STEM Certified Learning to code

As of January 2024, The Code Zone has been STEM officially certified by STEM.org.

This is a great recognition for the hard work that goes into the content that the mentors create for the children in our Game Dev Clubs.

Coding & STEM

Each game and coding skills made by our mentors touches on the concepts of STEM.

Gaining valuable skills
Science Science
Engineering Engineering
Technology Technology
Maths Maths
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Read about our online coding club mentors, teaching your children to code Find out about what Spiral Learning is Find the right coding club for your child, from beginners to advanced

What STEM certification means for your child

Certification is easy to wave around and hard to interpret, so here is the practical version. It means the content our mentors build has been assessed against an external standard rather than being whatever we felt like teaching that week, and it means every mentor has been individually assessed too, on top of an enhanced DBS check.

What it does not mean is a syllabus. Children here build their own games rather than working through a course, and the STEM concepts arrive because they are needed. A child making a platformer meets gravity, collision detection and coordinate geometry in the same afternoon, and meets them as problems to solve rather than topics to cover.

That is a very different experience from being marked on a worksheet, and it is why children who find maths hard often take to this.

Where it leads

Most children start in Scratch or MakeCode and move to Python and TypeScript when they are ready, which for most is somewhere around 10 or 11. Our awards programme is STEM accredited and children work through it in the clubs, so there is something to show for it beyond a folder of half-finished games.

A good deal of what children learn here turns up later in school computing lessons, which is usually the first a parent hears about any of it. In 2026 we were ranked second in the UK in Club Hub UK’s Top 100 Children’s Activity Providers, and in 2025 we received the Autism Inclusion Award from the National Autistic Society.

FAQ

We're here to help!
The Code Zone has been certified by STEM.org since January 2024. The certification covers the content our mentors build for the clubs, and every mentor is individually STEM-certified as well as DBS-checked.
Yes. Our awards programme is STEM accredited and children work through it in the clubs, moving up as they go. Levels move down as readily as up, so the work always fits and nobody is pushed on before they are ready.
It overlaps but it is not a replacement. School teaches computing to a curriculum; we teach children to build their own games and pick up the concepts on the way. A lot of what children learn here shows up later in school, which is usually the first a parent hears about it.
Most start in Scratch or MakeCode, then move to Python and TypeScript when they are ready, somewhere around 10 or 11 for most children. Game Dev Advanced covers Python and TypeScript properly for ages 10 and up.
Every mentor holds an enhanced DBS check and is STEM-certified before running a session. You can meet the mentor your child would actually have at a free taster, and we do not ask for card details to book it.
No. Children who find maths hard often take to coding because the feedback is immediate and visible: change the code, run it, see what happens. That is a very different experience from being marked on a worksheet.
It varies, and pushing it rarely helps. Most children spend a good while in Scratch or MakeCode first, because the concepts transfer and the ideas are what matter. Somewhere around 10 or 11 most are ready for Python, and Game Dev Advanced covers Python and TypeScript from age 10.
That is fine. Levels move down as readily as up so the work always fits, nothing is forced, and staying put is a perfectly good outcome - particularly if a child has settled into a group they like.

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