Students can begin creating on a phone or tablet with a few blocks, move into Python or Swift, and eventually develop complete Android and iOS apps. The challenge for teachers is choosing a starting point that gives students enough support while leaving room to think for themselves.
This guide moves from the simplest starting points towards more demanding development tools. The order reflects the knowledge and setup usually needed for a first meaningful project. It is a teaching guide, not an official age rating: a complex Scratch game can be harder to build than a carefully guided first app in Xcode.
There is also an important distinction between coding on a mobile device and building an app for a mobile device. Python Code Lab lets students write and run Python on Android, iOS and iPadOS. Xcode builds iPhone apps, but the development environment runs on a Mac. Both belong in the journey, but they meet different needs.
The progression at a glance
The age ranges are suggested teaching starting points, not account eligibility rules. Prior experience matters more than age, and students do not need to use every tool.
| Difficulty | Tools | Suggested students | What students should be ready to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. First steps | OctoStudio, Scratch | Primary beginners, roughly 7-11; older beginners too | Follow a sequence and explore cause and effect |
| 2. Simple visual apps and games | Glide, MIT App Inventor, Thunkable, GDevelop | Upper primary and lower secondary, roughly 10-14 | Plan interactions and work with simple logic or organised data |
| 3. First text-based programming | Python Code Lab, Swift Playgrounds | Lower secondary upwards, roughly 11-16 | Read short programs, use variables and investigate errors |
| 4. More complex app design | Adalo, FlutterFlow, coded web apps | Confident secondary students, roughly 14-18 | Organise multiple screens, data and user actions |
| 5. Independent development | Capacitor, Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine, Flutter, React Native with Expo | Experienced GCSE/iGCSE and sixth-form programmers | Use functions, manage files and read technical documentation |
| 6. Full native development workflows | Xcode, Android Studio | Advanced students and aspiring developers | Manage a larger project, test systematically and handle build tools |
Some tools span several bands. Python Code Lab supports both first programs and advanced school algorithms. Swift Playgrounds begins with guided puzzles before moving into app development. The bands identify accessible entry points rather than limits. Vibe coding is also beginning to change this progression: AI can make an advanced tool easier to start using, while understanding and maintaining the resulting project may remain demanding.
1. First steps: OctoStudio and Scratch
Suitable for: students with little or no programming experience.
OctoStudio is a useful starting point when students have phones or tablets. Developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT Media Lab, it combines blocks with photographs, drawings and sounds. Students can make interactive stories and games that respond to actions such as shaking or tilting the device. It is free and works offline.
A first project might be an animated postcard or a character that reacts when the device moves. The immediate connection between a block and an outcome gives beginners something concrete to investigate. Projects can be shared with other OctoStudio users, or exported as videos and GIFs. They are not directly exported as independent app-store apps.
Scratch gives learners room to develop more detailed games, quizzes and simulations. It is particularly useful for introducing events, selection, repetition and variables. A computer or tablet provides a more practical authoring workspace than a small phone screen.
Scratch belongs here as a programming foundation and prototyping tool. Its normal sharing workflow produces Scratch projects rather than native Android or iOS apps. Students making touch-friendly projects should use visible buttons instead of relying on keyboard controls.
Example project: create an interactive story in which the reader chooses what happens next.
2. Simple visual apps and games
Suitable for: students ready to plan how an interface responds, or organise information for an audience.
Glide offers an accessible route into data-driven web apps. A simple directory can begin with organised information and a visual interface. This can suit students who are more confident with spreadsheets than programming. Glide does not support direct publishing to Apple’s App Store or Google Play; users access the resulting web app through a link.
For students moving on from Scratch, MIT App Inventor combines a screen designer with block-based programming. Its free online environment provides a route to functional mobile apps while keeping programming logic visible.
Android is the more straightforward starting point for distribution. App Inventor supports iPhone and iPad testing through its Companion app and provides an iOS build process, but independent iOS distribution involves additional Apple developer setup. Some features differ between platforms, and Android extensions do not carry across to iOS. MIT’s pages also contain inconsistent beta wording, so teachers should trial the complete iOS workflow before planning a publishing unit.
Thunkable offers visual interface design and logic blocks, with publishing routes for Android, iOS and the web. It is worth considering for a mixed-device audience. Publishing and project limits depend on the subscription, so a free starting experience should not be confused with unrestricted publication.
GDevelop is the alternative when the intended app is a game. Students define events and actions to control gameplay. Start with movement, scoring and a clear win condition before adding multiple levels. Web and mobile export options are available, with publishing services and limits depending on the route and plan.
Example project: make a revision quiz, a fictional club directory or a game that collects points.
3. First text-based programming: Python Code Lab and Swift Playgrounds
Suitable for: students beginning to write code, including learners moving from blocks and those starting GCSE/iGCSE programming.
My own Python Code Lab was created to make classroom Python more accessible. Students can write and run programs in a browser on Android phones and tablets, iPhones running iOS, and iPads running iPadOS, as well as computers and Chromebooks. There is no software installation or account setup, and Phone Mode helps with smaller screens.
Students can begin with visual blocks that generate Python, then move into text-based coding. They can build quizzes, calculators, text adventures and turtle drawings. Tracing tools help them follow execution and inspect changing values.
Its role in this progression is to make programming possible on the devices students already have. It runs Python programs within a browser-based learning environment; it is not a native Android or iOS app exporter. It also extends beyond beginner work into more demanding school programming.
For students taking the exam-focused route, my book Python For iGCSE: Unofficial guide to the Cambridge iGCSE exam is a companion to this stage of learning. Students can use Python Code Lab to practise programs as they work through their studies.
Swift Playgrounds, called Swift Playground on Apple’s current website, is another supported route into text-based coding. Available free on iPad and Mac, it begins with guided activities and lets learners progress into building interfaces with SwiftUI.
For an iPad school, this means students can begin developing Apple apps without first moving to a Mac. App projects can later be opened in Xcode, and Apple provides a route to submit them to App Store Connect. This workflow targets Apple’s platforms rather than generating an Android version.
Example project: build a Python quiz that records a score, or a SwiftUI app with a question screen and a results screen.
4. More complex app design
Suitable for: confident secondary students who can plan multiple screens and explain how information moves through a system.
Adalo supports visual development of database-driven Android, iOS and web apps. It suits projects such as a booking prototype or an equipment catalogue. The increased difficulty comes from designing the data and relationships, even when much of the interface is assembled visually.
FlutterFlow adds visual app development within the Flutter ecosystem. It supports mobile and web deployment, with source-code export available on eligible paid plans. That provides a possible route into further programming, although maintaining exported code requires additional knowledge.
Students can also build a mobile-friendly web app using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This is a useful path for those who already understand web pages and want to add calculations, interaction and stored state. A progressive web app can add installation and offline features when these are implemented and supported.
This band is about managing complexity. Students should be able to describe their screens, data and validation before relying on the tool to assemble them.
Example project: create an equipment-loan prototype using fictional records, with a catalogue, item details and availability.
5. Independent development
Suitable for: students who can already write and debug programs independently and are ready to learn a framework or game engine.
Capacitor gives students with HTML, CSS and JavaScript experience a route from a web project to Android and iOS apps. It adds a native container and access to device features. The new learning includes platform configuration, permissions and packaging.
Godot is worth considering for students ready for deeper game development. It supports Android and iOS export, although its documented iOS workflow requires macOS and Xcode. Students need to plan game behaviour as well as learn the export process.
Unity is another strong option for students interested in 2D and 3D games, including games for Android and iOS. Its extensive tutorial resources are a particular advantage: Unity Learn provides free courses, projects and guided pathways, including Unity Essentials and Junior Programmer. Students can begin with a guided project before developing their C# programming skills. Unity Personal is free for eligible individuals and small organisations with less than US$200,000 in revenue and funds raised over the previous 12 months. Schools should also investigate Unity’s education licences rather than assume the Personal licence covers an institutional installation.
Unreal Engine is an excellent option for ambitious 3D games and interactive environments. It offers Blueprint visual scripting alongside C++, and supports Android and iOS development. Blueprints provide a visual starting point, but building and optimising a complete mobile game still involves substantial technical learning. Unreal is free for educational use; commercial game releases have separate royalty terms.
School access needs particular attention with Unreal. In my experience, it is blocked by the firewall in most schools. Check access with your IT team before planning lessons around it. Epic’s academic installation guide also identifies difficulties with the Launcher on networks using proxy servers.
Within this band, I would offer Godot or Unity for a first substantial game project and consider Unreal for students particularly interested in more demanding 3D work. A guided Unity or Unreal introduction can begin earlier; independent mobile publishing is the more advanced task.
Flutter uses Dart to develop for multiple platforms from a shared codebase. React Native offers a route using React and JavaScript or TypeScript. React Native’s documentation recommends a framework such as Expo for new projects; Expo’s EAS Build service can produce Android and iOS builds in the cloud.
These are professional tools, not merely stepping stones to something more serious. The challenge is learning how a larger application is structured and how its parts interact. Sharing code across platforms still requires testing on both.
Example project: develop a multi-screen revision app, or a game with several levels and saved progress.
6. Full native development: Xcode and Android Studio
Suitable for: advanced students who want detailed control over a platform and are ready to manage the wider development workflow.
Xcode is Apple’s environment for developing, testing and distributing apps. It runs on a Mac and includes previews, simulators, debugging and performance tools. Swift and SwiftUI provide a natural continuation from Swift Playgrounds.
Android Studio is the official Android development environment. It supports Kotlin and Java, with Jetpack Compose providing a modern approach to interface development. Supported versions are available for Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS.
A teacher can guide a beginner through a small project in either environment. They appear at the end here because working independently involves more setup and more responsibility for project structure, builds and testing.
Xcode and Android Studio are development environments, while Flutter and React Native are frameworks. They can form parts of the same workflow. Choosing native development is therefore a decision about the project, not proof that a student has reached a higher level than someone using a cross-platform framework.
Example project: develop an app that uses a device feature, handles errors and is tested across several screen sizes.
Vibe coding is likely to change the progression
Vibe coding means describing what you want an AI system to build, trying the result and refining it through further instructions. It is likely to change the way students enter app development. A learner may be able to create a working prototype in a professional environment before they could write its code independently.
AI plugins and integrations can make this easier by connecting the assistant to the development environment. Rather than repeatedly copying code between a chatbot and an editor, supported tools can give an assistant access to relevant project context and let it help edit files, investigate errors and carry out development tasks. This is already visible in Xcode’s support for coding agents and extensions. The scope depends on the integration and the access it is given.
As these tools improve, I expect the difficulty of getting started to fall. Students may spend more time defining requirements, testing behaviour and judging proposed changes. However, the difficulty bands in this article still matter: producing an app and understanding its operation are different achievements.
For readers interested in this approach, my book Vibe Coding: From Idea to App at the Speed of Flow provides a further reading option alongside practical experimentation with these tools.
A working app does not prove understanding
The educational risk is that students can produce software they do not understand. A convincing interface can hide a learner’s uncertainty about the variables, decisions, data storage or external services involved. When something breaks, their only response may be to ask the AI to try again.
The way we assess learning needs to reflect this. Ask a student to explain one feature, trace what happens to an input and predict the effect of a change before running it. Give them a small modification to make independently, or ask them to investigate an unexpected result. These activities reveal more about understanding than a polished demonstration alone.
AI can support this process when students use it to request explanations, compare approaches or obtain a hint, then check those explanations against the program’s behaviour. For an introductory programming lesson, a small program that the student understands may meet the learning goal better than a much larger generated app.
This also brings the discussion back to problem solving. Before choosing a tool, students need to identify the problem, break it into manageable parts and decide how they will recognise a successful solution. My book 21st Century Problem Solving: From zeroes and ones to Artificial Intelligence is a further reading option for this wider theme.
From a classroom project to a published app
Publishing is a separate milestone. Apple and Google have developer accounts, fees and release requirements, while some visual builders charge for publishing features. A project that works in a preview is not automatically ready for public distribution. AI-generated projects still need testing and review.
For teaching, choose a tool that lets students take the next manageable step. That might mean a first block in OctoStudio, a Python program written on an Android phone, a SwiftUI project built on an iPad, or a substantial application developed on a computer. Vibe coding may change how quickly students can create these things. Our responsibility is to help their understanding develop alongside their ability to produce them.
References
- OctoStudio overview and opening shared projects.
- OctoStudio on the App Store, including offline use.
- Scratch and Scratch downloads.
- MIT App Inventor overview, iOS guidance and iOS build instructions.
- Thunkable documentation and publishing limits.
- Swift Playground.
- Adalo.
- FlutterFlow and pricing and code export.
- MDN progressive web app documentation.
- Glide’s app-store publishing explanation.
- Capacitor.
- GDevelop plans and export options.
- Godot Android export and iOS export.
- Xcode and Android Studio.
- Flutter, React Native and Expo EAS Build.
- Apple Developer Program and Google Play Console registration.
- Python Code Lab, device support and learning features and teacher guide.
- Unity Personal eligibility, Unity Learn and Unity Essentials.
- Unreal licensing, Blueprint and C++ development, mobile development and academic installation and proxy considerations.
