Most course pages are written to sell, which makes them hard to compare. The six questions below are the ones that actually separate a course your child will finish from one they will quietly stop attending — and two of them are questions providers hope you will not ask.
1. How many children are in the group?
Ask for a number, not a range, and be sceptical of "small groups" without one. Four to six is small. Twelve is a class. Twenty is a broadcast.
This single number determines whether your child will speak during the session, whether the teacher will notice when they are lost, and whether the pace can adapt at all. Nothing else on this list matters as much.
2. Is it live, or recorded?
Recorded courses are cheaper to produce and often cheaper to buy, and for a self-motivated teenager they can work. For most children under fifteen, they do not. Completion rates for self-paced children's courses are poor, and the reason is simple: when a child gets stuck and there is nobody to ask, they stop.
If a course is recorded, ask what happens when your child is confused on a Tuesday evening.
3. What does the child make?
Ask what they will have at the end. A story, a working game, a portfolio of art, a finished experiment write-up. A course that cannot answer this concretely is usually a course where the child mostly watches.
The answer also tells you what the sessions feel like from the inside, which the marketing copy will not.
4. Who is teaching, and what do they specialise in?
"Expert instructors" is not an answer. A teacher who covers coding, creative writing and IGCSE Chemistry is unlikely to be strong at all three. Specialists teach better, and are more honest about the edges of what they know.
You should also be able to find out who will actually teach your child, not just who appears on the website.
5. Can we try a session first?
This is the question providers most hope you skip, and the most informative one you can ask. A free demo class costs them a teacher's half hour. If they will not offer one, ask why.
A demo tells you in thirty minutes what a week of reading course descriptions cannot: whether your child engages with this teacher, whether the pace suits them, and whether they want to come back.
6. What happens when it is not working?
The second question most people skip. Ask directly: what if my child is bored, or lost, or the level is wrong? A good provider will tell you they would move the child, adjust the level, or say it is not the right fit. A poor one will assure you that never happens.
It happens. What matters is whether anyone tells you.
Match the course to the child, not to the CV
The most common mistake we see is choosing based on what looks useful for the future rather than what the child is drawn to now. A ten-year-old enrolled in coding because it is "important" will disengage. The same child enrolled in a storytelling course because they love stories will often end up in coding two years later — by their own choice, and with far better results.
Interest is not a soft factor at this age. It is the mechanism.
A note on price
Cheaper courses are usually cheaper because the group is larger or the teaching is recorded. That is a real trade, not a bargain. Conversely, expensive does not mean small — ask for the group size regardless of price.
We quote fees personally rather than listing them, because the number genuinely depends on format, frequency and whether you want one-to-one. Ask, and you will get a straight figure the same day.
Where to start
If your child is drawn to stories, start with storytelling or creative writing. If they take things apart, start with coding or science. If they have big opinions about how things should work, Young Entrepreneurs tends to land. And if you are not sure, book a demo and let them try — it is free, and it settles the question faster than any list of questions can.
Written by the Learning Bubble teaching team. If something here does not match your situation, ask us — we would rather give you a straight answer than have you guess.