A knowledge organiser for the GCSE Computer Science topic of the Computer System. Includes hardware and software, memory and storage and the CPU. Each organiser contains key words, key skills and key knowledge. These are great for student revision, or as teaching aids for staff to be aware of the breadth of the module. Thanks, Toby Watkins

This is an activity lesson I made to promote STEM / Computing / Maths. The activity involves 3 festive themed activites with links to STEM/Computing/Maths. In the first, students look at flowcharts to represent the workflow at the northpole. In the second, students write basic code to navigate a grid and in the final activity students use binary strings to construct Christmas bitmap images. It is designed to last around an hour. It was originally pitched for year 7 students, but would be suitable for 8 and 9. Comes with a powerpoint with key instructions and questions, along with a worksheet for the final activity.

This is a project lesson for 50 - 75 minutes based around interpreting data, understanding proportions, calculating percentages and statistical enquiry. The theme of this lesson is to emphasise the importance of data analysis in varied fields of life, and includes three specifically designed data sets based around sports, performance and financial analysis. Students will have to answer a series of questions related to the 3 data sets to help prepare them to write a mini report detailing their findings. These questions and level of data analysis are similar to what many companies use as the basis of their graduate recruitment maths tests, with candidates expected to interpret data in different forms and draw correct conclusions based on sound explanations. Having ran this session multiple times, students are very engaged with the content and like seeing how maths will be used in real work places. It could be done in classes, or as a larger scale event. I usually run it as a carousel, with different data sets on each table and getting students to rotate around, but again delivery is flexible. The 3 data sets are: Sports Analysis - Wiltshire Wanderers. Students have to evaluate player performance over a season by working out things such as number of goals scored per game. Financial Analysis - Netdrive Sales. Students have to evaluate sales performance of 4 products, calculating things such as most profitable periods, profit per item and percentage profit. Performance Analysis - Silent Night Hotels. Students look at the performance of various hotels in a fictional chain and pick out positives and negatives of each one.

This is a Maths/STEM project lesson based around calculating and comparing the density of different metals. Students have to first calculate and rank the densities of the metals, than answer questions based on combining different ratios of metals. These questions involve working out density, volume or mass from compound metal alloys of differing ratios. The lesson was pitched at year 10, and has a support sheet to enable access for foundation students. The lesson was designed to last 75 minutes, but actually the difficult quesitons in the sheet means it could easily last 90 minutes or more if required.

For the Computational Thinking/Boolean Logic topic, the 2 identified target topics are: Boolean Logic Gates Searching and Sorting Algorithms Other topics available in alternative resource listings. Here is another painstakingly put together resource which I use for revision of key topics, but could also be used for an accessible homework task or even first teaching. For each of the key topics, I picked out the 2 main areas students find difficult. I then created a focused revision page (essentially a knowledge organiser for the target topic), along with a set of questions covering key facts and knowledge + exam style questions. I also included the answers and mark scheme where appropriate. I have done them in powerpoint format so that they can be displayed to the class, share with students digitally or print out as booklets (I tend to duplicate each slide and print 2 to a page to get A5 booklets, but A4 would also work and give more room for writing). The main purpose is to boost understanding of some of the most difficult topics with a well designed revision page and set of questions to consolidate. I will also be printing out all of the question pages separately and issuing nearer exam time to make sure everything has stuck. Hope this is a helpful resource and let me know if you have any questions or comments.

This Enhanced Learning Worksheet focuses on character sets and compression algorithms, including run length encoding and huffman compression. NOTE: A free version of my Computational Thinking Enhanced Learning Worksheet is available if you would like to see the structure or how your classes get on with them first. These new Enhanced Learning Worksheet are designed to give students more opportunity to consolidate and extend their understanding of all the key topics in GCSE Computer Science. They feature a series of scaffolded questions, followed by a page of extend / challenge questions where the scaffold has been removed and/or the difficulty level ramped up. I developed these worksheets not to be another test, quiz or assessment (please see my module quizzes if you are interested in this), but instead are platforms for students to practice key skills during lessons. As such, answers are provided but not individual mark allocation. I will be using these worksheets 3 times each in the delivery of my AQA Computer Science course - first as an in-lesson worksheet, second as a spaced retrieval task a month or two later and finally as an end of year 11 revision resource.