A thorough lesson to prepare year 10 or year 11 learners to tackle the Analysis stage of the NEA. The lesson takes learners through the art of abstracting from a larger problem. Breaking down a task into it's most basic form. They then have practice abstracting detail from two different scenarios. The lesson then moves to the reasons why we decompose, and the importance of making code as simple as possible, adding embellishments later when the bare bones are working. There is opportunity to practice decomposing either singularly, in pairs, or as group work. Possible solutions are given to peer assess, or can be taken out for teacher assessment. The lesson culminates in a test to decompose the first idea presented and abstracted, the Bake Off competition. Homework / extended learning is included, and encourages the learners to abstract and decompose the program controlling a household item.

Due to the 9-1 having very little in terms of past papers, I have created this exam for the finance exam practice. There is a full mark scheme. The layout mirrors that of the official sample paper, with multiple choice, short answer and essay style questions.

Building on from knowledge of flat file databases, tables, fields, records, this lesson guides the learners on a journey into foreign keys, relationship types (one to many, many to many, one to one) They are given fields names at first to rearrange into two tables for one to many, learning the concept of how we decide upon the relationship to use. This builds further into recognising where to use a foreign key. The knowledge is expanded upon with the introduction of many to many relationships, and the concept of link, or junction tables. Learners then have the opportunity to test their knowledge. Answer slides are given. This was observed and judged to be engaging, and showed excellent progress. Everybody needs a bit of that!

An engaging resource which develops an understanding of manipulating lists in Python. There are two lessons here, first to introduce the topic and the second to consolidate learning. The answers are included as are extended learning tasks.

This is one of a series of lessons teaching about the issues of computing. This one focusses on what we use technology for, and the effect of those who either cannot, or will not use technology. The impact of technological exclusion is discussed. There is an opportunity to do a little research into the downside of technological inclusion, with gaming addiction (to balance the argument). There is also the opportunity to complete a six mark question with AO1, AO2, AO3 guidance. There is also a model six mark answer showing how the marks for each section are awarded, and the opportunity to peer mark. Student PPT does not contain the answers, whereas the teacher one does. I tend to put student copy on Google Classroom, and have teacher copy on the board for them to check answers after the task is finished. Then at the end of the lesson I remove the student copy, and put the teacher copy up, for isolators, or for revision purposes.

These lessons are in preparation for Paper 2, and show how to create a linear search. Learners are reminded first of how linear searches work, the advantages and disadvantages. Then following exam board rhetoric, there are debug exercises, exercises where learners choose the correct line. An exercise in moving lines about. It is all outstanding practice for the exam, and follows on from the lengthy question in the specimen paper. I am unable to upload Py files, but if you message me, I can email them to you.

This is a PPT resource for GCSE Computer Science. It takes the learners through libraries, constants, variables, globals, sub programs. There is a section where the learners are questioned on what they have learnt. The answers are on the teacher PPT. There is also a jumbled up coding task, email me for the Python file if you don’t want to type it out.

This is a whole E-safety package with five PowerPoint presentations / lessons. There is one for each year group from 7-11. The PowerPoints contain links to films, objectives, tasks, discussion / reflection topics. Tasks can easily be pasted to Word to become individual tasks instead of paired or group discussion / debate. These have been used successfully in PSEE lessons, and also form part of an isolation room pack for those involved in cyber bullying.

This PPT with exercises takes the learner through all of the concepts in the Programming Subset List 1. Data types. Input / Output. Maths operators, including modulus, exponent, Boolean, integer division. There are coding tasks, and enough work for around 3 or 4 hours of GCSE in preparation for the coding part of the exam. See also PLS2 if you like this resource!

This resource takes the learner through everything in the Programming Language Subset 2. Coding structures IF statements Loops Sub programs Input and output File handling With examples and tasks. This is around 3-4 hours work and covers the whole of PLS2, and can be worked on individually / at home, or set as a whole term HWK task. If you like this, PLS1 is also available to buy.

A lesson which was described as ‘outstanding’ for it’s engagement of the youngsters. It covers personal data, legislation, big data, and breaches, surveillance issues, and the benefits of surveillance. There are two PPTS, one is teachers (with answers) and one for the learners. There are opportunities for discussion, research, short answer question, long answer question, and recall from previous T5 lessons. It has it all!

Learners find out how to abstract, write pseudocode, create a flowchart (algorithm) and then apply this to Python coding, using an IF, ELSE to create a quiz question. The idea is to teach the learners that solving a problem doesn't start with typing code into Python. It shows definitions and examples to introduce the concepts, and ends with a practical programming task.

This is a whole E-safety package with five PowerPoint presentations / lessons. There is one for each year group from 7-11. The PowerPoints contain links to films, objectives, tasks, discussion / reflection topics. Tasks can easily be pasted to Word to become individual tasks instead of paired or group discussion / debate. These have been used successfully in PSEE lessons, and also form part of an isolation room pack, and for vulnerable young people who may damage their reputation.

To prepare for paper 2, I have included lessons for using parameters in sub programs, and linear searches. All lessons include the code (email me for this) and they scaffold and mirror the questions the exam board ask. For example, rearranging lines, debugging, choosing the correct line. These lessons will scaffold the more advanced questions aimed at levels 7,8,9. These particularly match paper 2 sample assessment.

These 12 resources consist of folded revision sheets. The idea is that the question is one side, and the answer on the backside. They keep the sheet in their pocket, and fish it out regularly over the space of a few days, and focus on recalling the answers without looking (entering active learning, whereas reading, and copying are passive learning). This ensures the information moves from the short term memory into long term memory with recall. The second part of each resource is the same sheet with the answers removed. Learners fill this in during the lesson. Second bonus, instant check whether they are putting in some revision effort! I've used these for 5 years (updating each year obviously!) and have never got results less than 70% 3 levels of progress. The learners love them, and adapt the ideas to other lessons across the school. Much less wieldy than flash cards.

This resource contains LOs for 5 lessons in Python nailing IF and ELIF. It has been created as a follow on from my year 7 Python resource, but can be used as a standalone. The idea is that they recap first lesson, spend 3 lessons amending or creating code. Lesson 5 is a problem which they code a solution to. Lesson 6 is designed as feedback and DIRT time. I have the Python scripts referred to in the slides, but TES won't allow me to upload them. However, if you buy the resource, and contact me, I can ping those over to you. Although designed for year 8, this resource is suitable for bright year 7, or low ability year 9. Please check my follow on resources too. They are mainly aimed at preparing learners for the Edexcel NEA in year 11.

An engaging resources which allows the learners to find errors marked with hashtags. The slides include the broken code (fixed code is on the teacher slides, separate and can also be received via email). Even if you choose not to use this for debugging exercises, it is useful for programming ideas for beginners to copy. After each script the learners are encouraged to state initial tests, actual tests, in preparation for GCSE NEA work. My learners raced up the stairs to start on these tasks, very enthusiastically. The topics include maths, strings, lists, tuples, concatenation, for loops, sub routines and appending to lists. The scripts can also be used as base scripts for other ideas. At the end of the half term of work, there is a challenge project, worded like a very watered down GCSE project. Enjoy!

This has been a hugely successful unit, and my year 9 computer scientists have thoroughly enjoyed the competition, and team work. It has been based upon the theory of gamification, using game elements in the classroom. The learners need to have some python skills, but there are three levels of challenge in each lesson, and the idea is that they choose, and upgrade if they have time and knowledge. At its highest level, skills used are IF, looping, concatenation, tuples, global variables and subroutines. Learners get points for working code, and add an image to the game board. I did this with a display board in the classroom, and stuck the ‘prizes’ to the wall (there is an image). It is not essential to do that, but it does make it visually more appealing. Enjoy watching your learners race around helping one another and encouraging those who are weaker at coding to learn the more tricky aspects of coding.

48 questions aimed at only the topics given by the exam board in the slimmed down version. These are accompanied by a PPT which includes a brief of each of the new topics. Work is great for revision, individually, or paired work. These will take you right up to paper 1 exam. The questions can be used in conjunction with any of the text books, or even GCSE Bitesize. Make sure learners are only focussed on what will be on the exam, and not the other stuff!