Recommended resources for education recovery

To support the education recovery of your learners, we highlight some of our existing resources that will help bridge any gaps. We focus on resources from three areas:

Digital literacy, skills and competencies that can be used across the curriculum, and which schools may need to invest in
Priority topics to ensure learners are equipped with sufficient computing knowledge
Priority topics to ensure learners are equipped with adequate skills in programming, the application of computer science

Select which key stage you are interested in, to skip to your section:

Primary education - key stage 1 and key stage 2

The primary Teach Computing Curriculum is a spiral curriculum, which means topics like programming are taught every year for 6 to 12 weeks. The units and their curriculum year group assignment are given in table 1; however, these are flexible.

For example, you may want to focus on ensuring that your Year 6 students have a grounding in programming, so you could focus on teaching the Year 3 unit ‘Sequence in music’, the Year 4 unit ‘Repetition in shapes’, and the Year 5 unit ‘Selection in quizzes’. These units will cover the required concepts, regardless of year group assignment. Alternatively, you may wish to teach the Year 7 unit ‘Programming essentials in Scratch’ (part 1 and part 2), as it is designed to enable transitions and to ensure a baseline knowledge of key concepts.

Some units are available as video lessons from Oak National Academy in addition to being accessible from teachcomputing.org.

Table 1: Primary education

Meeting schools’ digital literacy needs	Our recommendations to ensure a thorough grounding in key computing subject knowledge	Our recommendations to ensure a thorough grounding in programming
These ‘Creating media’ units are ideal for class topics with cross-curricular links! They cover skills and concepts that allow learners to get creative as well as building their digital skills.	Check out these ‘Computing systems and networks’ units to help learners understand the world around them and how it’s impacted by technology.	Check out these ‘Programming’ units to see how we have embedded the concepts ‘Program Design’, ‘Use, Modify, Create’ and ‘Levels of Abstraction’ to build learning experiences.
Y1 Digital painting	Y1 Technology around us	Y1 Moving a robot
Y2 Digital photography	Y2 IT around us	Y2 Robot algorithms
Y3 Desktop publishing	Y3 Connecting computers	Y3 Sequence in music
Y4 Audio editing	Y4 The Internet	Y4 Repetition in shapes
Y5 Vector drawing Oak video lessons	Y5 Sharing information Oak video lessons	Y5 Selection in quizzes Oak video lessons
Y6 Web page creation Oak video lessons	Y6 Communication Oak video lessons	Y6 Variables in games Oak video lessons
Priority topic: Using creative media	Priority topic: Computing systems and networks	Priority topic: Programming
Why is this a priority?: This is a chance for learners to develop digital skills that they can use across the curriculum.	Why is this a priority?: To recognise the role of programming, a fundamental understanding of how computers work and the impact they have is needed.	Why is this a priority?: This ensures that learners understand algorithms, how to implement them as code, and that the main constructs (and variables) have been introduced.

Secondary education - key stage 3

All units are available as video lessons from Oak National Academy in addition to teachcomputing.org.

Only the ‘Programming’ and ‘Data representation’ units need to be taught in order, eg, ‘Y7 Data representation – from clay to silicon’ should be taught before ‘Y9 Representations – going audiovisual’. Other units, particularly those for digital literacy, can be taught in any order within KS3.

Table 2: Secondary education KS3

Meeting schools’ digital literacy needs	Our recommendations to ensure a thorough grounding in key computer science subject knowledge	Our recommendations to ensure a thorough grounding in programming
Y7 Impact of technology: Collaborating online respectfully Oak video lessons	Y8 Computing systems Oak video lessons	Y7 Programming essentials in Scratch part 1 and part 2 Oak video lessons part 1 and part 2
Y7 Using media – Gaining support for a cause Oak video lessons	Y7 Data representation: from clay to silicon Oak video lessons	Y8 Introduction to Python programming Oak video lessons
Y7 Modelling data – Spreadsheets Oak video lessons	Y9 Representations: going audiovisual Oak video lessons	Y9 Python programming with sequences of data Oak video lessons
Why is this a priority?: These units include core skills/knowledge that learners need as an introduction/foundation and include transferable skills for later on.	Why is this a priority?: Having knowledge of and exposure to these topics provides a strong basis for learners to take forward and gives them enough confidence to select GCSE computer science as an option.	Why is this a priority?: These units provide a grounding in key programming knowledge (sequence, selection, repetition, variables, subroutines, etc) and exposure to text-based programming languages.

GCSE computer science - key stage 4

All units are available as video lessons from Oak National Academy in addition to being accessible from teachcomputing.org.

Table 3: GCSE computer science

Our recommendations to ensure a thorough grounding in key computer science subject knowledge	Our recommendations to ensure a thorough grounding in programming
Impacts of technology Oak video lessons	Algorithms part 1 and part 2 Oak video lessons
Computer systems Oak video lessons	Data representations Oak video lessons
-	Programming:part 1 Programming:part 2 Programming:part 3 Programming:part 4 Programming:part 5 Programming:part 6 Oak video lessons
Why is this a priority?: Exam questions relating to the impacts of technology are generally extended-answer, high-stakes questions. Computer systems can feature heavily in the exam in both the multiple-choice, short-answer questions and the extended-answer format.	Why is this a priority?: These units ensure learners are prepared for the practical aspects of the exam.

A level computer science - key stage 5

All materials are available on Isaac Computer Science.

Table 4: Isaac Computer Science A level topics

Topics to bring a Year 12 group up to speed	Topics to encourage a Year 13 group before summer assessments
Programming: Procedural programming Programming concepts String handling Subroutines File handling	-
Theory: Architecture Operating systems Software Representation of text Representation of images Representation of sound	Theory: Data structures Searching algorithms Sorting algorithms Complexity Representation of numbers Databases High- and low-level languages
Why is this a priority?: Teachers at our latest subject practitioner panel identified programming basics as a key area their learners needed help with. The theory topics we have chosen are ones that are theory-heavy and thus harder to teach remotely.	Why is this a priority?: These topics are ones we consider to be difficult topics and are ones that often come up in exams.