Cracking the code – meet the tech-savvy kids set to be the stars of tomorrow 

Oona’s mum Milla says it clear that her daughter has great skill and passion for coding.

‘The stuff she can do and create – my mind will never understand in this life,’ she says. ‘I find it fascinating that she can learn something so easily.’

However, Milla adds that she’s also set firm boundaries in place to ensure her daughter’s life doesn’t revolve around it.

‘She does a lot of gymnastics and when we go on holidays, we don’t take computers,’ she explains. ‘We have a strict policy that I can see at any time what she is working on. I’ve learned a little bit about coding to understand that if the process is broken, then it’s hard to start that again. So I just allow her that consistent time so that she can get it working.’

For Milla, the only downside of her daughter’s coding is the necessity of another computer. ‘Oona is saving for a gaming laptop because she’s in a place that she can’t progress from because we don’t have a powerful enough device.’

She’s certainly not alone in her hobby either. 

‘When I see my friends or after school when I call them, we do a lot of coding,’ Oona says. ‘It’s interesting, challenging, and fun. It’s like having your dream game come true.’

In fact, children across are making headlines with their amazing coding work. 

In 2019, 10-year-old Samaira Mehta caught the eye of Google and received praise from the White House, after the coder created a game to ‘empower girls and boys to learn code and become leaders in tech’. 

Meanwhile, Nigerian tech genius Emmanuella Mayaki was hired as an after-school coding club teacher at a UK school last year, when she was also just 10. 

Just this year, six-year-old Kautilya Katariya from India set a new Guinness World Record for completing IBM’s AI certification, landing him the esteemed title of the world’s youngest coder.

Here in the UK, 13-year-old Ansh tells us that when he first discovered coding at school, he decided to take matters into his own hands to make sure he picked up as much as possible.

‘I used online tutorials and then I got classes,’ says the schoolboy. Now he keeps up with new developments ‘by regularly checking technological news and what is popular on the internet’.

Ansh adds that if he could give any fellow young coder advice it would be: ‘to understand the code you write or copy when you start as that will make you a better coder and help you in the future.’

The schoolboy also says that one of the most fun parts of coding is watching the finished product – something 14-year-old Danielle Shonola agrees with, saying ‘it’s when you get to run the project and see how well you have worked and the result of your code in action.’

The schoolgirl first started coding at 11, however it was when she went to secondary school that she really got into it. ‘I remember were doing a Scratch project that was really interesting,’ she explains. ‘I thought I needed to know more so I joined a Yaizy Pithon Coding Course and it has really helped me to learn and allowed me to work at my own pace.’

Even though she finds it challenging when she ‘gets a syntax error and has to figure out how to fix it’, Daniella says she would recommend coding to any kid who would suggest to any child interested in coding to get involved. ‘It might look challenging from the outside, but once you’re in, it’s a different experience altogether,’ she says. 

‘It will require some hard work, but it all pays off in the end. The joy of success that comes with seeing the result of your effort is unexplainable.’

However, while kids may be buzzing about the increased amount of screen time that coding allows, parents are often understandably concerned about what this could do to their physical and emotional wellbeing. 

‘To be a well-rounded computer user, you have to have good social skills as well,’ adds Richard. ‘Some of the work I do in school would be the kids sitting around and actually coming up with some creative ideas for a game or app. I have three children myself, and as a parent, I think we have to provide balanced for our kids. We want to develop our kids’ self-esteem – developing their own computer game may be great for that.’

As part of his work in schools, Richard welcomes parents in for training evenings, where he helps parents understand the coding their children are showing interest in and addresses their concerns regarding cyber security.

‘There’s no easy answer to keeping kids safe online,’ he says. ‘Parents just have to show an interest in what their children are doing. Parents often expect me to give them a magic formula, but it’s not like that. You’ve just got to be very aware of the dangers yourself and talk to your children about how everyone online is not who they say they are.’

12-year-old Jaeden Davison already has his sights set on a career in coding, saying that he wants to be a ‘game developer or an engineer’ when he grows up.

‘I am already a game developer, the next step is just making money from doing the things I love,’ he explains. ‘I will still need to go to University in order to get qualified as an engineer – but that’s OK because it keeps me interested in school and trying hard.’

‘So many jobs nowadays are reliant on these skills. By introducing and developing them from such a young age, he’s been able to maximise the amount of time spent to develop a real talent. Obviously I’m thrilled that he shares the same passions that I do, too!’ 

So much so that Elizabeth has also got him involved in work at her coding school.

Jaeden, who ended up as the go-to tech guy while at primary school, explains, ‘I helped out with her business from a really young age using code to hack one of my teddies when I was five – making it come alive – to creating my own website when I was seven. I’ve done it ever since as it’s a huge part of our life at home too.’ 

Since then, he’s also set up a Minecraft server for the club, a Discord server for his mum and her colleagues to chat on while working online and even branched out into the world of social media. 

‘ I’ve helped her team out creating Tik-Tok posts with their videos and used an algorithm to determine which hashtags would get the most views,’ he explains. ‘I got them over 15,000 views in one week which was cool.’