AQA GCSE Computer Science 8525 – AQ1.38 Programming practice: robust code – Lesson & Worksheet

Bespoke, fully editable lesson for AQA GCSE Computer Science (8525): AQ1.38 Programming practice: robust code. Slides, worksheet and full answers.

Written for Paper 1 Computational thinking and programming skills, section 3.2 Programming (spec 3.2.11.1, 3.2.11.2, 3.2.11.6). Everything is editable, so you can adapt it to your class.

What’s included

• PowerPoint lesson (13 slides) with teacher notes on every slide
• Student worksheet (Word), ready to print or edit
• Answer sheet (Word) with mark-scheme style answers for every question

AQ1.38 Programming practice: robust code

By the end of the lesson students can:

• Build a program that authenticates its user and validates every input
• Write a reusable validation subroutine with parameters
• Choose and justify test data for the finished program in a test plan

Worksheet sections: A. Robust code; B. Complete and trace; C. Test plan; D. Exam-style questions; E. Challenge

Every lesson includes

• Learning goals and a starter question
• Clear explanations, diagrams and worked examples (Python 3 throughout, with AQA pseudo-code alongside so students can read exam algorithms)
• A quick check and a “your turn” task linked to the worksheet
• Exam-style questions with marks, and an exit ticket

Format

• PowerPoint (.pptx) and Word (.docx), fully editable
• Works in PowerPoint and Google Slides
• Bright, clear GCSE design, consistent across the whole course

These are independent resources written for the AQA GCSE Computer Science specification (8525, version 1.3), for exams from 2027. They are not produced or endorsed by AQA. Spec point numbers are our own numbering of the specification statements.