Developer shares SQL and Git lessons from a weekend school database assignment

A developer completed a weekend assignment to build a small relational database for a fictional school called Greenwood Academy using PostgreSQL hosted on Aiven and DBeaver as the SQL client. The project involved creating three tables, inserting records, and practising data modifications such as updates and deletions, reinforcing the importance of WHERE clauses in real database work. Query practice covered filtering, aggregation, and CASE WHEN statements, which the developer found particularly useful for transforming raw data into readable labels. Beyond SQL, the assignment surfaced a common Git issue: pushing to a remote repository that already contained a separate commit history, requiring a merge with the --allow-unrelated-histories flag. The exercise highlighted how hands-on projects expose practical gaps in understanding that tutorial-based learning often does not.