Computing at School

Coding in the Classroom

Developing pupils’ Knowledge, Understanding and Skills

If you have decided to develop coding skills at Key Stage 3, you should consider giving your pupils opportunities to:

Solve a variety of computational problems that include:

  • Designing a solution for the problem using computational thinking:
    • Decomposition
    • Abstraction
    • Algorithms
    • Generalisation
    • Evaluation
  • Building a solution based on their design using appropriate tools and techniques
  • Testing and evaluating the solution against their original plan
  • Using digital collaboration tools to safely collaborate with others to create and improve their solution

Learn about:

  • The three constructs of programming:
    • Sequence
    • Selection
    • Repetition (Iteration)
  • Data types and their uses:
    • Integer
    • Float
    • Boolean
    • Strings
  • Variables
  • Outputting information to a screen
  • User input and the user interface
  • Operators:
    • Arithmetic
    • Comparison
    • Logical
  • IF statements
  • Loops
  • Create user-defined blocks of code (custom blocks in Scratch or Snap!, procedures, functions or methods)