Resources4Learning.org : GCSE Computer Science
Programming
Welcome to the programming section.
This page is a growing collection of resources and materials to help you get to grips with computer programming . . . . .
We're still preparing some great stuff to go in here, tackling a range of programming paradigms, including working with JavaScript and Python. In the meantime, please take a look at some of the excellent resources available on some of the slites below. Remember we only recommend stuff we'd use with our own students.
HTML
If you've never used HTML before, you might like to pop into our KS3 section, and spend a few sessions getting to grips with our introduction to HTML (now with a dash of JavaScript). If your practical work includes anything Web-based, you'll be doing yourself a big favour! (Apart from which, making Web sites properly, using raw code, is fun.)
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Mr Fraser.org
Mr Fraser is a teacher of Computing whose site has been a useful resource to us for a long time; a handy "go to" for times when six students in a class want help on different topics and there's only one teacher in the room! Take a dig around - his Programming Resources page has a load of further links which you will find handy for programming hints and tips. You'd be mad not to visit and get some good stuff to learn from.
Oh - and his site's got a fab Python programming IDLE waiting to be used.
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Python
W3Schools' Python tutorial is an excellent place to look up Python coding reminders and ideas - complete with neat interactive "try it yourself" links to help make sense of the nitty-gritty details. Definietly one of the places we point our students to!
Their sections on other coding languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL ...) are equally good. an excellent resource at your fingertips while you study or work on that practical.
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Python for GCSE Computer Science
LeartICT.it's Python tutorial is an is another great place to pick up some lessons in Python coding.
Cool, manageable chunks of learning. Could be the site you've been wanting.
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W3schools - an excellent programming site
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W3Schools is an excellent learning site, with clear explanations of every command and function in many mark-up, scripting, coding and query languages. HTML and CSS, JavaScript, Python and SQL are all covered very thoroughly.
Each language is covered command-by-command, most with "try it yourself" examples.
For the really adventurous among you, this site also covers PHP, Java and C++. With piles of great examples and exercises, this is one of our favourite sites to refer students to. ^nbsp;Pretty much everything you could possibly need for the programming part of your GCSE, provided you read it all and get it all under your belt! check it out now (you'd be foolish not to!).
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A few gems from our teaching materials
This is a new section to this page; keep your eye on it; it may just grow!
Compilers and Interpreters
Here's our brief outline of the differences between Compilers and Interpreters with a brief nod to the idea of an IDE (more about them later!). The header links it to the OCR spec.; it's relevant to any GCSE course.
Some Python Challenges
OK, here are a few Python challenges that will (or should!) get you working with lists (nearest thing Python has to arrays), conditionals, sorting ... Actually a whole bunch of stuff you're likely to need in the exam! Some Python Challenges (actually, these can be done in other languages if you're not working in Python). Have fun, and remember to test your code with valid, boundary, out-of-range, and invalid data!
Other places online
Over at the BBC ...
There's some useful reading matter over on the BBC's Bitesize site - with approaches to programming specific to each exam board (actually, for the three English boards, there seems to be little difference in this section beyond the page titles). This is quite reasonable really - programming is programming, after all! The section for WJEC/Eduqas (the Welsh board) has a slightly different layout, and may help you to understand - it's just as relevant, whichever board you are studying for. For the sake of completeness, we've put links to all four sections below (after all, what's a few extra lines of HTML code between friends?).
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Stay tuned and keep coming back - there will be more in this section soon.
We're all in this together.