Professional developers now build software with AI — your teen can learn the same way. Small cohorts of 4–6 students. Working projects shipped in weeks, not semesters.
Not Scratch. Not drag-and-drop. Real software that lives on the internet.
A portfolio site they design, build, and deploy — with a real URL they can share with anyone.
Games, tools, and apps with real functionality — not static pages that just sit there.
By the end of term, students work with databases, APIs, and deployment — the building blocks of real tech companies.
Small groups, expert instruction, professional tools, real results.
Students use the same AI coding tools that professional developers use daily — not watered-down kids' versions.
Each 90-minute session ends with something deployed. No theory-only lessons. Build, ship, repeat.
Maximum 6 students per group. Every student gets individual support — no one gets left behind.
At the end of each term, students present what they've built to family. You'll see exactly what they've learned.
Your teen builds and deploys a real website in under an hour — with zero prior experience required. Parents are welcome to watch the last 10 minutes and see the result live.
Founder & Lead Instructor
Girish is an aerospace engineering PhD researcher at the University of Auckland who's been teaching his whole life — from classmates in high school to university engineering students today. He spent two years teaching maths and physics in New Zealand high schools and ran his own tutoring centre. He's a qualified teacher and a practising coder — he builds real software with the same AI tools your teen will learn in class.
Register your interest for the free taster workshop (May 17) or the Term 3 pilot programme. We'll be in touch with details.
We'll only email you about ShipSurf. No spam, ever.
No. We start from zero. The AI tools we use mean students can build real things from day one — they describe what they want to build in plain English, and learn how software works by shipping it.
Most programmes teach traditional coding tools that professional developers are already moving away from. We teach the AI-augmented workflow that's becoming the industry standard — the same tools used at companies like Anthropic, Google, and startups worldwide. Your teen learns the skill that matters in 2026, not 2016.
Great question — and the answer is no. AI tools are like having a brilliant assistant, but you still need to know what to build, how to direct it, how to evaluate the output, and how to fix problems. Students learn software architecture, logic, debugging, and project management. The AI accelerates the boring parts so they can focus on the creative, strategic thinking.
A laptop (Mac, Windows, or Linux) and a Claude Pro subscription (~$20 NZD/month). We'll send detailed setup instructions before the first session. For the free taster workshop, we'll provide everything needed — just bring a laptop.
Online via live video call. Sessions are fully interactive — not pre-recorded videos. Your teen works on their own laptop with real-time guidance from Girish, just like a professional developer pair-programming with a colleague.
One 90-minute session per week for 10 weeks (one school term). No homework required, though many students keep building between sessions because they want to.