Parent Hub

Supporting Learning Together

Discover practical tips, resources, and information to help your child build confidence in computational thinking. From classroom updates to fun activities you can enjoy together, we’re here to support learning every step of the way.

Supporting Your Child’s Learning Journey

This page is designed to help parents and guardians feel confident supporting their child’s learning in computational thinking. Here you’ll find easy-to-follow information, practical resources, fun activities to enjoy at home, and answers to common questions. Whether your child is just getting started or already enjoys solving challenges, these resources will help you encourage curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving skills that are valuable for school and everyday life.

Frequently Asked Questions

Entry is organised through the school. A teacher in the Republic of Ireland registers as the school coordinator and registers participating students. Parents do not normally register their child directly.

The Irish challenge normally takes place in November. For example, the 2025 challenge ran from 10–23 November 2025. The dates for the 2026 Irish challenge are to be announced by ICS.

Students have 45 minutes to complete 15 question

They are short, engaging puzzles involving logic, patterns, algorithms, data and problem-solving. There are Easy, Medium and Hard questions.

Yes. In the Irish format described by ICS, Easy questions score +6 for a correct answer, Medium +9 and Hard +12. Incorrect answers receive 0 on Easy, −2 on Medium and −4 on Hard; unanswered questions score 0.

The challenge is intended to be completed individually. The Irish coordinator guidance says each student should work on their own computer under supervision.

Yes. The Irish 2025 coordinator handbook states that students may use pencil, paper and a calculator during the challenge

The Irish challenge has six age categories, covering pupils from 1st/2nd Class in primary through 5th/6th Year in secondary school.

No. No previous programming or computer-science knowledge is required. The problems are designed to be solved through reasoning and logical thinking.

Bebras is an international computational-thinking challenge made up of fun, interactive puzzles. It tests logical thinking, problem-solving and computational thinking rather than programming knowledge.

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