Lesson Plan

Resources → Subject Notes → Accounting → Notes
Lesson Plan
Grade: Date: 17/01/2026
Subject: Accounting
Lesson Topic: understandability
Learning Objective/s:
  • Describe the purpose and key characteristics of accounting policies, focusing on understandability.
  • Explain the step‑by‑step process for developing and documenting an accounting policy.
  • Apply the criteria for selecting appropriate policies to common IGCSE areas such as inventory and depreciation.
  • Analyse the disclosure requirements and the impact of changing a policy on financial statements.
Materials Needed:
  • Projector or interactive whiteboard
  • Printed handout of common IGCSE accounting policies table
  • Sample financial‑statement excerpts
  • Worksheet with policy‑development scenarios
  • Markers and flip chart
 Introduction:
Begin with a quick poll: “Why does a user need a clear accounting policy?” Capture prior knowledge about consistency and comparability, then state that today students will learn how to make policies understandable and how to disclose them correctly. Success will be shown by producing a concise policy and identifying its required note‑page disclosures.
Lesson Structure:
  1. Do‑now (5') – Students list reasons clear policies matter; share responses.
  2. Mini‑lecture (10') – Define accounting policies; review relevance, reliability, comparability, and especially understandability.
  3. Guided practice (15') – Walk through the six‑step policy development using an inventory valuation example.
  4. Group activity (15') – Teams draft a policy for a new transaction, test it on a sample, and present their wording.
  5. Disclosure focus (10') – Examine note‑page excerpts; students identify required disclosures and discuss the effect of a policy change.
  6. Exam tip recap (5') – Highlight key terminology and how to earn marks for policy questions.
Conclusion:
Recap the six‑step process and the importance of plain‑language wording. Ask each pupil to write one exit‑ticket sentence summarising the disclosure needed for the policy they created. Assign homework: complete a worksheet that requires drafting a policy for depreciation and outlining its note‑page disclosure.