Learning to code with blocks at primary school: what the curriculum asks for

The big ideas

• Sequences: a program is a list of steps that run in order (Years 2 and 3).
• Repetition: repeat and forever loops, and why a loop needs a way to stop (Years 3 and 4).
• Events: scripts that start when something happens, such as a key press (Years 3 and 4).
• Variables: remembering a score or a count (Years 4 and 5).
• Selection: if and if-else, so a program can react (Years 5 and 6).
• Putting it together in a small game (Years 5 and 6).

Thinking like a computer

Alongside coding, children learn computational thinking: following and writing precise instructions, finding patterns, breaking a problem into parts and reasoning about simple codes and logic. These skills show up in puzzle competitions and later in secondary computing.

Practising without building everything

Reading a script and predicting what it does is a skill in its own right, and it needs no software. PrepAcer's Code Quest shows pictures of block scripts and asks what happens, with a short explanation of why. Each unit ends with a small project to build in Scratch (free, from the Scratch Foundation) and a checklist to tick. In Years 2 and 3 the questions follow a story about Robo, a lost robot finding his way home. PrepAcer is not affiliated with Scratch, MIT or Bebras.