Skills you learn from Computer Science (Year 11)

Computer Science builds a distinctive set of skills - computational thinking, building and iterating, working with data, systems thinking, and weighing the consequences of technical decisions. This lesson plan will help you to show Year 11 students the skills they've built and which subjects build the same ones.

This lesson is designed to be delivered in 30 minutes as a teacher-led classroom activity.

This activity supports the following frameworks:

  • Gatsby Benchmark 4

This activity is suitable for Year 11 and features careers linked to the following subjects:

  • Computer Science

This is one of three lesson plans designed for Year 11 Computer Science teachers:

These lesson plans will help you show students how Computer Science connects to their future careers.

We recommend using this lesson plan at the end of the autumn term. By this point Year 11 students have over a year of GCSE Computer Science behind them and are beginning to weigh post-16 options. Recognising the skills they've built - and seeing where the same skills are developed in other subjects - helps them choose a complementary set of A-Levels, T-Levels, or training routes.

Learning objectives

  • Students will name specific skills they've built through GCSE Computer Science, with examples.
  • Students will recognise other subjects that build the same skills.
  • Students will consider how that shapes their post-16 choices.

Before the lesson

  • You will need a computer connected to the internet and a classroom screen.
  • Open the What can you do with Computer Science? page and have it ready on the screen.
  • Review the Skills that Computer Science builds section and think of recent teaching examples for each one.

During the lesson

1. What have we studied over GCSE? (5 mins)

  • Ask students to call out topics, programming projects, or theory they've covered in GCSE Computer Science.
  • Write the suggestions on the board and highlight any patterns.

2. Skills that Computer Science builds (15 mins)

  • Bring up the What can you do with Computer Science? page on the classroom screen.
  • Review the contents of the page with students so that they understand what it covers.
  • Scroll to the Skills that Computer Science builds section and work through each skill in turn.
    • Ask students which topic, project, or piece of theory involved that skill.
    • Share your own teaching examples if students are stuck.

3. The same skills in other subjects (10 mins)

  • Ask students to think about where else they've built these same skills.
    • Which other subjects involve breaking complex problems down?
    • Which involve working with data or evidence?
    • Which involve thinking about how systems connect?
  • Go round the class, asking each student to name one skill and one other subject they've built it in.
  • Close by reminding students that choosing a good set of post-16 subjects isn't just about which ones they enjoy - it's about which ones compound the skills they want to take into work or further study.

After the lesson