Cover Lessons
Cover lesson ideas linking to the DCF, for a range of subjects, both offline and digital.
Cleansing and Analysing a Client Data Set
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy
GCSE Digital Technology Unit 2: Digital Practices, Sections 2.1.1 Cleansing and organising data and 2.1.2 Data analytics, practised on an invented community cinema survey, not the WJEC client brief (practice only, not NEA work). Pupils log 13 problems in a hand-typed data set against the client's rules (a duplicate, an impossible age, misspellings, non-standard times, prices stored as text, a missing value), write Data Validation rules, use COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, AVERAGE and AVERAGEIF to find what 11 to 18 year olds want, show how the dirty data gives a false mean age, sketch a justified chart, and turn their findings into measurable success criteria for a website.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Cleansing and Analysing a Client Data Set
- Stimulus: Sinema'r Neuadd client brief, data rules and raw survey data
- Stimulus: Sinema'r Neuadd raw survey data (CSV)
- Worked example and answer key: cleansing log, validation rules, formulas and results, chart and success criteria
- Calculators and highlighters
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
- Highlighters
- Ruler
- Computer/Laptop (optional)
Software / weblinks
Writing Campaign Copy for Two Audiences
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
A literacy lesson in GCSE Digital Technology on writing for a target audience and purpose, the writing in Unit 3, Sections 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 (a digital marketing campaign document and copy for a marketing video). Practice only with an invented client, not NEA work. Pupils read an invented bike hire centre's brief and customer survey, compare a formal post with a well-targeted one, and plan hook, tone, details and call to action for families and for young riders. They write an 80-word platform recommendation organised as recommendation, evidence, reason and next step, write a 30-second video script for families, adapt it for young riders, explain their changes and proofread against the brief.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Writing Campaign Copy for Two Audiences
- Stimulus: Beics y Bont campaign brief (two audiences, customer survey, customer comments, two posts and features of audience writing)
- Worked example: analysis grid, plans, model recommendation and two model video scripts
Tools required
- Pen and paper
Software / weblinks
Reviewing a Streamed Performance
DCF: Producing → Evaluating and improving digital content
Pupils evaluate the live stream of a bilingual play from a printed dossier: a camera log, viewer figures, an audience survey, the live chat and three reviews. They build an evidence grid, test a director's claim against the data, write a 200 to 250 word exam-style review of the key scene comparing the audience at home with the audience in the theatre, and produce a three-point improvement plan with a measure for each fix.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Reviewing a Streamed Performance
- Stimulus: Llanw live stream dossier (camera log, viewer data, survey, chat and reviews)
- Stimulus: Llanw viewer figures (CSV)
- Worked example and answer key: evidence grid, data answers, model review and improvement plan
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
Software / weblinks
Sound Design for an Unseen Extract
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Exam practice for GCSE Drama Unit 3: Interpreting Theatre, content 3.1.3, analysing how a designer communicates meaning through sound in an unprepared extract. Pupils read an invented extract set in a mountain rescue base during a storm, judge a library of 10 sound clips on quality, file type, fit and licence (Creative Commons, the BBC RemArc licence, streaming terms, an AI-generated clip), and plan a layered sound cue sheet with a planned silence, underscore and speaker positions, working out how many times each loop must play. They write a 200 to 250 word exam-style answer as a sound designer and credit every clip for the programme.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Sound Design for an Unseen Extract
- Stimulus: Tawelwch extract and sound library (unseen extract, 10 clips, file and licence notes, glossary)
- Worked example and answer key: clip decisions, sound cue sheet, loop working, model answer and credits
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
Software / weblinks
Persuasive Language in Online Adverts
DCF: Producing → Evaluating and improving digital content
Pupils analyse three printed online adverts (an influencer post, a revision-app pop-up and an adventure-park banner), naming persuasive techniques and their effect on the target reader. They check eight claims against real extracts from the UK advertising code, write a 200 to 250 word analytical paragraph judging whether the pop-up's persuasion is fair, and rewrite it in 80 words or fewer so that it is honest but still persuasive.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Persuasive Language in Online Adverts
- Stimulus: three online adverts, checked facts and CAP Code extracts
- Worked example and answer key: techniques, claims verdicts, model paragraph and honest rewrite
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Highlighters
Software / weblinks
Researching a Talk with Reliable Sources
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Pupils research a practice talk on belonging in an invented valleys town from a printed search results page and six sources: a sponsored advert, a research report, a local news story, a forum thread, a youth worker's video and a clickbait blog. They write refined searches using phrases, OR, minus, site: and filetype:, score every source's reliability with evidence, test three claims against the survey data, rewrite their own conclusion, reference three sources with the sentences they would say aloud, and plan a 4 to 6 minute talk on one side of bullet points. Practises the individually researched oral presentation in GCSE English Language and Literature: Unit 2: Belonging, Task B for pupils who began in September 2025, and Unit 5 Task B (Double Award) for later cohorts. Practice only, not NEA work.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Researching a Talk with Reliable Sources
- Stimulus: Stay or go? A research pack on belonging in Aberderwen (search results page and six sources)
- Worked example and answer key: searches, reliability grid, claim checks, references and notes
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
- Highlighters
Software / weblinks
- WJEC: GCSE English Language and Literature (Double and Single Award), Made for Wales, teaching from 2025
- WJEC: frequently asked questions for the 2026 Year 10 cohort, including the individually researched presentation and the validity of sources
- Google Search Help: Refine Google searches
- Hwb: Digital Competence Framework
Analysing a Food Investigation: Cornflour Sauce
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy
Practises GCSE Food and Nutrition Unit 2: Food Investigation, 2.3.2 Collecting, analysing and presenting results and 2.3.3 Reflection and evaluation, with the starch science of gelatinisation from 2.1.3, using an invented pupil's investigation (practice only, not NEA work). From line spread results and a taste panel for sauces made with 5 g to 20 g of cornflour, pupils calculate means, find and justify an anomaly, draw a bar chart and a star diagram, judge each part of the hypothesis using rank totals and figures, rewrite the hypothesis, and evaluate the validity and reliability of the method.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Analysing a Food Investigation: Cornflour Sauce
- Stimulus: Cornflour sauce investigation results pack (method, line spread results and taste panel)
- Stimulus: Cornflour sauce taste panel scores and rankings (CSV)
- Worked example and answer key: means, anomaly, bar chart, star diagram, conclusion and evaluation
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
- Ruler
- Coloured pencils
- Computer/Laptop (optional)
Software / weblinks
A French Summer Job and Your Online Reputation
DCF: Citizenship → Identity, image and reputation
GCSE French Unit 4 Reading and Writing exam practice, language for study and work. Pupils read a French campsite's summer job advert, which warns that it checks candidates' public social media, and answer exam-style questions in English. They judge three candidates' public posts in French, quoting evidence for what helps and harms each one and spotting a post that is a safety risk, and link the advert to the real French employment law on recruitment. They translate five sentences, write a formal 100 to 150 word application in French using three time frames, and plan how to build a positive online reputation for employment.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: A French Summer Job and Your Online Reputation
- Stimulus: Camping Les Dunes job advert, three candidates' public profiles and the law on recruitment
- Worked example and answer key: advert answers, candidate grid, translations, model application and reputation plan
- Highlighters, two colours per pupil
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Highlighters
Software / weblinks
Flood Risk Decision Modelling
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Problem-solving and modelling
Pupils build an expected-annual-damage model for a Welsh town's three flood zones, run it for four flood-defence options and compare them with 50-year benefit-cost ratios against a fixed budget. They add a weighted multi-criteria matrix for three stakeholders, test the recommendation against a doubled-flood-risk scenario, and evaluate which assumptions in the model bias the result.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Flood Risk Decision Modelling
- Stimulus: Pont-rhaf flood options briefing with map, zones, options and stakeholder weights
- Stimulus dataset: Pont-rhaf flood model inputs for the spreadsheet route (CSV)
- Scientific calculator for each pupil
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
Software / weblinks
Judging Sources for a Sustainable Decision
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Pupils research an invented mid Wales town's choice between a solar farm, a home retrofit scheme and waiting. They explain why a sponsored result and emotional posts outrank the planning officer's report, rate six sources for reliability, bias and vested interest, and check the developer's '12,000 homes' and '150 jobs' claims and a campaign poll against the official figures. They then write a consistent resource list, complete a sustainability impact assessment across the economic, social and environmental pillars, and justify a decision using only evidence they trust. Practises the skills for GCSE Geography Unit 4: Sustainable Solutions, 4.2.2 Using evidence to identify issues and 4.2.5 Sustainability impact assessment. Practice only, not NEA work.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Judging Sources for a Sustainable Decision
- Stimulus: Llanrhedyn energy decision (search results page and six sources)
- Worked example and answer key: search, reliability grid, number checks, resource list and sustainability impact assessment
- Calculators
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
Software / weblinks
Solving a German Rail Disruption with a Flowchart
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Problem-solving and modelling
GCSE German Unit 4 Reading and Writing and Unit 1 Oracy skills practice (not NEA work), language for travel. On a school exchange, pupils' train from Frankfurt to Freiburg is cancelled. They read a German departures board, ticket, timetable and message, and work out real departure and arrival times for five options. They design a flowchart with inputs, a process, decisions, a loop and an output that any traveller could follow, run it, then run it again when a station announcement changes the input, finding and fixing a hidden error. They finish by writing a German message to the host father with past, present and future verbs and scripting a role play at the station information desk.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Solving a German Rail Disruption with a Flowchart
- Stimulus: Frankfurt to Freiburg rail disruption dossier (ticket, departures board, timetable, message and rules)
- Worked example and answer key: options table, model flowchart, re-run after the announcement, German message and role play
- Rulers
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Ruler
Software / weblinks
Judging Sources for a Childcare Investigation
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Practice for the research skills behind the GCSE Health and Social Care, and Childcare Unit 3 investigation, using an invented question and town so it is never NEA work. Pupils investigate how well play provision in fictional Glanafon meets the needs of disabled children (Unit 3, section 3.3.1: access to play services, barriers and inclusion). From a printed search results pack they plan sub-questions, write searches with operators, rate six sources for reliability, test an AI overview against the council's original figures, reference their best sources and write a cited 150 to 200 word judgement for AO3.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Judging Sources for a Childcare Investigation
- Stimulus: Glanafon play research pack (search results and six sources)
- Worked example and answer key: searches, reliability grid, AI check, references and model judgement
- Printed research pack, one between two
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
- Highlighters
Software / weblinks
Fact-Checking Historical Claims
DCF: Producing → Evaluating and improving digital content
Pupils check six circulating claims about the Aberfan disaster of 1966 against the government inquiry summary, the British Geological Survey and legislation.gov.uk, recording a traceable verdict for each in a verification log. They then write a sourced correction note for the most damaging claim.
Resources required
Tools required
- Computer/Laptop
Software / weblinks
Planning an On-screen History Enquiry
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Pupils work through the five enquiry stages of an on-screen historical enquiry using printed practice screens on the Great Strike of Penrhyn, 1900 to 1903: a hypothesis and a 3-hour time plan, a provenance grid for two sources and two interpretations, a paragraph plan with item codes and on-screen working habits, one developed paragraph, and a critical reflection. Practises the method of GCSE History Unit 2: An in-depth study on European and/or World history, which is completed on WJEC's e-assessment platform. Penrhyn is not a Unit 2 option and three of the four items are clearly marked as invented, so this is practice only, not NEA work.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Planning an On-screen History Enquiry
- Stimulus: The Great Strike of Penrhyn, practice enquiry screens (question, narrative, timeline and four items)
- Worked example: hypothesis, time plan, item grid, paragraph plan, model paragraph and reflection
Tools required
- Pen and paper
Software / weblinks
Checking a Climate Claim with Carbon Footprints
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
For GCSE Integrated Science (Single Award), Unit 2: Science in a Changing World, 2.1.2 Carbon in our climate: pupils trace a viral claim that one cow harms the climate more than a car back to the farm data behind it. They calculate carbon footprints in kgCO2eq using Global Warming Potential, score seven sources for reliability, plan searches with quotation marks, site: and a minus sign, reference a source in full and write a referenced verdict on whether the claim is over-simplified.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Checking a Climate Claim with Carbon Footprints
- Worked example: calculations, reliability grid, searches, references and verdict
- Stimulus: The cow and the car, a source folder on one climate claim
- Calculator and highlighter for each pupil
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
- Highlighters