Session 1 for Years 11 and 13
Firstly can I thank you for taking the time to view this presentation we have put this recording together for those parents that were unable to attend the parent information evening which launched our project August 24 um first session in October 2023 my name is Mr Tomlinson I am the deputy head teacher I
Will be doing the voiceover for this whole presentation I’ll be giving you a condensed um set of information really around what was shared in the evening just to give you um a gist of everything that you need to know that was shared on the night itself so during this session I’m going
To introduce the project 824 I’m going to talk you through what support we have in school around careers and aspirations we’re going to talk through why revision is so important how to revise we’re going to talk through revision timetables and specifications and how parents can support their children so
The reason why we’re launching project 824 is about trying to create a link between pupil’s academic success the support we give them here in school and the support that you give them as parents when we conducted a number of parent and pupil surveys and student voice activities last year lots of the
Feedback we had was around Readiness for exams and supporting our pupil to really do their best when it came to those summer public exam papers project 824 is really about giving pupils and parents information and the support services in place throughout the Academic Year to make sure that they’ve got everything
That they need to succeed so for pupils that’s going to look like a series of in school assemblies we’re going to buy in some external speakers we’re going to have some students um speak to them as well about how they’ve revised and best prepared for their exams we are also
Buying in external experts we’re having sessions in such as Elevate targeted at certain year 11s and year 13s we obviously have these parent information evenings so for everyone that we run in school time we will provide an online recorded one for those parents that obviously can’t attend and really
Everything that we’re sharing in these sessions is about practical tips we’re sharing things we’re sharing resources and practical ways to revise so that students can best prepare themselves find what works for them and really do their best when it comes to those public exam papers so as part of this project
We have bought every single student in year 11 and every single student in year 13 a copy of their you know keystage relevant how- to revise workbook these Tim foot published books are excellent they’ve got revision timetables in them they’ve got loads of practical tips around how to revise how to prepare how
To manage stress and workload there is also for GCSE parents a parent guide as well and we gave those out on the first evening so for any parents that didn’t manage to come along to the first parent information evening we will bring a box down again for the second evening for
Anyone that didn’t get a copy these contain for parents the real practical tips about what you can do to best support your child up to those summary exams how you can support their workload how you can prioritize their revision with them how you can test and check
Their knowledge and how you can support their wellbeing and their workload and make sure that they are really in the best place possible to succeed in addition to this we provided a copy of this this is a breakdown of everything that’s in place for either year 11s or year 13s between October and
May when the public exam season opens now what I’ve tried to do in this document is include a really clear list of dates that are coming up of all the most important things so you can obviously the first session that we did was on the 5th of October year 133
Parents evening was on the 10th then we’re moving into things like the mock starting we’ve got careers faires in place um the dates are on there for when we’re going to send you the mock results as well so you can see how your children have done in terms of their mock exam
Results for the next section of the sheet we’ve also got you know the second session so our second session which we’d like you to attend again we’ll do a virtual one which will be on the 24th of January that one is going to be about now you’ve got your mocks now you’ve got
Your papers back how do you improve how do you get a better grade we’ll then have a new set of Twilight interventions launched we’ll have year 11’s parents evening starting as well on the 30th of January that year 11 parents evening then is really important because staff
Will have those mock grades and have those mock results they’ll talk to you about the tearage of papers in maths and in science and in languages and it’s really that last opportunity to have those conversations with staff around what support is needed what revision is needed how they can best prepare and
Impove approve for those summer um real papers then in February we’ll have some intervention starting at half term for targeted and selected pupils we will then have um mocks again so we will have a very small onewe series of mock papers in uh February it’s on the 26th of February
2024 That season of mocks though will contain only four sets of papers so there will be a formal mock for English maths science and for languages now the mocks for maths science and languages will be forage so these marcks are absolutely crucial these are determining whether your child will be set either
Foundation or higher tier for their papers which will obviously determine what grades they can potentially reach we will also have three drop- down days as well so those drop- down days will be in their option subjects this will give them an opportunity um to work with their option teachers the entire day
Either doing walking talking mocks completing non-examined assessment work taking part in some revision for the day um it whatever they’re doing it’ll be subject based and it will be about preparing them for those summer exams in March we’ll then have some Easter interventions we’ll have our third and
Final parent session on the 11th of April that will be Asia exams again this will be another in the theater um evening we will do a record as well but this is the last chance for us to get together and this will be the Practical tips around how they can best prepare
For the exam season and how they can best revise during and obviously before those public exams but there’ll also be lots of practical hints and tips around workload well-being managing stress levels coping with what’s coming up in terms of that very condensed four-week period um we’ll also then have obviously
The public exam starting in May so our support for you um we have obviously provided the students with their revision guides parents if you haven’t got a copy please come along to the next evening and we’ll provide you with um a copy of the parent guide on
The evening you itself you would have heard from Mrs chesher our careers advisor and she was talking through the wide variety of post 16 options available to your children during this she gave a year 11 careers interview and she was talking about how we run the careers fair and
What was on offer there about how we’ve booked in Spotlight talks and how we’ve got careers clinics how we’ve got weekly and bi-weekly tutor activities around careers and how we’re sharing the regular news updates the opportunities and offer she was also talking about when submit college applications and the
Deadlines and if you’re not sure on these I do advise you get in contact with her she can offer you that for spoke support around college and apprenti ship applications she’s also been talking about weekly apprenti updates and also about the onetoone careers appointments that she’s offered
Um to pupils either targeted or when they’ve asked for them she then also talked about what to do next and the deadlines I do advise you to spend some time having a look at this slide I’m not going to talk significantly over it but it gives you a
Breakdown of what to do if your planned route involves either six form here apprenticeships further education colleges or if you’re thinking of studying something like tea levels so I suggest at this moment in time you pause the video and just take some time to read the information on the
Slides she also provide some further information around all the different schools in the city where you can get information about apprenticeships different progression routes and the different colleges that that are on offer also about applications about making sure that you’ve got your place sorted before you get to results
Day Mrs cheser also shared her contact details that is her email address shown on this slide she is more than happy to support any parent or any pupil with helping to find the best career options the best further education or six form options for your child the next section
We’re coming on to is the real Crooks of the evening so it’s about why to revise and how to revise so 66% of material is forgotten after 7 days with 88% of material being forgotten after 6 weeks this is known as the forgetting curve reading notes and textbooks leads to a
Mere 10% retention a lot of people put too much focus on just reading and not the doing side and really revision is most effective when you actually do something with it so firstly what are the benefits of revision benefits include recall of the details of the topic you’ve studied you gain more
Confidence in those topics especially when you attempt those exam questions that timely revision helps students reduce their anxiety and their stress levels and that’s what the whole purpose of this project is revision helps them feel well prepared for the exams but it also helps them gauge the strengths and
The areas of development in a particular topic or subject and helps them prioritize their time for revision the big important statistics from this forgetting curve is did you know that you forget 80% of what you learn in the first 24 hours and this is why cramming doesn’t work GCSE pod
Produced this slide and the whole idea behind it whether you’re an a level or GCSE student is lots of repetition of a topic going back over things regularly helps turn that short-term memory of a topic or knowledge into something in the long-term memory and the way to think
About this your shortterm memory is a bit like the ram in your computer it is limited the amount it can hold the long-term memory is like Google Drive it’s like an unlimited level of data storage if you can get information into your long-term memory and the most effective way is that repetition and
Going back over it and practicing things if you can get it into your long-term memory you won’t forget it because it’s there stored you just need to find ways of accessing it but repetition is the most important way reviewing your work going back over it re attempting
Questions is the most effective way of getting that information into long-term memory so revision allows students to reinforce and embed school learning it allows them to identify what they do and they don’t know make links with other knowledge and other subject matters it allows them to practice their application of knowledge under exam
Conditions and it also allows them to gain confidence it is not crumming and it’s not rereading highlighting and copying how to revise more important than just revision make sure students before they go into those exams eat breakfast have their phones away or even when they’re doing this revision get
Fresh air and exercise and they get sleep but be organized sit at a desk or a table somewhere designed for study think about what time of the day you are most alert and work then make tasks specific and realistic and that realistic bit is really important make
Sure you’re not trying to revise an entire subject OBC in W go break it up chunk it plan your time use those revision Tim taes that we’ve given you review recap and retain that knowledge and think about the most effective ways that are going to work for you now this
Slide gives you lots of practical hints and tips of what activities that support revision might look like and this is going to vary vastly between subject and also whatever it is that you’re trying to revise and recreate when you come to those exams my maps I find really
Effective as especially when I’m trying to recap and make links between different topics and areas of knowledge keyword postit these are really good I mean obviously you’re going to accept your parents doing this but I used to use them very much by sticking on the inside of cupboard doors and using those
To to keep recapping words formulas key things that I’ve got to remember before I sit that paper flash cards you know writing out really useful flash cards that you can just switch between you can use those flashcards with questions you can use them with little mini mind maps
You can use them with definition but you can use flashcards to test yourself to test your peers or to get parents to test you on topics and check that recall that’s really helpful as a way of keep repeating um that knowledge over time if you’re using those little flash cards
Because it’s a really quick easy repetitive way of making sure you’re regularly reviewing and recapping the knowledge that you’ve covered in class get your friends and family to use those flash cards to test you try blurting blurting involves choosing a topic to revise writing down everything that you
Can remember about it remembering a textbook and then comparing it either to the textbook the study materials the notes that you’ve taken to check what the areas that you need to repeat and put more practice into thing that works for me best is try exam questions and
Mark schemes choose a topic choose an exam paper and a mark scheme have a go at that question self Mark peer assess ask your teachers to look at it they’ll be more than happy to write your own questions as well use your online learning material really good for
Recaping knowledge like GCS pod and senica um but also get to know the it resources or any resources are best for your subject and the best way to do that is talk to your teaching staff sir Miss how do I revise for this subject what
Are the best things that I can do I promise you the staff have been at this for years they’ve always got pract practical advice and tips around what the best things are that you can do procrastination anything is better than nothing don’t spend too much time planning what
You will do and not actually doing it if you know your time management is a problem and you struggle with motivation okay plan yourselves to work for 25 minute blocks with five minute breaks in between now these breaks what I find work for me when I was doing my final
Year exams at University is make sure those brakes are something active go for a walk around your garden go out with a dog around the block do something is active don’t go and watch Telly listen to some music for 5 minutes give yourself and your brain something
Enjoyable as a break that you can look forward to once you’ve done your 25 minutes of study also chunk and make sure whatever is you’re doing that 25 minutes has the most amount of impact be really clear I’m going to read this I’m going to cover this and I’m going to do
This so This stage we need to think about why mocks matter and why are they’re good for you this is a really useful slide for you to sit down with your child and go through and think about all all the different things that help you around mocks again I pause at
This point have a read through discuss through why the mocks are an important part of this experience revision timetables in the little books that we provided you with there is a little revision Tim table a simple one that you can just fill out as it is or photocopy from um it’s
Important to look at your specs look at your exams split each subject up and then prioritize which topics that you don’t know as well or that you did last and make sure you’re revising those as first priority and then split up and plan your intervention as lots of time
Chunks you know maybe with a little bit of reading then a bit of doing using some past questions then a bit of assessment checking that you know it but make sure you’re building break times in these little things that you can do that will split up the
Time Vision time tbls again if you you’ve got the ones in the little uh Tim foot books but you’ve also got uh revision Tim tables that are downloadable online one of the best ones is the GCS pod one it’s a Word document you can edit yourself um you know plan
The T topics you need to prioritize stick to short sharp chunks of revision plan 30 to 45 minutes of time plan in your rest bokes and then focus on recap and application of those assessments for those that are GCSE students this doesn’t apply to year 13 unfortunately for those of been in year
11 we have invested in a service called gcod so you go to GC pod.com you tight will you go straight to sign in with Office 365 which is the orange button with a blue circle around it in the bottom right hand side when you access this website it is split up into um
Different areas but if they go on to learn it will be for them rather than teach they’ll be able to find each subject so each subject will be shown as a tile they’ll be able to find that they’ll be able to choose the subject and then they’ll be able to select an
Area of that exam board specific specification to watch a series of short pods now the the pods are anything between 3 to sort of 6 minutes long they have an expert there sharing talking through a topic recapping knowledge there is also check and Challenge on a
Lot of the pods which is the purple circle shown on the right hand side the check and challenge facility will give students lots of multiple choice questions which will probe their understanding of that subject matter and it will suggest pods that are linked to what students don’t know so it won’t
Suggest things that students have got right and they do know but the GCSE pod facility with check and challenge will suggest things that they need to go back and watch again in order to improve their knowledge the check and challenge looks like this these are the sorts of
Multiple choices that you get and like I said at the end of it students can choose then to watch a couple more pods which will help them recap the areas they haven’t done so well in this assessment if a student is ever coming home to you saying I haven’t got any
Homework tonight I haven’t got any Vision material tonight spending an hour on GCS pod doing some of these pod revisions for a subject that you know let’s say they’re lower in their predicted grades than their targets would be really worth them spending their time at this slide is specific for
Year 13 it talks about how they’re studying three subjects per week and how they should really be doing five hours of study outside of that that subject in order to make sure they achieve their target grades so you have 15 hours of lessons per week that leaves plenty of time
Outside of that through private study in school or when you’re at home and what you should really be doing is maybe doing some reading maybe you know recapping a topic doing some revision having go some practice questions and completing any homework that is set by your subject
Teachers do make use whether your gcsc or a level make use of exam specifications exam specifications are all linked on the website so if you go to um curriculum on on the blue code website if you go to curricul and you go to subjects the top there are four
Little hyperlink boxes which contain the exam specs for year 10 11 12 and 13 those specifications contain the lists of topics that students are going to have to cover for every single exam so what that does it tells them really gives them a list that they can rag rate
So you can go red Amber green how well that they understand or know that topic or knowledge this also gives you the nuances of the spec and by nuances I mean the smaller parts of the spe which might not be covered in sufficient detail in the actual textbooks which
Means that they can Target those smaller things that may come up as a question which could be the difference between a grade we also had during the evening two students in year 12 talk about how they revised for their year 11 gcsc exams and they shared lots of practical hints and
Tips there are a few on this slide again take the time to read this slide there’s some really useful information here so pause this this point have a read of the information and we’ll move on so how can parents support their children so we’re coming to the end of
The evening now but I want to just share with you some practical tips first one manage their screen time when they are supposed to be doing revision at home I would suggest find somewhere in the home that their phone tablet whatever the device is that they usually used of an
Evening goes so it’s out their way when they’re doing revision unless obviously they’re using that device for GCSE access or something like that but manage that screen time make sure they have an effective study space find somewhere in your home that would act as a quiet study space where they can work
Undisturbed from their other family members and just get on and get some work done and sit with them plan out that revision timetable plan out the times in their Day based on their extracurricular activities based on whatever it is they do outside of school which is still important that it
Continues but plan that time effectively to ensure they prioritized where they spend their time best and it’s realistic as well and support them in doing that in terms of sleep one of the things that students typically do wrong and it’s a very very common issue especially
With six form is not getting up sleep at night they really do try to cram before they mocked their exams and it doesn’t work they’ll work till you know 1 or two in the morning thinking that that’s going to be effective for them to pass the exam the next day but it really
Isn’t most effective things that they can do before that exam is do some revision the night before get a little bit of rest get to sleep early making sure they get a good night’s sleep and making sure that they have breakfast each day if they haven’t had breakfast
In the day when they’re coming in for the MOX the exams we always put breakfast provision on in G6 which is the food room down in the bottom of Gorton students also need to make sure that they’ve got your support around monitoring them too you need to support
Them by checking that they are doing the revision checking they are doing when they’ve said and they’re sticking to that timetable okay the final thing I want to share with you we have built a new section of the website so if you go to curriculum
And you go to Project 824 we have built a revision tips for students page a revision tips for parents page and we’ve also begun to put specific resources in for each year group also linked off from that we’ve also got subject specific revision lists for every single subject
At 11 and 13 and these are being developed over time so they will start to be fully populated but what heads of department and heads of subjects have done for you here is they prioritized a list of topics that they feel sequence– wise is the best pattern in which to
Revise this is not personalized to you and what you do and don’t know obviously but this gives you okay so in business studies I should be doing these three topics Autumn one then in Autumn two I should be doing these three topics in Spring I should be doing these the
Reason why the heads of Department have done this they’ve been looking at what’s the most effective sequence of topics to revise it might be the ones you did right back in year 10 or year 12 that were the ones that you haven’t done in a very long time that they’re asking for
You to do now or it might be that they’re tying in those revision topics with what you did the half term or the term before but whatever it is I’d use that as your first Port of Call alongside your spec when you’re planning your revision timetable we have two more sessions
Planned we have session two on Wednesday the 24th of January that will be about learning from the mock and moving forward session will be on Thursday the 11th of April and that will all be about how to Ace your exams thank you for taking your time to watch this presentation really
Appreciate you taking your time to stay with this um we will be obviously offering those other evenings physically on site but I will prepare at a later date a recorded one like this for anyone that is unable to attend thank you