Lesson plans

Every GCSE lesson has a simple lesson plan in PowerPoint format that you can share with students on the board. There is no planning for the teacher to do. Simply ensure our resources are stored on your school network or VLE, project the plan and let the lesson unfold.

Lesson structure

The timing is based on a 60 minute lesson with no lost learning time and can be adapted to shorter or longer lessons. Some theory activities may take longer and you will want to spend some lessons entirely on programming. The almost 50-50 split in theory and practical activities ensures swift pace and prevents students getting bored but will need to be adapted to the activity. If you can, try and find time for the practical activity which is mostly programming in as many lessons as you can.

Easy to follow

Our lesson plans are very straightforward for a reason. We want the teacher to be able to follow them in the lesson with almost zero preparation. Therefore, they cannot be detailed with lots of information to remember! The best lessons are also dynamic. They adapt and change as the lesson progresses. Too much of a structure is too restrictive. The plans give you a broad structure.

Differentiation

Our workbooks capture what ALL students need to know for examinations. Therefore, we do not differentiate these activities by task. We make them suitable for everyone. Differentiate in the discussions you have with students about the work they are producing. The second half of the lesson with programming is differentiated by task instead. You will not find "all must", "most should", "some might", or tasks differentiated by target grades in our resources. This approach is now considered poor practice. Lessons should scaffold up enabling all students to succeed in all tasks, not differentiate down. This enables a modern, "high performance learning" approach.