Web design for kids, and the layer that decides whether it is coding

9 of the 22 schools in this directory teach web, counted from their own programme listings. The youngest states it takes children from 4, and 8 of the 9 also teach Python, which matters more than it sounds, because it tells you the centre has somewhere for your child to go next.

Web is also the one branch of coding where what your child makes has an address. Somebody else can open it. For a lot of children that is the moment the subject stops being homework, and it is the strongest argument for starting here.

A web page is three things, and only one of them is programming

This is the whole page in one idea, and it is what most brochures leave vague.

So the question that settles what you are buying is simple: does the course include JavaScript, and when does it start? A class that stops at HTML and CSS is teaching design and formatting. That is a real skill and it can be taught well. It is not the same purchase as a coding class, and it should not cost the same as one.

What suits which age

Seven or eight is a reasonable floor for typing tags, because the child needs to read and to spell precisely, and a missing angle bracket breaks the page silently. Below that, Scratch teaches the same logic without the spelling.

Nine to twelve is the strong window. A child of that age can hold HTML and CSS together, cares a great deal about how the result looks, and is ready for the first pieces of JavaScript. Thirteen and up can go properly into JavaScript, at which point web stops being a separate subject and becomes a way of practising programming with something to show at the end.

You can try the whole thing this weekend for nothing

Web is the cheapest branch of coding to test before you commit. No kit, no licence, no account. Open a plain text editor, save a file ending in .html, put a heading and a sentence in it, and open it in a browser. That is a web page. Change the words, save, refresh.

If your child spends an hour changing things to see what happens, they will get something from a class. If they lose interest in ten minutes, you have learned that for the price of nothing, which is a better outcome than learning it in week three of a paid term. Our short projects work the same way, on a phone if that is all you have.

Four questions to ask a school

• Does the course include JavaScript, and in which lesson does it start? A specific lesson number is a good answer. "We touch on it at the end" usually means a term of HTML and CSS with a demonstration in the last week.
• Does my child build one site over the term, or several? One site built up week by week is a real project. A new tutorial every week often means the child follows steps and keeps nothing.
• Does my child type the code, or use a builder? Drag-and-drop website builders produce better looking results faster, and teach almost nothing about how a page works. Both exist under the same course name. Neither is wrong, but you should know which you are buying.
• Does anything my child makes go on the public internet, and who can see it? Publishing is the best part of this subject and the part that needs a rule. Ask whether pages are published, at what address, and whether they are findable. Then agree with your child what never goes on a page: full name, school, home area, and photographs of other children.

Things you may be told that are worth questioning

• "Your child will learn to build websites." Almost always true and almost never the whole story. Building a page that looks right and building one that does something are different skills. Ask which one the term ends with.
• "We teach full stack." Full stack means the front of the site and the server behind it, including data storage. For most children under thirteen that is well beyond scope, so the phrase usually signals ambition rather than content. Ask what the child actually writes.
• "Web is the easiest place to start coding." Half right, and worth understanding rather than accepting. A web page is the easiest thing to make appear, because a browser will render a half-broken file without complaint. That same forgiveness means mistakes stay hidden, which is the opposite of how a child learns to debug. Easy to start is not the same as easy to learn from.

In short

Web is a good place for a child to start, mostly because the result is real and shareable. Just be clear which of the three layers the term actually covers. Ask when JavaScript starts. If the answer is vague, you are buying a design class, and you should pay a design class price for it.

If you are still deciding between programmes, our guide to choosing a school covers the six checks that matter, and what these classes cost sets out what the schools here publish.