Meet Francis: The Coding Tutor for Kids Who Explains Variables with Health Bars

The best coding tutor for kids combines real technical depth with the ability to make hard ideas feel simple. Francis, one of Strive's coding teachers, does both. He has over seven years of experience, and before he started teaching he built a full Python point-of-sale system for a major food retail brand. Today he uses that same thinking to help children see how coding and math connect to the games, apps and systems they already know. Parents notice the difference, and so do their kids.

"You Are the Best Teacher"

After one of his classes with Francis, Leonardo's parents sent us a short message: "Leo loves his lessons with you. You are the best teacher 💜"

Messages like that don't come from one great lesson. They come from a child who looks forward to class every week, who feels comfortable asking questions, and who leaves each session understanding a little more than before. Leo's parents could see that in how he talked about his lessons at home, and they wanted Francis to know.

From Building Software to Teaching Kids

Before Francis taught children, he worked in the corporate world as a developer. His point-of-sale system handled the everyday work of a busy food retailer: taking orders, processing sales and keeping the business running. That's the kind of software that has to work every time, because real staff and real customers depend on it.

What stands out to us is how Francis breaks that professional thinking down for a child. He knows how code behaves in the real world, so he can show students why a concept matters before asking them to memorise it. A loop or a condition stops being an abstract rule and becomes something that runs the apps they use every day.

How Francis Makes Coding Concepts Click

Francis has a gift for connecting new ideas to things children already know and enjoy. His approach to variables is a good example. Instead of starting with a definition, he starts with a game.

A health bar that drops when a character takes damage is a variable. So is a score that climbs with every coin collected, or a power-up timer counting down. Once a student sees that every game they love is built from values that change, variables stop feeling like a school topic. They become the logic behind the things they already understand, and the student wants to build their own.

This is how Strive Coding works at its best. Students learn Python by building games, visualisations and interactive projects they can share with friends, with a teacher who knows how to make each concept land. Students who master those foundations go on to build production software in Strive AI Coding.

What Parents Say After Class With Francis

The messages parents send after class tell us a lot about what happens in Francis's lessons.

Astra, whose son Tennyson learns with Francis, wrote: "I'm so pleased that the foundational coding you're teaching Tennyson is setting him up to be on the leading edge of this huge AI revolution we are all experiencing. It's definitely an area that schools are not yet able to keep up with. Which is why having my 2 boys work with Strive teachers is a real blessing! Thank you."

Yi Lin, Candace's parent, shared a moment from home: "Such a fun update! She loves this project and was excitedly describing how 'beautiful' it is. Can't wait to see more."

Both messages point to the same thing. Children who learn with Francis come home excited about what they built, and parents can see the skills forming. Astra's point about AI is one we hear often. Students who understand how code works are far better at using AI tools well, because they can read, check and correct what those tools produce.

What to Look For in a Coding Tutor for Kids

If you're choosing a coding teacher for your child, Francis shows the qualities worth looking for. Technical experience matters, because a teacher who has built real software knows which ideas are essential and how they fit together. Teaching skill matters just as much, because the best explanation in the world won't help a child who feels lost or bored.

The teachers who make the biggest difference connect lessons to what children already care about, keep them curious enough to push through hard problems, and make every student feel capable. You can read more about why the teacher matters so much in how a coding teacher makes all the difference, or meet another of our teachers in our profile of Asha.

Teachers like Francis are exactly who we want leading classrooms at Strive: people with deep technical experience who know how to make difficult ideas accessible and fun for kids. He does that every week, in every lesson, with every student.

Thank you, Francis 💛