Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Computing
ComputingIT skills20 min★★ difficulty

Files, folders and good emails

Being organised on a computer, and writing clear, polite emails, are skills you'll use at school, at work and for the rest of your life.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Creativity and digital literacy: Understand the opportunities computer networks offer for communication and collaboration

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand the opportunities computer networks offer for communication and collaboration

Key learning points

  • • Folders that make sense
  • • Clear file names
  • • A good email
  • • Attachments and CC

This lesson at a glance

  • 20 minutes
  • 18 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

opportunitiescomputernetworkscommunicationcollaboration

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 18 · Intro6%
1

Introduction

Part 1 of 18

Files, folders and good emails illustrationVisual introduction

Picture this

Files, folders and good emails

Being organised on a computer, and writing clear, polite emails, are skills you'll use at school, at work and for the rest of your life.

In a nutshell

Understand the opportunities computer networks offer for communication and collaboration

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 18

Before we start

What you already know

You've saved a document before.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 18

Key words

Words you'll need today

file
A single saved item, like an essay or a photo.
folder
A container that groups files together.
file extension
The ending that shows a file type, like .docx, .jpg or .pdf.
CC
Sends a copy of an email to someone who needs to know but doesn't need to reply.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 18

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1: Staying organised

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 18

Learn

Folders that make sense

Make a folder per subject, then one per topic. For example: History > Industrial Revolution. You should be able to find anything in under 30 seconds.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 18

Learn

Clear file names

'History - mills essay - draft 2' beats 'Document1'. Back up important work in the cloud or on a second device so one broken laptop doesn't lose it.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 18

Quick check

Which is the best file name?

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 18

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
9

Quick check

Part 9 of 18

Quick check

What does .pdf show?

10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 18

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2: Writing emails

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 18

Learn

A good email

Write a clear subject line. Start with a greeting ('Dear Ms Patel' or 'Hi Gran'), keep it short, and say what you need. Sign off with your name. Check it before pressing send.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 18

Learn

Attachments and CC

Attach files with the paperclip and mention them in the message. Use CC for people who just need to know. Never forward a message without thinking about the sender's privacy.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 18

Quick check

What should an email to a teacher start with?

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 18

Quick check

CC is for people who:

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 18

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Saving to the desktop isn't a backup. If the computer breaks, it's gone.
  • An email to a teacher shouldn't look like a text to a friend.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 18

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Mastery quiz

Part 17 of 18

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Files, folders and good emails

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Why back up work?

  2. 2. A useful folder structure is:

  3. 3. If you attach a file, you should:

18

Lesson round-up

Part 18 of 18

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

How a supermarket checkout knows the price

When a barcode is scanned, the checkout does not store the price itself. It sends the barcode number to a database and reads back a record: product name, price, whether it needs an age check. The record is the single place the price lives, so changing one row changes every till in the shop at once.

Problems come from bad data, not bad scanners. If two products share a barcode, or a price update reaches the shop overnight but the till holds an old copy in its cache, customers are charged the wrong amount. Shops check this with test transactions: scan a known item, expect a known price, record what actually happened.

Good systems also log every scan. If a customer complains, the log shows exactly which record was used and when.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Write in your own words what the checkout sends and what it receives back.
  2. Explain one way bad data could cause a wrong price, and how logging helps find it.
  3. Design a test table with four tests for a new checkout, with expected and actual results.

  • Reading and notes

    Reading

    Read the lesson text again and note the key terms and how each one is used, in your own words — as you would for revision.

    Half a page of notes

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Explain a real system that uses this idea — how it works, where it can go wrong, and how you would make it safer or better.

    250–350 words

  • Algorithm on paper

    Diagram

    Write your steps out as pseudocode or a flowchart before you type anything, then photograph it.

    1 flowchart or 10 lines

  • Code write-up

    Writing

    Copy your code in, then explain underneath what each part does and what you had to fix.

    Code + 5 sentences

  • Test table

    Working out

    Make a test table: what you tried, what you expected, what actually happened.

    4–6 tests

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 18 · Introduction

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand the opportunities computer networks offer for communication and collaboration

Good Learning Co. — personalised UK curriculum learning, built around what each learner loves.