and that is normal rather than a sign the present was wrong. What keeps them going is usually somebody to show it to, which is the one thing no gift comes with.

The Code Zone runs coding clubs for children aged 6 to 16. Live online clubs are open to children anywhere in the UK and our in-person clubs run across Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.

A session is one hour a week in a group of no more than six, with the same DBS-checked, STEM-certified mentor every week, and children build their own games rather than working through a set course. The first session is a free taster and we do not ask for card details, so you can see whether it suits your child before deciding anything.

Most children start in Scratch or MakeCode and move to Python and TypeScript when they are ready. Levels move down as readily as up so the work always fits, and staying where you are is a perfectly good outcome.

Mentors write a note on every child after every session, which is how we know when somebody is ready to move on, and it is why a child who has gone quiet for three weeks does not simply go unnoticed.

More than a third of our members are autistic or have ADHD, based on what parents tell us when they join.

In 2025 we received the Autism Inclusion Award from the National Autistic Society, and in 2026 we were ranked second in the UK in Club Hub UK’s Top 100 Children’s Activity Providers, scored by five independent judges on safeguarding, inclusivity and community impact.