What the first week of a coding course looks like

Most people who sign up for their first coding course expect the hard part to be the code. It usually isn’t. The hard part is the first evening, walking into a room of strangers and wondering whether everyone else already knows what they’re doing. (They don’t.)

This post walks through what the first week looks like, so you know what you’re walking into.

Day one: set up, then build something

There’s no lecture on the history of the internet. By the end of the first evening every student has a code editor installed, a folder on their laptop and a web page with their own name on it, open in their own browser.

It’s a small thing, but it matters. Seeing something you wrote show up on screen in the first hour is what makes the next nine weeks feel possible.

Days two to four: one idea per evening

Each evening covers one idea and then puts it to use straight away:

• Structure - how a page is put together, with headings, paragraphs and links.
• Style - colours, fonts and spacing, and why a page looks different on a phone.
• Layout - putting things side by side, which is where most people hit their first real puzzle.

The teacher walks the room the whole time. Being stuck is normal, and it’s quicker to get unstuck when someone can look over your shoulder than when you’re searching the internet at midnight.

What a typical evening looks like

1. Twenty minutes of the teacher building something live on the big screen.
2. An hour of students building their own version, with help on hand.
3. Fifteen minutes at the end where two or three people show what they made.

“I was sure I’d be the slowest one there. By Thursday I was helping the person next to me.” - [Student name], [course name] cohort

Every quote in a post must come from a real student or teacher who has agreed to be quoted. Check it with them before publishing.

Day five: show it off

The week ends with every student’s page up on the big screen. It’s rough, it has bugs, and it’s theirs. That’s the point.

Here’s the kind of thing a student has written by Friday:

<h1>Ayesha's recipes</h1>
<p>My grandmother's biryani, written down at last.</p>

To add a photo, save it in this folder next to this file and add a line like ![Students presenting their pages on the big screen](./photo.jpg) - the words in square brackets describe the photo for people who can’t see it.

Want to see it for yourself?

Every course starts with this kind of week. Take a look at the courses we run, or get in touch if you’d like to sit in on a class before you decide.