Programming Department

Two words that start every coder's journey

Almost every programmer has typed the same first program: a couple of lines that make the screen say “Hello, World!”. It is tiny, a little silly and enormously satisfying. That small thrill is exactly what we want the Programming Department to hand to every learner who visits.

A ladder of ten levels

We plan to build the department around ten Classfern Coding levels rather than one course for everybody. Each level will have a short placement check, so learners start where they really are, not where their age says they should be.

• First steps (kindergarten and Grade 1): arrow puzzles that move a character around a grid, with pictures instead of words and read-aloud help.
• Blocks and turtles (Grades 1–5): snap-together blocks, drawing with an on-screen turtle, then a “see it as text” view that shows the same program typed out.
• First typed code (Grades 6–8): printing, input, loops, lists and functions, plus first web pages in HTML and CSS.
• Exam foundations and beyond (high school, university, adults): pseudocode in exam styles, trace tables, SQL queries, data structures, testing and code review.

Adult beginners will get their own quicker route, with grown-up examples and no cartoons.

Type it, run it, see it

Learners will type a few lines, press Run and see what happens straight away. There is no sign-up for the free lessons and nothing personal collected – just a blank page, a blinking cursor and the small thrill of making a machine obey.

How each task is marked

Programming is the subject a computer can mark best, because a program either passes its tests or it doesn't. Short exercises will be Marked by Classfern, using hidden tests with partial marks for each test passed and plain-English messages when something breaks. Debugging challenges hand over a program that “nearly works” and ask the learner to fix it. Bigger projects – a game, a quiz, a web page – will be Partly marked: Classfern checks what it can, such as whether it runs and uses a list, and an adult judges design and creativity. Written explanations will be Judged by a teacher or parent (rubric) or Self-assessed against a model answer.

Mr Babbage, Miss Lovelace and a machine nobody finished

Our two heads of programming make an odd and rather lovely pair. Charles Babbage designed a mechanical computer that was never completed in his lifetime. Ada Lovelace wrote notes on it that looked further ahead than almost anyone, even suggesting such an engine might one day compose music. Expect Mr Babbage to fuss over gears and Miss Lovelace to keep asking, “But what else could it do?”

Music, our flagship, is open now

Want a taste of what a finished Classfern department feels like? Our flagship Music Department is already open, with instruments to play along with, a falling-notes piano, theory and ear training challenges and a course in reading and writing music. Have a wander – and imagine the same care arriving in code.

Ready to build – once it is funded

The plan is written, level by level. What the department needs now is the time to build it, and that takes money. If you would like to see children and adults writing their first “Hello, World!” here, the appeal below is the way to make it happen.