Computer science and programming are two different subjects

Two barely overlapping things hide behind one word here, and confusing them costs people months.

School computer science

Logic, number systems, algorithms, a little information theory, and programming — but programming as a tool for solving a particular kind of problem, not as a craft.

In many countries the exam is sat at a computer, and there you do not discuss code, you write code that runs. Preparing for that on paper is pointless: ask the tutor whether you will be working at a computer from the first lesson.

Programming

This is a craft with rules of its own: its own language, its own habits, its own mistakes. An adult changing careers and a school pupil facing an exam need different people, even if both write in the same language.

If the goal is work, ask what you will have in your hands after six months. A good answer is not «we will get through the course» but «you will have working projects of your own that you are not embarrassed to show».

«But he is on the computer all day»

The commonest parental mistake. Using a computer confidently and understanding how it works are so far apart that the first can even get in the way: the child is used to everything working by itself, and not used to finding out why it does not.

The reverse holds too: a child indifferent to games may turn out to be an excellent programmer. Love of screens predicts nothing.

Online is actually better here

This is the one subject where a screen beats sitting side by side: the code is visible to both, it runs immediately, and the tutor can show on their own screen what is happening instead of describing it in words.

How to read the reviews here

The reviews are thank-yous, so read them as accounts of a task. «My daughter scored highly in her computing exam» and «a year later he was in his first job» are quite different stories.

See who is teaching it: computer science tutors with reviews and programming.