Year 10 are studying crime and punishment for Edexcel, and many arrive believing the Bloody Code meant most convicted criminals were hanged. The teacher has built a Google Sheet of 1,500 trial records from 1780 to 1800, taken from the data the Old Bailey Proceedings Online makes available to download, with columns for year, offence category, verdict and sentence. Pairs use filters and COUNTIF to answer four questions: what share of guilty verdicts led to a death sentence, which offences most often brought one, how often transportation was used instead, and whether the pattern changed across the two decades. Each pair checks one surprising result by reading the full trial it came from on the Proceedings website. The lesson ends with pairs writing a judgement on the claim that uses at least two of their own figures, ready for next week's essay on why the Bloody Code was abandoned.
Tools: Google Sheets Nine ideas for your own version in Generate
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