If you run — or are thinking about opening — a children's coding school, one question sits above the rest: which courses will actually fill your classrooms and pay your bills? Not which ones sound exciting on a website, but which ones parents sign up for, return to, and stay with for years.
These are the patterns we see across the Algorithmics network during the 2025/26 school year. They are useful whether you are planning a course lineup, deciding what to open with, or sizing up the sector as a franchise investment.
Key takeaways
A small set of courses does most of the selling. Four courses — Python Start, Visual Programming in Scratch, Game Design, and Artificial Intelligence — account for close to 70% of all enrollment. These products fill a classroom.
AI is the fastest-growing product in the catalog, up roughly 4.5x year over year. Parental demand for AI literacy has arrived at the school-age level.
The catalog is deliberately focused on programming and AI — and the courses that stay small are small on purpose.
Demand has two selling seasons: a large autumn intake in September–October, and a distinct summer season built on camps and intensives.
The right course to open with depends on your market — a younger market opens on Scratch; an older, more ambitious one leads with Python or AI.
Children move up roughly one course a year, which turns a single sign-up into years of retained revenue.
Where these insights come from
Algorithmics is an international school of programming for children aged 6 to 18, with 515 partner schools and more than 2 million graduates across 90+ countries. The patterns below reflect real demand across that network during the 2025/26 school year — what families chose, at what age, in which markets, and when.
The products that fill a classroom
Four courses account for close to 70% of everything families enroll their children in. If you are deciding where to focus, this is it.
Python Start (23% of enrollment, ages 12–13) is the network's best-selling course. This is the age when coding stops feeling like a toy and starts feeling like a skill with a future attached—and when parents start paying for that future.
Visual Programming / Scratch (21%, ages 9–10) is the entry point for most children and the top-of-funnel product for any school. Block-based coding lets kids build real games and animations before they can type quickly, so it fills the most beginner seats.
Game Design (18%, ages 10–11) turns what every child already loves—playing games—into making them. Roblox and Lua deliver fast, visible results, which keeps demand strong and word of mouth working.
Artificial Intelligence (7%, ages 12–15) is the newest of the four and this year's growth story.
Together, these four give a new school a proven core: a beginner magnet (Scratch), a crowd-pleaser (Game Design), a serious flagship (Python), and a fast-rising draw (AI).
The courses we keep small — and why
Some courses — video content creation, graphic design, and a few others — draw only a small slice of enrollment. That is a choice, not a weakness, and it matters for anyone planning a school's economics.
Algorithmics concentrates its catalog on programming and AI for three reasons that translate directly into revenue:
Programming and AI carry the career story parents pay for. When a parent enrolls a child in Python or AI, they're buying a future skill, not a hobby. That willingness to pay is what supports steady tuition and renewals year after year.
They form an unbroken multi-year ladder. From first logic at age 6 to shipping real software at 18, the core courses connect into a path a child can climb for a decade. Creative one-off courses don't build that retention — the programming ladder does.
A focused lineup is easier to launch and sell. A new partner can open, staff, and market a tight core of proven courses far more easily than a sprawling catalog. The smaller courses work well as seasonal add-ons and camps, but they are not what a school is built on.
The takeaway for an operator: lead with programming and AI, and treat creative courses as complements — not as the foundation.
AI is the fastest-growing product
Artificial Intelligence enrollment grew roughly 4.5x in a single year — faster than any other course. It teaches children 12–15 to work with generative networks, prompt engineering, and to build their own projects across text, image, audio, video, and code.
For an operator, the signal is clear: demand for AI literacy is now real at the school-age level, not just in adult upskilling, and a school that offers it has a product parents are actively looking for right now.
Your entry product depends on your market
The same brand sells a different mix of courses depending on where it operates. If you are opening in a specific market, this shapes what you should lead with.
In the Middle East and North Africa, demand leans toward serious programming at the top of the ladder. Morocco is a clear example — Python accounts for nearly half of everything sold there, with families steering children into real programming earlier. Egypt sits at the other end: it is one of the youngest markets in the network, where demand concentrates in the youngest courses like Scratch and Digital Literacy: two neighboring markets, two very different opening products.
In Latin America — one of the network's largest and most active regions — Game Design is the most popular course, with Python and Scratch close behind. Game Design serves as a strong on-ramp here: it brings children in early, moves them into serious programming, and demand runs across the full ladder.
In Europe, demand is the most balanced of any region — Python, Game Design, and Scratch each take roughly a fifth of enrollment. A European school can open broadly rather than bet on a single anchor.
Rule of thumb: younger markets open with Scratch and Digital Literacy; older, more programming-focused markets lead with Python or AI.
Two selling seasons, not one
Enrollment follows a clear rhythm, and knowing it is half of planning a school's year.
The main intake is in September and October, when families sign up for the school year—this is by far the busiest stretch. A second, smaller wave comes in February, largely from students moving up to their next course after finishing a first block.
Then there is summer. During the school year, camps and intensives are uncommon — but in summer they become the primary format, a distinct second selling season built on short holiday programs and, increasingly, AI intensives. For an operator, summer is not a gap to survive; it is a season to sell into with a different product.
How the classes are run
The model is consistent across all 90+ countries and easy to staff. Each course runs for 36 lessons, one lesson a week, in small groups of 4 to 15 children, with a hands-on project built in every session. During the school year, learning is almost entirely group-based; short intensives and camps become the main format over summer.
What this means if you're weighing an education franchise
Demand is broad, not niche. It spans a 12-year age range and every inhabited continent, spreading risk across ages and geographies rather than one segment.
A handful of courses do most of the work. Python, Scratch, Game Design, and AI are proven anchors; a new location does not need the full catalog to open.
There is a natural upgrade path. Because children move up roughly one course a year, a family that starts at 7 can stay for a decade — which is what makes the retained-student economics work.
The entry point depends on the market. A younger market may open on Scratch and Digital Literacy; an older, more ambitious one may lead with Python or AI.