PHP

PHP is the workhorse of the server-side web. It’s open-source, pragmatic, and runs an enormous share of all websites - including WordPress, and therefore this very site. Whatever the fashion of the week, PHP is what a huge amount of the working web is actually built from.

I teach it because it gets students to full-stack competence fast: within weeks they’re handling forms, managing sessions, and talking to databases on a real server.

How I use it

Server-side fundamentals

Handling requests and responses, processing form input, and generating HTML dynamically - the request/response mindset that defines back-end development in any language.

Sessions and authentication

Cookies, sessions, and login systems built properly: hashed passwords, validated input, and sensible session handling - small projects with real security stakes.

Database integration

Connecting to MySQL with PDO and prepared statements, so injection-safe database access is a habit from day one rather than a retrofit.

The WordPress ecosystem

Because PHP powers WordPress, students can immediately apply their skills to themes, plugins, and the platform behind a vast share of professional web work.

Explore: a PHP request, start to finish

Every dynamic page follows this journey in a few milliseconds. Click or tap each stage to explore it.

In the classroom

Students build a complete application across the term - registration, login, data management - deployed to a real server, because ‘it works on my laptop’ is a lesson best unlearned early.

Security is woven through rather than bolted on: every form is validated, every query parameterised, every password hashed, so professional habits form by default.

Test yourself

Three quick questions - click an answer to check it instantly.

Where this leads

PHP leads directly to back-end and full-stack roles and a vast freelance market in the WordPress economy. It’s the server-side half of my Web Development teaching, and pairs naturally with SQL / MySQL on the data side.