Cover Lessons
Cover lesson ideas linking to the DCF, for a range of subjects, both offline and digital.
Phishing Email Analysis
DCF: Citizenship → Online behaviour and online bullying
Pupils highlight the warning signs in three printed fake emails and one genuine one, then complete a drill on reading the domain after the @ rather than trusting the sender's display name. They finish by writing a report to the school IT helpdesk.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Phishing Email Analysis
- Stimulus: four printed emails, three of them fake
- Highlighters (one between two)
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Highlighters
Software / weblinks
Safe Social Media Scenarios
DCF: Citizenship → Online behaviour and online bullying
Pupils work through six invented scenarios and decide the order of the five moves: screenshot the evidence, do not retaliate, report in the app, tell a trusted adult, block. They then write a five-line advice card a Year 7 pupil could actually follow.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Safe Social Media Scenarios
- Stimulus: six social media scenario cards
- Scissors, if you want to cut the scenario cards up (one pair per group)
Tools required
- Pen and paper
Software / weblinks
Editing a Shared Document about a Gurdwara Visit
DCF: Interacting and collaborating → Collaboration
Pupils sort out a group of Year 8 pupils writing a report of a gurdwara visit in one shared online document, printed so no computers are needed. They judge 3 comments and a suggested change for whether they are kind, specific and useful, read the version history to find who deleted whose work, and write roles and ground rules for working together. They then proofread the draft for 12 errors, correct a wrong fact about the langar and a disrespectful phrase about head covering, and reorder the paragraphs. Finally, they rewrite the langar paragraph for the school website, explaining langar and seva accurately and respectfully, and proofread their own version.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Editing a Shared Document about a Gurdwara Visit
- Stimulus: a printed shared draft of a report on a gurdwara visit, with comments, a suggested change, version history and a fact check box
- Worked example and answer key: comment judgements and rewrites, version history answers, roles and ground rules, all 12 errors with corrections, the paragraph order, a model langar paragraph and finish-early answers
- Coloured pencils: red, blue, green and orange (one set per pupil)
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Coloured pencils
Software / weblinks
The Golden Rule Online
DCF: Citizenship → Online behaviour and online bullying
Pupils compare how Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Humanism word the Golden Rule, then test six invented online situations against it and choose one realistic action for each. They rewrite three unkind messages, argue whether the Golden Rule is enough to behave well online, and write a four-rule class charter.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: The Golden Rule Online
- Worked example: the six situations tested, rewrites and a class charter
- Stimulus: the Golden Rule in seven traditions and six online situations
Tools required
- Pen and paper
Software / weblinks
Data Visualisation: Climate Change Trends
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy
Pupils turn a real NASA and NOAA climate dataset covering 1990 to 2023 into a properly labelled chart, on graph paper or in a spreadsheet. They then write an interpretation that quotes the values, works out the change per decade and identifies the one anomalous year.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Data Visualisation: Climate Change Trends
- Stimulus dataset: global climate indicators 1990-2023 (CSV)
- Graph paper, one sheet per pupil
- Ruler and sharp pencil
Tools required
- Computer/Laptop
Software / weblinks
Modelling a Bike Ride with Speed Formulae
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Problem-solving and modelling
Pupils plan an invented 30 km sponsored bike ride along a Welsh cycle path by designing a spreadsheet model on paper, with column headings, units and cell formulae, and running it to predict the total time and arrival time. They test the model against a practice ride's distance-time graph, find and fix two errors in a classmate's formulae, and change inputs for a headwind and a rest stop to decide whether the group will catch the minibus. Along the way they write the speed formula in symbols, rearrange it for distance and time, translate it into spreadsheet notation and convert between hours, minutes, km/h and m/s. No practical work.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Modelling a Bike Ride with Speed Formulae
- Stimulus: Cwm Gwyn ride plan, practice ride distance-time graph and Elis's faulty spreadsheet
- Worked example and answer key: annotated model response with every calculation and formula
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
- Computer/Laptop (optional)
Software / weblinks
Storyboarding a Video on Photosynthesis
DCF: Producing → Creating digital content
Pupils plan a 60 to 90 second explainer video on photosynthesis for Year 6 pupils at an invented primary school, entirely on paper. They check the science, then correct the spelling, misused scientific words and grammar in an invented Year 8 pupil's weak storyboard and spot its design, copyright and timing problems. They complete a 6-frame storyboard with sketches, shot types, narration and captions, and work out its length from word counts at 2.5 words per second. They plan closed captions, colour contrast and legally sourced, credited images, and write a 5-term glossary in their own words.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Storyboarding a Video on Photosynthesis
- Stimulus: Making a photosynthesis video (brief, fact sheet, word bank, Gethin's first storyboard and video design guidance)
- Worked example and answer key: science answers, all 12 corrections, timing calculations, model 6-frame storyboard, accessibility plan and glossary
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Coloured pencils
Software / weblinks
Texting in Welsh
DCF: Interacting and collaborating → Communication
Mae disgyblion yn darllen sgwrs grŵp Gymraeg am drefnu mynd i nofio, yn cysylltu iaith tecstio â'r Saesneg a'r ffurf lawn, yn ateb cwestiynau, ac yn sylwi ar bedair neges sy'n gweiddi, yn gas neu'n rhannu gormod. Pupils then write four replies to the group in Welsh and rewrite a text-speak message to the leisure centre politely, using chi instead of ti.
Resources required
- Taflen waith / Pupil worksheet: Tecstio yn Gymraeg
- Enghraifft a'r atebion / Worked example: full answer key with an English translation of the group chat
Tools required
- Pen and paper
Software / weblinks
Writing Welsh Rules for Online Comments
DCF: Citizenship → Online behaviour and online bullying
Mae disgyblion yn darllen sylwadau Cymraeg o dan fideo côr yr ysgol, yn sylwi ar sylwadau cas a pheryglus ac yn ysgrifennu rheolau ar gyfer sylwadau gyda rheswm i bob un. Pupils sort ten invented comments under the Year 8 choir video (an anonymous nasty comment, someone agreeing with it, a pupil's address, a spam link from a hacked account, shouting), explain in English what a good bystander does online and offline, and join Welsh sentences with achos, felly, ond and os. They write six commenting rules in Welsh using Paid â, Rhaid i ni and Dylen ni, each with a reason, and a partner checks the connectives.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Writing Welsh Rules for Online Comments
- Stimulus: the invented comments under the Year 8 choir video, with translations, patterns and connectives
- Enghraifft / Worked example: answer key, joined sentences and six model rules with translation
Tools required
- Pen and paper
Software / weblinks
Charting Visitor Feedback for an Online Exhibition
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy
Pupils handle the raw feedback from an invented online exhibition of Year 9 landscape work at Oriel Glan-y-Môr, a small west Wales gallery. They find and remove repeated submissions, leaving 36 genuine responses, tally them, then draw a bar chart of star ratings and a pie chart of how visitors found the exhibition, with every angle worked out. They find the mean, median and mode, redraw a misleading chart the gallery posted on social media, judge how far a self-selected online form with a leading question can be trusted, and advise the gallery on where to advertise next time.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Charting Visitor Feedback for an Online Exhibition
- Stimulus: Oriel Glan-y-Môr online exhibition feedback, 40 form submissions and the gallery's social media post
- Worked example and model answers: cleaned data, both charts with angles, averages, fair redraw and advice
- Protractors, one per pupil
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Ruler
- Protractor
- Calculator
- Coloured pencils
Software / weblinks
Tracing an Artwork's Source
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Starting from a cropped, mis-captioned copy of Vosper's Salem, pupils plan a staged search, judge seven search results (museum, library, Wikipedia, print shop, social post, chatbot, reverse image search) and settle where they disagree about date, medium and location. They finish with a complete source record, including object number and the date the painting's copyright ended.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Tracing an Artwork's Source
- Stimulus: one picture, seven search results
- Highlighters (one per pair)
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Highlighters
Software / weblinks
Cracking a Caesar Cipher with Letter Frequencies
DCF: Interacting and collaborating → Storing and sharing
Pupils find out what encryption is for and whether a weak cipher keeps shared data safe. They encrypt and decrypt with a Caesar cipher, including letters that wrap round from Z to A, see why a key sent with the message is useless and crack a short message by brute force. They then tally the letters of an intercepted message from an invented Conwy code club, turn the counts into percentages, draw a bar chart and compare it with the letter frequencies of normal English to find the key and decrypt it. They work out how long a computer would take to try every Caesar key, every 8-letter password and every 128-bit AES key, decide which kinds of school data must be encrypted before they are stored or sent, and explain what the https padlock does and does not tell you. No computers needed.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Cracking a Caesar Cipher with Letter Frequencies
- Stimulus: Clwb Codio Conwy intercepted message (alphabet strip, the ciphertext and a chart of English letter frequencies)
- Calculators and rulers
- Worked example and answer key: every encryption, the letter counts and percentages, the key, the decrypted message and model answers on when to encrypt
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
- Ruler
Software / weblinks
Structuring a Database
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Problem-solving and modelling
Given a real, messy single-sheet record of school Chromebook loans, pupils diagnose four problems it causes and redesign it as related tables. They name every field, choose the narrowest data type, pick a primary key that never changes, link the tables with foreign keys and test the design against the questions the school office actually asks.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Structuring a Database
- Stimulus: the school device loan list, with data types reference
Tools required
- Pen and paper
Software / weblinks
- Microsoft Access or LibreOffice Base
- Isaac Computer Science - databases
- DB Browser for SQLite - free, no account, runs from a school machine
- SQLite datatypes reference
Choosing Materials with a Weighted Matrix
DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy
Pupils choose a material for 20 school nest boxes by turning prices into scores and completing a weighted matrix for six materials, from pine to acrylic. They test the result by changing a weight, discover that a total can hide a fatal flaw such as MDF in a wet Welsh winter, write a must-have rule and a budget check, and finish with a costed recommendation to the eco-committee.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Choosing Materials with a Weighted Matrix
- Stimulus: nest box materials - the brief, six materials, scores and weights
- Stimulus: nest box material scores (spreadsheet data)
- Calculators, one between two
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Calculator
- Computer/Laptop (optional)
Software / weblinks
- Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets
- Microsoft Support - SUMPRODUCT function, for weighted totals
- RSPB - How to build a nestbox
- Keep Wales Tidy - Eco-Schools in Wales
Emailing a Supplier for a Quote
DCF: Interacting and collaborating → Communication
Pupils write the email that asks Pren a Plastig, an invented Bangor supplier, for a quote for the pine and acrylic for 30 phone stands. They judge 2 badly written first attempts against a 10-point email checklist covering the right recipient, To and Cc, the subject line, attachment names and personal data, then plan for purpose, audience and context and write a formal email of 150 to 220 words with every quantity and size. They finish by replying to the supplier's offer of a substitute material and checking the email before it would be sent. No email is actually sent.
Resources required
- Pupil worksheet: Emailing a Supplier for a Quote
- Stimulus: phone stand project supplier quote pack (contact page, cutting list, teacher's notes, 2 first attempts and the supplier's reply)
- Worked example and model answers: checklist judgements, plan, model email and model reply
Tools required
- Pen and paper
- Highlighters