Scheme of work: your first year of Wiz Kids, term by term

What this is: the practical companion to the one-hour-a-week page — a term-by-term plan for a first year, written to be printed, adapted, and scribbled on. It assumes an Australian four-term year and a weekly hour; compress or stretch to fit. It deliberately plans rhythms and checkpoints rather than lockstep weekly content, because children will be at different rungs by week three and the plan should expect that, not fight it.

Before week 1 (one afternoon)

Create the class, print the roster slips (animal names and picture-secrets — no student data entry), check the machines (keyboards required; Chromebooks are perfect), and book the recurring slot — the protected hour is the whole model, so put it on the timetable by name.

Term 1 — launch and placement (the spread reveals itself)

Weeks 1–2: first logins (budget a whole session for the ritual of it), the cockpit check, free exploration of the opening realm. Install the two class norms early: sign-out as pack-up ritual, and "turns, not talent" said aloud. Weeks 3–4: placement probes run inside normal play — by the end you'll have the map of your actual spread, including the hidden beginner and the spiky expert. Rest of term: the early-realm rhythm — reviews first (five minutes, automatic), then lessons at each child's rung. Your station: coach the typing posture and technique while habits are wet cement. Checkpoint (last week): dashboard read — who's stalled, who's hiding, who needs the accommodations conversation. Two minutes per child, once a term, is the whole assessment burden.

Term 2 — the fluency grind (protect it)

The least glamorous term and the highest-stakes one: typing crosses from technique to fluency only with reps, and the spacing engine needs the weekly hour to actually happen. Expect the mid-year temptation to skip computing for assembly rehearsals; resist it — a missed week is a fourteen-day gap in every child's review schedule. In-class moves: celebrate reviews-gone-gold publicly (retention, not speed), run the beat-your-own-handwriting milestone as the term's quiet quest, and use rotation structure if devices are short. Checkpoint: typing trajectory per child (self-referenced, never ranked) and the first files-and-spells capabilities checked by doing.

Term 3 — applications and judgment

Fluency starts paying: documents, email, first search — and the safety curriculum's judgment turn. In-class moves: pair Owl Post's phishing drills with a class fake-or-real wall; run the sponsored-results lineup live on the projector; brief families that home practice is a bonus lane, never homework (one newsletter paragraph — it defuses both pressure and guilt). Checkpoint: the genre capabilities — subject lines that say the thing, the fake spotted and explained, the first spreadsheet built.

Term 4 — consolidation and the capstone taste

Reviews carry the year's skills toward retention gold; faster children reach multi-app work; everyone finishes with evidence. In-class moves: a class project using real skills (the fair, the fete, the excursion budget — the transfer move from simulated to real); end-of-year dashboard export for handoff to next year's teacher — mastery evidence, not vibes. Checkpoint: the year-band questions (Year 3 / Year 4 / Year 5 / Year 6) for your cohort.

The standing rhythms (any term)

Every session: reviews first, then lessons; sign-out ritual at pack-up.
Every few weeks: two-minute dashboard sweep; regroup rotation stations by need.
Once a term: setup check (feet, screen, wrists); the found-open-session scenario; a talking-points nudge to families.
Never: rank children, require home practice, or let the hour get eaten quietly.

© Glu IO Pty. Ltd. — Wiz Kids (wiz.kids). Link freely; republication requires permission — see terms. Found an error in our reading of the research? We correct fast: tell any teacher piloting Wiz Kids.