Learn to code, for schools

Children code every move themselves

In the Make Day labs, Make Day AI writes the code from a child's drawing. Learning to code goes the other way: the child writes every instruction, with no AI. It's in every school's lab, on the same tablets, with the same class code, and it all marks itself.

A coding course with Pip

Pip is a little paper robot on a grid of stars and rocks. Twelve levels take children from a first sequence to loops inside loops. Children aged 5 to 7 tap big blocks; children aged 8 to 11 type code that looks like JavaScript: step(3), turnLeft(), repeat(4) { … } and for loops.

Each level checks itself, and stars show how short the program is, so there's always a reason to try again.

The course in blocks mode: a repeat four times block holding step, step, turn left, next to Pip the robot on a grid with three stars.

Error messages written for children

Typed code says which line went wrong and how to fix it, in plain words: "Capital letters matter: write turnLeft, not turnleft." Hints come one at a time, and after a few tries a child can see how the answer starts.

The course in typed code mode, with the message Line 1: Capital letters matter: write turnLeft, not turnleft.

Challenges on their own game

After a child builds something in a lab, seven challenges use its real code: find the settings, change a value and a slider's range, rename a label, change a colour code, write a comment, and find a bug the lab hides in their code. Each one checks itself when the child presses Run.

A coding challenge over a child's game code: Find the settings, with a hint showing and a Show me where button.

Progress that marks itself

Learning progress shows every tablet: which levels are done, the stars, tries, hints and time, with a mark for each child and how much of the class finished each level. A red box means someone has tried five times or more, so you know where to go. Print it, or download the marks for your records.

No names: each row is the tablet's random nickname.

Learning progress for a class: rows of tablet nicknames with stars per level, a mark, stars, time, and the class's finished percentage for each level.

Solutions to show the class

Every level's solution, in blocks or typed code, opens big on the board with its grid, so you can talk through the pattern together.

Level 9, Two squares, shown big on the board: the grid with Pip, rocks and stars, and the solution with a repeat inside a repeat.

Lesson plans and certificates

Four ready lessons: one with no screens at all, where children program a robot friend with arrow cards, then blocks, typed code, and looking inside their own creation. Each has timings, questions to ask, and ways to support and stretch. Children who finish get a certificate to print, with a line to write their name by hand.

A Code Writer certificate: a line for the name, the skills sequences, calling functions, loops, loops inside loops and debugging, and the date.

The computing curriculum

What it covers

Mapped to the computing programmes of study in the national curriculum in England.

Key stage 1	Understand what algorithms are and that programs follow precise instructions; create and debug simple programs; use logical reasoning to predict what simple programs will do. The unplugged lesson and the blocks course.
Key stage 2	Design, write and debug programs; use sequence and repetition; work with variables; use logical reasoning to explain how simple algorithms work and to find and correct errors. The typed code course and the challenges on their own creation.

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