Lessonsmith Experiments
New ideas we're building and testing with schools. The coding experiments are free for everyone: nothing to install, no account, and your code never leaves your device.
- ✅ Free to use
- 🪙 Smith Coins
- 💻 Runs in the browser
- ♿ Accessibility settings
- 🔒 Nothing leaves your device
New: Revision Forge for GCSE and A level
Retrieval practice
Today's 5, brain dumps and quizzes that pull answers from memory, spaced over days.
PRIMM coding
Predict, Run, Investigate, Modify, Make: real Python with your board's pseudocode and a flowchart.
Study coaching
Plan it, revise smart, time sense, calm and ready, follow through: for every learner, neurodivergent or not.
Free for teachers
Host live class sessions, check the coins pupils send you, download mark schemes and build exam-style papers. Open the teacher page
🎫 Class tokens: progress on any device, no login needed
With Revision Forge Plus, schools and teachers give each pupil a class token. It unlocks every subject and keeps their progress, so they can carry on at school or at home without an account.
- 📚 Every subject: GCSE Computer Science free, plus Maths, English Language, Combined Science, English Literature, History, Geography and Religious Studies (two topics free in each to try)
- 🎓 A level too: Computer Science (with the same Python editor for code projects), Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English Literature, English Language, History, Geography and Religious Studies, for AQA, OCR and Pearson Edexcel. Three topics free in each; hints one at a time and marked model answers after you've had a go
- 🔒 No names stored: teachers add names on their own computer; we only keep tokens, nicknames and progress
- 📊 Track progress: teachers see each token's progress in every subject
GCSE Computer Science is free. Every other GCSE subject has two free topics, and every A-level subject has three.
1 How do you want to code?
Pick one. You can switch between blocks and Python at any time.
Blocks
Snap Lessonsmith blocks together, like Scratch, and watch the turtle draw. See the Python your blocks make.
Open the Turtle Range with blocks →Python turtle
Type real Python to draw: lines, shapes, stars and spirals. Small missions that get harder step by step.
Open the Turtle Range with Python →Python
A free Python playground. Run any program, answer its questions, and step through it line by line to see the variables change.
Open the Python Playground →Python Pathways
Learn Python one skill at a time: learn it, try it, then ▲ Do Now, ◆ core and ● extension challenges. Hints, extra support and Smith Coins.
Start a pathway →2 Smith Coins: carry on where you left off
Earn Smith Coins as you code. Your coin remembers how far you got, with no account and no name. Before you go, write down its code or download your coin, and use it next time to carry on.
🔑 Carry on from a coin
or
The code brings back your missions, XP and rank. The coin picture also brings back the code you typed.
🛡️ Check a Smith Coin
For teachers and prize organisers. Pupils can have their coin verified: we check the programs saved in it, then sign it so it can't be faked. Upload a pupil's coin picture to see if it's genuine. Nothing is loaded into this computer and nothing is kept.
How a coin grows
Coin colours: one for each case you solve
XP: earn it, then use it
- ⭐ +10 XP for each mission you complete
- 🐍 +5 XP more when you do a mission in Python
- 🏅 +20 XP and a badge for every case you solve, and your rank goes up
- 🔓 The first hint is free. Spend 5 XP to open the next one, or have another go and it opens free after 30 seconds
🧪 Smith Coins in AI Labs
Pupils earn coins in AI Labs too. Each lab (Teach the computer, Feelings detector, Phishing detective) is a case of 7 steps: the coin grows as steps are ticked, turns Bronze, Silver and Gold as labs are finished, and Platinum for a Gold challenge in every lab. An AI Labs code has four groups (like SMITH-XXX-XXX-XXX-XXX): pupils use it when they join their next lab, and their ticks, XP and challenges come back.
Coins and codes only appear once you've completed something. Your work is kept until you leave the Experiments, so save your coin before you go.
3 The Turtle Range: small steps
Hatchling
One line, then turns, then your first square and triangle.
Explorer
Repeat blocks, colours, pen up and down, and circles.
Ranger
Stars, filled shapes, patterns inside patterns, and spirals.
Free draw
Every block, no rules: draw anything and save your picture.
Each mission shows a faint ghost drawing to match, with help behind “💡 Stuck?”.
4 For schools
Code Detective
Real-world Python cases from KS2 to A level, with Sherlock as the pupil's partner: step through code with a live flowchart, pseudocode and memory view.
Open Code Detective →AI Labs
Pupils train their own AI on images, feelings and phishing emails. Full KS3 lessons with slides, quizzes and challenges.
Explore AI Labs →Cyber Range Coming soon
Networks and cyber security for Year 11 and the sixth form: learn how a school network fits together layer by layer, then investigate and fix a crashed server, a DDoS attack, a hacked account and ransomware in a safe, pretend network.
Find out more →5 What we're researching
- From blocks to Python. Does seeing the Python next to the blocks help pupils move from Scratch to typed code?
- Predict before you run. Code Detective asks pupils to predict, then step through and check (the PRIMM approach).
- An AI partner that asks, not tells. We're testing a Sherlock that gives clues and questions, never answers, with safeguarding and data protection checks before pupils use it.
- Flowcharts and pseudocode from your own code, in plain English or exam style, as it runs.
Got an idea, or want your school to help test something? Get in touch.