There are not enough ways to say how much I love The Coder School's camps. My autistic child is honored, cared for, respected, and nurtured there. The owner and camp staff see my child (and all of the campers) as whole people and are just amazing. My kid has been going for a few years now and won't be stopping any time soon. read more

My 8 year old son did their coding hour free session today and he had such a good time, he wants to get more coding classes as his next birthday present. He did it with a friend which made it more enjoyable as well. The owner and her staff were friendly and the computer area was clean and they put everyone's name on the computers. read more

The Coder School Berkeley - Coding - Specialty Schools Near Me - Berkeley, California

See all

My kids loved camp at theCoderSchool Berkeley! The staff made learning to code fun and engaging, and it was great to see them so excited to go each day. I'm hoping to bring my son back for one-on-one sessions soon because the experience was so positive. Definitely recommend signing up early--camp spots fill up fast! The environment is welcoming, the coaches are great with kids, and it's a fantastic way to build real skills in a fun, encouraging space. read more

UPDATE: My son has been with the Coder School since the beginning. Never has there been a lag in communication or scheduling issues on the school's part. Our missed classes resulted from me forgetting to get my son to the school or to the Zoom meeting- since COVID. Since the socially distanced Zoom classes mean less interaction, we are pleased to report that there is no drop-off in quality or teaching. Coder School attracts great coaches who are CAL Computer Science /EECS majors. They have great math backgrounds and teach at a very high level. Between Coder school and my child's Computer Science classes, he was able to score a "5" on the AP Computer Science exam as a junior. More importantly, the coaches care about my child and work to get my child to understand and want to learn more deeply. KUDOS to Adel, Dylan, and Eddie. Eddie is currently working with my son on an app that I cannot begin to understand. But, every session, I hear engaged conversation coming from his room and occasionally, laughter. What a gift this school is to a parent. In the past, when I picked him up physically from the location, it seemed all parents were warmly greeted by the owners and the coaches were warm, friendly, and upbeat towards the students. Give their free trial a shot. I even overheard one kid begging his mother to enroll him as he left the school after his first trial. Lynna Tsou does a great job assessing the child's skill set to match with her coaches. Her Ph.D in Education is her gift; her training comes through in matching the kids. read more

I gave the school a call to see if they provided scholarships and they were extremely helpful with providing me with a somewhat affordable rate. As a single parent, finding camps is normally a nightmare so I was excited to see how flexible they were with me. My son attended with his friend (Summer 2022) and really enjoyed it, except my son told me one of the instructors during exercise called him fat. The woman who ran the school seemed concerned and decided to investigate. The only thing is I never heard back from them after a few calls and voicemails explaining they were still going through the process. So it was never resolved and that left us pretty upset since he really enjoyed the school. I would give it 5 stars if it weren't for that part. Hopefully, they were able to get rid of that person. read more

This camp was outstanding! Staff was very friendly, kind and worked well with the kids. Everything from registration to drop off was organized. Kids were engaged the whole day and even got a walk to the local park that included time for lunch and structured games. Parents were able to see the games our kids created at the end of the week. Will be recommending this camp to everyone. :) read more

Our son is 11 and we are really satisfied with his experience at Coder School! We live really close to the facility and he's interested in code so we did a free trial, which was a lovely way to get acquainted with the choices and the team there. We were so pleased with the trial we signed him up for 2-on-1 and the experience has been great! The place is bright and accommodating, and our child is totally engaged in what he does. We get follow-up communication from the teacher about what he does there, and he comes home eager to tell us about what he did and what it was like. My wife and I don't code, and it's all pretty foreign to us, but what's unmistakeable is the child's enthusiasm for gaining new knowledge and getting more skills in an extra-curricular, and his excitement tells the story. It's all we need. Bravo to the great team, we hope to be part of your family for a long time! read more

Incredibly professional, creative, supportive, warm, solid program with wonderful teachers. My 8 y/o son took a summer camp w/ them via zoom this week, and he loved it. Their responsiveness and communication were exceptional! After the first day, I emailed them with some questions about my son's participation/engagement level, asking them to let me know if I should monitor him more closely and keep him on task, and they responded thoughtfully and wisely, leading to daily conversations by email. They were super proactive in sending both group emails to the class summarizing the day's activities and individual emails to me - every night of the camp - to provide detailed guidance and feedback to help me manage my son's experience. So awesome. Can't wait to go back. read more

Great instructors who knows how to challenge and motivate students at the same time. Personalized learning depending on the interest of the kids. Highly recommend! read more

My 7 yo son loves his coding classes! Engaging, personalized, fun and educative. As a parent, I really appreciate the class reminders!

Our son has been studying at The Coder School in Berkeley for over a year now. He loves his classes and teachers. The school is very well organized and the staff are highly responsive. Even with Shelter in Place and there being so much other kinds of screen time that I wish to filter, we kept our son's coding lessons because he is learning to be active online rather than passive. We love The Coder School in Berkeley! read more

My kid was enrolled a year ago and we had a long time to reflect. I am writing the review not to complain, but rather to share our experience. The rating is subjective and please take it with a grain of salt. My son just turned 8 and is fairly active. We signed him up for private lesson first at $90/hr. We didn't feel it was worth the cost and switched him to the group lesson. After a few classes, we were told first that he shouldn't have selected gun as his weapon in the game they were setting up during class. Instead, he should choose lasers or other options. When I relayed the message to my son, he told me lasers can be more damaging than guns and he will choose an arrow next time. We didn't know what other options the program had, but thought it was a bit strange gun was listed as the options in the first place. But we didn't question why they would let kids to program games with even any of these options. A few sessions later, we were told that my son got distracted easily during the session and it is best to go back to private lesson. The lady/owner went on and said he got excited and said yay loudly. We were surprised but took her words for it. I blamed ourselves for not raising my son properly and apologized. Somehow, something just didn't seem right but we couldn't pin it down. We pulled my son out and it took a couple rounds of back and forth to get the refund when I had to point to their policy. They invited us to rejoin to give another try. Given what she told us, we totally believed my son was a bad boy and wasn't cut out for this. As a parent, it was difficult. We went back and forth on the idea of if my son had behavioral problem. From our end, he is so sweet and lovely. He did love warships, canons, cars, trucks and unfortunately, guns as a normal boy does. He can get excited and be easily distracted. He can't seat still through the whole hour. He is also very sociable and a chatterbox. But what she told us just gave me pauses on perhaps we are biased and didn't see the bad side of him? In the end, we took the time and talked to others who interact with him closely and people in early child education. Here is what we concluded. 1. It is totally normal for young boys to have short attention span. The trick is to keep them engaged and stay interested. This is hard and can be challenging. Elementary school teachers deserve more respect and pay for their expertise.kudos to them!! 2. My son may be toward the high end of being active spectrum. He is very smart and needs more information and stimulation to satisfy his curiosity. But the information needs to be fed in a way that can channel through. It is likely that the coaches in the coder school are mainly college kids and don't have the experience or know how. 3. We did the right thing to pull him out as the program doesn't fit him. It was not healthy for him as it hurt his self-esteem over the long run. 4. If it is a school, teachers would work with the kids to improve the situation. But since this is a for profit business, it is totally normal for them to choose an easy and more profitable option. We are glad we did take the time and reflected instead of rushing into conclusion on who was good, who was bad. I hope our experience may give you some perspective and perhaps beneficial for the next kid like my son. read more

My 9 year old is not only learning a valuable skill that is useful in practically every field, but also having fun! I'm so grateful to have found a class that leaves my child wanting to go back every week. They are starting with 'Scratch', sort of a drag and drop method of coding, to help learn the basics. So far, my child has made 2 games and is always excited to share about them after the lesson. The price is a little steep. $130 for a month of classes, classes meet once a week so (~$35) per class. However I feel better spending money on something that brings my child joy and is also practical. The teachers are students at Cal, which is great! They connect well with the kids. So far, so good. :) read more

My son enjoys his classes with Coach Devin. Coach Devin really has a way of engaging kids both my son and my nephew who was resistant to extra work. I was going to stop coding after summer but my son said, "what? No! I love coding classes with Coach Devin!" read more

My child attended two sessions of Coder School camp, and has been taking a once-a-week after school Python class with two of his friends for two years, now. The coding sessions are rigorous and fun, and I imagine he will keep doing sessions through middle school. The staff is amazing, and my interaction with everyone there had been pleasant. The session leaders really see my kid, and have been teaching him serious coding skills. read more

I love this school and my son has learned sooooooooo much! In only a month he is excited every time is going to the school and has started creating his first programs. He is so proud to show the family his Thanksgiving's and Xmas' projects... I highly recommend this school: the follow-up emails to parents are great!!! read more

Great coding program for kids! My son has been going there since he was 7. He enjoys the program very much and his coding skill is improving tremendously. Highly recommended! read more

My daughter started taking group classes here, progressing to semi-private code coaching classes, and has taken two summer's worth of summer camps, with the most recent being python startup camp. The consistency and quality of the classes are the reasons my daughter continues to take classes here. She's grown in computer science knowledge and internet safety. Mike, one of the owners, has become a friend of ours and always greets us with a smile. Im glad to have found a place where my daughter is supported in her interest of coding. Together, we can change the face of tech! read more

The Coder School is a great local resource in Berkeley for kids' coding instruction. Our daughter did 1:1 code coaching during the summer, got a great introduction to coding in Python, and did several really fun projects (including making her own Tamagotchi). Highly recommended! read more

My daughter took a coding class after school last year, and she loved it. She's currently taking an online summer camp in which she's creating a Galaga game. I'm so impressed with how much she's learning. And the sense of accomplishment I see in her is gratifying. I find the coaches wonderful, knowledgeable, and patient. The ratio of coaches to "campers" is small so my daughter receives personalized attention. I especially appreciate the summary that is provided by the coaches at the end of each day. I highly recommend The Coder School for any child interested in coding. read more

My fifth grade daughter has been taking a weekly one hour coding class at The Coder School since October 2019. She's made surveys, animations games, and probably lots of other stuff too. She enjoys attending. The teachers communicate well with parents, sending emails every week after class. read more

both of my kids have been with coder school Berkeley over 3 years, they are fun and educational. The teachers are very patient and knowledgable. read more