Every iCode Belt, Ages 5 to 18
Find the belt that fits your child
Ten belts, ages 5 to 18. Two hours a week, ten months, about six students to one instructor. Start anywhere on the ladder. Most families do.
- Boston Parents Family Favorite seven years running
- Macaroni Kids Favorite 2025
- STEM.org accredited
- CSTA & NGSS aligned
Not sure which belt? That’s what the evaluation is for.
Browse by age
Each belt has a typical starting age, not a cut-off. A ten-year-old who has never coded starts at Foundation. One who has been coding since six starts higher up.
Where most young children start. Short activities, lots of building, screens used in service of making something.
Junior Belt — Junior STEAM
Ages 5 to 7. Hands-on STEAM, no reading fluency assumed.
Foundation Belt — Scratch Coding & AI Foundations
Typically ages 6 and up. First real programs, first look at how AI works.
White Belt — Robotics, VEX & 3D Printing
Typically ages 7 and up. Build it, print it, program it to move.
Gray Belt — Minecraft & Roblox Coding
Typically ages 7 and up. The game they already play, from the other side.
The widest choice. A child new to coding still starts at Foundation or White. One with some Scratch behind them can go straight to Orange, Yellow or Green.
Orange Belt — Web Development & Design
Typically ages 8 and up. Real HTML, CSS and JavaScript on a site they publish.
Yellow Belt — Mobile App Development
Typically ages 9 and up. Apps that run on a phone they can hand to a friend.
Green Belt — Python, Drones & AI
Typically ages 9 and up. Python as a first text language, flown on real drones.
Still open at this age: Foundation, White and Gray.
Where the work starts counting. Portfolio pieces from this point on are the ones that matter for high school and beyond.
Red Belt — Game Development
Typically ages 11 and up. Unreal Engine, the toolchain studios actually ship on.
Blue Belt — Networking & Cybersecurity
Typically ages 12 and up. How networks break, and how they are defended.
Black Belt — Java & AP Computer Science
Typically ages 13 and up. Maps onto the AP Computer Science A syllabus.
A beginner at 11 isn’t behind. Orange or Green is a normal place to start.
Transcript and portfolio years. Three belts, each producing work a teenager can point an admissions officer at.
Black Belt — Java & AP Computer Science
Java, data structures, and the AP Computer Science A syllabus.
Blue Belt — Networking & Cybersecurity
The route into a field that hires before graduation.
Red Belt — Game Development
A finished, playable Unreal project rather than a certificate.
Starting at 15 with no experience is common. We place, we don’t stream.
Browse by what they are into
The fastest way in is usually the thing they already do for fun.
Games
They play constantly. Show them the machinery underneath.
Robots & building
For the child who takes things apart. Physical, competitive, loud.
Coding & AI
Blocks to Python to Java, in the order that actually sticks.
Foundation — Scratch & AI
Green — Python, Drones & AI
Black — Java & AP CS
Web, apps & security
Things other people can open, use and try to break.
Orange — Web Development
Yellow — Mobile Apps
Blue — Cybersecurity
The ten belts, in order
Students move up as they are ready, not on a timetable. Most join partway up.
What a belt costs, and what is in it
$425 a month · ten-month year
Plus a $125 annual lab fee, charged once a year. It covers materials and software licences for the whole year, bought up front, and it is not refunded.
Questions parents ask first
When do belt classes run?
Two hours a week, on the same day and time all year. Which day and time depends on the belt and the term. Ask us and we’ll tell you what’s open right now. It’s the first thing we sort out at the evaluation.
My child has never coded. Which belt?
Foundation for most children aged 6 to 10, Junior STEAM below that. Older beginners usually start at Orange or Green rather than being sent back to blocks. We work it out at the evaluation rather than guessing from a form. Takes about 45 minutes.
Is two hours a week too much to start with?
For some families, yes. Our after-school clubs run one topic over a shorter term and are the usual on-ramp. Plenty of students move up to a belt afterwards.
How is this different from a club?
A club is one topic over a short term. A belt is a ten-month program with a fixed cohort, a monthly written report, a capstone and a place on the ladder. Club, belt or team? lays the three side by side.
What happens at the evaluation?
Your child works through a short hands-on task with an instructor while you watch. You leave with a written plan for your child: which belt, why, and what the first term looks like. Not a sales pitch.
Start with the evaluation
You don’t have to pick a belt before you come in. Choosing the right one is the point of the visit, and you leave with it in writing.
iCode Wellesley · After-school clubs · Competition teams · The monthly report · Club, belt or team?
