The Code Zone blog

The Code Zone in the Press

Follow here for updates where The Code Zone appears in the press as well as our reactions to external news and articles (we've got a lot to say!)

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The Code Zone in the Press

Coverage of The Code Zone, and the awards we have been given, with the awarding body and year attached so you can check any of it.

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 activity benefits, safeguarding, inclusivity, community impact and business achievements. In 2025 we received the Autism Inclusion Award from the National Autistic Society, the UK’s leading autism charity.

In 2024 we were the global winner of the Xero Beautiful Business Fund for Upskilling For The Future, and in 2026 we won the STEAM Educator category at the Full STEAM Ahead Awards.

We are careful about how we describe these because the looser version is the one that gets picked apart. Second in a judged list of a hundred is not the same claim as being the second-best provider in the country, and we do not make the second one.

Over 1,000 children are enrolled across our online and in-person clubs. Every mentor is DBS-checked and STEM-certified, and our awards programme is STEM accredited.

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.

Chat to our mentors