• Where to find essential information• Information on how your child is progressing• What support is available in the academy• How students can work best at home
We will post this presentation on the academy website
Curriculum Booklet
• Outline of teaching schedule• Details of exam specification• Titles of exam papers• Links to exam board website
Curriculum Booklet
Link from website:Parents >
Curriculum Booklets
GCSE English Language (Grades 9 to 1)
AQA website
GCSE Mathematics(Grades 9 to 1)
Pearson Edexcel website
GCSE subjects
• GCSE Art and Design (AQA)• GCSE Dance (AQA)• GCSE French (AQA)• GCSE Geography (AQA)• GCSE History (AQA)• GCSE Media Studies (eduqas)• GCSE Music (Edexcel)• GCSE Spanish (AQA)• GCSE Triple Science (AQA)• GCSE Citizenship (AQA)
Key Stage 4: Recommended Revision GuidesThe following revision guides have been recommended by teaching staff at BOA.
Subject Course Guide Title ISBN
GCSE English Language (Grades 9-1)
GCSE English Language for the Grade 9-1 Course – The Revision Guide (CGP) AQA GCSE English Language – Student Book 2: Assessment preparation for Paper 1 and Paper 2
ISBN-13: 978-1782943693
ISBN-13: 978-0198340751
GCSE English Literature (Grades 9-1)
Macbeth – The Text Guide (CGP GCSE English 9-1 Revision)A Christmas Carol – The Text Guide (CGP GCSE English 9-1 Revision)An Inspector Calls – The Text Guide (CGP GCSE English 9-1 Revision)Unseen Poetry (Exam Board: AQA) – The Poetry Guide
ISBN-13: 978-1841461168
ISBN-13: 978-1782943099
ISBN-13: 978-1841461151
ISBN-13: 978-1782949268
Key Stage 4: Recommended Revision GuidesThe following revision guides have been recommended by teaching staff at BOA.
ISBN 9781782944034 (Higher)ISBN 9781782943990 (Foundation) ISBN 9781782944157 (Targeting 8s and 9s)
GCSE Media Studies WJEC/Eduqas GCSE Media Studies Paperback WJEC/Eduqas GCSE Media Studies Revision Guide Paperback
ISBN-10: 1911208489
ISBN-10: 1911208896
Key Stage 4: Recommended Revision GuidesThe following revision guides have been recommended by teaching staff at BOA.
Subject Course Guide Title ISBN
GCSE French (Grades 9-1) AQA GCSE French Revision Guide: Grades 9-1 (CPG)Pearson Revise AQA GCSE French revision workbookGrade 9-1 GCSE French Knowledge OrganiserGrade 9-1 GCSE French Knowledge Retriever
ISBN 1782945377ISBN 9781447941064ISBN 1789087171ISBN 1789087198
GCSE History (Grades 9-1) GCSE History AQA Revision Guide - for the Grade 9-1 Course: perfect for catch-up and the 2022 and 2023 exams (CGP GCSE History 9-1 Revision)Oxford AQA GCSE History (9-1): Conflict and Tension in Asia 1950-1975 Revision GuideOxford AQA GCSE History: Britain: Health and the People c1000-Present Day Revision Guide (9-1)Oxford AQA GCSE History: Elizabethan England c1568-1603 Revision Guide (9-1)
Virtual Learning EnvironmentOur VLE is built within ‘Microsoft Teams’Go to www.office.comOpen the ‘Teams’ app.In the files tab for each class ‘team’ you will find online access to revision resources for all subjects.
• Format to be confirmed depending on student progress
Easter revision
• 16th May 2022 (Provisional)
GCSE examinations begin
Support / Intervention
Via small group intervention at the end of the school day
Three-tiered approach:
In the classroom
Via homework and guided independent learning
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1) Intervention takes place first and foremost in the classroom as part of good quality teaching, where teachers will ensure the activities they set enable students to make rapid and sustained progress. Teachers not only look at how to address gaps in knowledge but also how to extend learning through a range of challenging and personalised learning activities. 2) Intervention takes place via homework and guided independent learning. Teachers will ensure that homework tasks enable students to make effective progress, through tasks that allow students to recall (and retain) knowledge and through tasks that extend learning. 3) When necessary, teachers at BOA may invite small groups of students to attend intervention sessions at the end of the school day so that they may receive an extra level of support, particularly if they are struggling with certain aspects of the course (or qualification). These sessions are not a ‘free-for-all’ as teachers will want to support students who are struggling with certain aspects of the course (or qualification). *Additionally, sessions for students who are making good progress will be facilitated over Microsoft Teams and will be in the form of bespoke learning programmes that consolidate, extend and enrich learning.
Targeted Intervention Sessions
Day Subject (4.15pm – 5.15pm)
Monday Mathematics
Tuesday English
Wednesday GCSE Options
Thursday Science
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1) Where subjects run additional sessions for invited students, they will take place on the days above 2) Pathway have more lesson time so support takes place in lesson, or one-to-one support ad hoc.
Mock Weeks 24th November – 3rd December 2021
Model the formal exam experience
Enable us to measure progress and informs targeted intervention, support and revision
Planned over a two week period
Students should attend BOA as normal. Normal lessons will not be suspended between exams
Students will be issued with a mock exam timetable, and this will be emailed to parents by Wednesday 10th November
Understanding how your child is progressingTarget Prediction
7 8The prediction matches the targetThis tells you your child is making progress at the rate we expect (on flight-path)
The prediction is below targetThis tells you your child is not making the progress we planned at this point in time. It also tells you the impact we currently predict this will have
The prediction is above targetThis tells you your child is making better progress than we planned and that therefore we are raising our expectations of them
What is a good pass?
The Department for Education defines a good pass as a Grade 5 or above
Colleges, training providers, universities and many employers regard a Grade 4 as a standard (acceptable) pass
Looking at their achievement at primary school and in our baseline tests the average BOA student should be aspiring for at least a grade 6 in the majority of their subjects and a D* in Pathway
Ultimately we expect students to be aiming to beat their targets
Exam entries
• Exam entries will be made in the Spring Term
• Students will be issued with an individual timetable for their examinations
• A general timetable with dates of all exams will be on the academy’s website once confirmed
• BTEC external assessments continue into the summer term
• Access arrangements will be made in the Spring Term and confirmation is sent home along with the examination entries slip (exam timetable). Please contact us if you believe your child is eligible
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Final BTEC externally assessed units (written examinations in some cases) and replacement units (where necessary) happen in the summer term BTEC Submission is different to the GCSE examinations and final grades are not entered until the end of July (pending standards verification)
Understanding adaptations to the 2022 exam season
• While exams are due to go ahead this summer, there are some changes to normal procedure.
• The important thing is to remember that the same adjustments will be made for all students nationally so no-one will be disadvantaged.
• For summer 2022 exams, grade boundaries will be “based on a profile that reflects a midpoint between 2021 and pre-pandemic grading”.
• We are collecting information about student progress all the time in case we are asked to centre assess our students again this year.
• Contingency arrangements for summer 2022 are currently under consultation – we will update parents once they are finalised.
All Subjects will include either advanced information or optional contentThe following GCSE subjects will have optional topics or content:
English literatureHistoryGeography
The optional content will not be assessed by exam boards.For all other GCSE, exam boards will provide advance information about the focus of the content covered in the exams.This will be provided by 7 February 2022 at the latest. Information may be provided earlier at the DfE’s discretion.
Understanding adaptations to the 2022 exam season
• The following GCSE subjects will be given sheets with all the necessary formulae and equations as part of the exam:
• There will be no set task for GCSE Art and DesignThe students portfolio alone will determine their grade
Understanding adaptations to the 2022 exam season
Good environment
What do you need around you?
Desk/table
Light
Equipment
Music
Works for some, not all.
Instrumental music is less distracting than lyrics
The right environment
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Choosing a productive place to revise is one of the most positive influences you can have on your study time. When you’re setting up for a day of revision, make sure you’re in a peaceful environment. The best study zones: Quiet, allowing you to stay on task and avoid distraction. Well-lit, meaning you get plenty of daylight and stay alert. Spacious, giving you plenty of room to organise your books and notes. Ideally, your study space will be easily accessible and make it easy for you to concentrate throughout the day. If you have a desk at home, that’s a perfect solution. Make sure it’s near a window to give you plenty of natural light and air during the day, and make sure you have any stationary you might need at the ready. Otherwise, a kitchen table is better than slouching on a sofa. Anywhere too comfortable makes it easy to lose focus. If you’re out of options at home, your school will likely have a study area you could use after hours. Alternatively, you could go to your local library and study there. Working away from home gives you the added bonus of separation, removing the distractions of your regular environment.
How can we help ourselves to learn? Turn off
Email Facebook Snapchat tiktok Instagram Mobile (on silent, out of reach, can be a reward at the end after work is done)
Make learning as active as possible
Focused chunks of time
Avoid Self doubt Day dreaming Feeling overwhelmed
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Shut out distractions Distraction is the enemy of concentration. When you sit down to revise, turn your phone on silent and turn it over so you can’t see the screen. Better still, place it on the other side of the room so it’s out of reach and can’t tempt you. But, it only takes 30 seconds to reply to a text, right? Wrong. Every time you get distracted, you lose your flow. Starting back up again becomes more and more difficult. Meanwhile, more and more of your study session will be wasted, and you’ll be learning less and less. At the end of a day consistently interrupted, you’ll look back and know you should have done more. You’ll probably vow to do better the next day, but unless you change something, what’s to stop the same thing happening again? If you’re honest with yourself, you know that having your phone next to when you’re trying to concentrate is a major distraction. Remove that distraction. If you really can’t tear yourself away from your phone, download Forest and use it whenever you start a study session. Forest is a nifty app that asks you to set a timer and plant a virtual tree. The longer you stay away from your phone, the more the tree grows. But, every time you leave the app, you kill the tree.
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Organisation: If you are revising from muddled and unclear notes then your memory will be just as muddled and unclear on the subject. Group your revision notes into topics. Rewrite your notes if need be to make them clearer and more streamlined. Use colours to highlight key information and actively associate the colour with those ideas to make it easier to remember. Use a maximum of three colours, anymore and you will probably get confused between them. Don’t take this in the opposite direction either; don’t waste time making your notes look pretty, after your exams, you won’t need them anymore!
Time plannerTime Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday1.30 Travel to station2.00 Read Eng/Mats/Sci2.30 Read today Opt A3.00
3.30 Read Eng/Mats/Sci4.00
4.30 Travel to station Travel to station Travel to station Travel to station Opt A homework5.00 Read today Opt A Read today Opt B Read Eng/Mats/Sci Read today Opt B Core H/W5.30 Read Eng/Mats/Sci Evening meal Read Eng/Mats/Sci6.00
Revise multiple subjects across the day It might seem logical to spend one day on one subject, then move on to another subject each day. But, our brains don’t work that way. The longer we spend on a single subject, the more likely we are to grow bored, un-engaged, and stop learning the information we’re trying to force into our brains. Instead, plan to study multiple subjects each day. If you only have one subject left to revise, remember to break it down into different topics throughout the day.
How to motivate yourself to study
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” — Laozi, ancient Chinese philosopher
Making a startThe hardest part about revising, is to start revising. So how do you get past that roadblock?
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The amount you need to learn is too daunting, and the process is too boring. It’s sunny outside and you would rather be anywhere than here, at your desk, studying. We’ve all been there. Study motivation is the key to overcoming this. But how do you motivate yourself to study? Choose the subject you find least scary and put pen to paper. Note down the things you are confident you know within that subject, and then note down the areas where you know you need to improve. Soon, your brain will be actively engaged on the task, and it will be much easier to keep going.
Active revision is bestPractice testing
Self testing or practice testsDistributed (‘spaced’) practice
Practice that spreads out study over timeElaborative interrogation
Explaining why a fact or concept is trueSelf explanation
Explaining how new information is related to other known information
Interleaved practice A study session that will cover different subject areas
SummarisationWriting summaries of required texts
HighlightingMnemonicsImageryRe-reading
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The most common revision technique students use is also one of the most ineffective: reading notes. Sure, it seems like the most logical place to start. But - reading notes is a passive revision technique which doesn’t fully engage your brain. It isn’t an effective tactic for memorising information. Guess what. Copying out your notes word for word is just as ineffective. Be honest with yourself: how often do you find yourself copying out notes while your mind is thinking about something different entirely? Active revision is a far more efficient form of studying. Active revision is slower, but it provides three main benefits: It makes your brain work, which activates the memory centres of your brain, and makes you more likely to form strong memories of the information you’re trying to take in. It makes you re-assess the information you think you know, and forces you to work towards re-learning it. It is far more interesting than passive revision exercises. Test yourself: testing yourself is the most important aspect of your revision. Why? Because it is scientifically proven that devoted a certain amount of study-time to testing yourself cements information into your long term memory. This is known as the testing effect. Answering practice questions and asking a friend to test you are great ways to make sure you stay on top of your knowledge. Then, when you’re ready, make sure you try past papers. Past papers are the best pre-exam preparation. They test your knowledge under timed conditions and prepare you for the kinds of questions you’re going to need to answer. But, make sure when you’re doing past papers that you don’t look at your notes. There’s no point cheating yourself - the act of trying to remember something under pressure makes you far more likely to remember it in the real exam.
12 Revision Techniques1. Make effective notes2. Write down a summary of a topic3. Create flashcards (Quizlet)4. Draw mind maps5. Practice along with educational videos6. Discuss your ideas 7. Try teaching 8. Draw diagrams and tables 9. Create a slideshow presentation 10.Test your friends 11.Answer practice questions 12.Do past papers
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Make effective notes as you read through revision guides. Take the information you’re reading and extract the key points which will help you remember it. Copying text word for word is pointless. But, the act of summarising information with notes forces your brain to focus on the subject matter. Write down a summary of a topic before you move on to the next one. If you are able to sum up all of the key points from memory, you can confidently say that you know it. Create flashcards to distil information into an easily reviewable format. You can then use these cards to test your memory and find out which topics you need to revise more thoroughly. Draw mind maps to organise information visually. Mind maps help some people to picture information and remember the connections between key details. Practise along with educational videos. For some people, watching videos is far more engaging than reading. If you’re one of those people, make sure you actively take notes or practice questions while the video is running. This will prevent your mind from wandering. Discuss your ideas with your classmates and friends, especially for opinion-based subjects such as English Literature. Opening yourself to their ideas will help you formulate your own opinions. You should debate your ideas amongst each other, and try to persuade them with your own arguments. This will prepare you to express your opinions in the exam. Try teaching a topic to someone who knows nothing about it. If you can teach someone else about a topic, then you have a good grasp of it. Remember, if you recognise any gaps in your knowledge while you’re trying to teach a topic, make a note to go back and revise it. Draw diagrams and tables whenever appropriate. For some people, picturing a diagram is far easier than simply trying to remember the information that diagram represents. Create a slideshow presentation to summarise a topic. To create a PowerPoint presentation (or any similar slideshow format), you will need to work creatively to divide your topic into sections and visually organise it. This creative work will help you engage your brain and form long term memories. Test your friends and have them test you back. Remember - there’s no point cheating by using a textbook! If you don’t know the answer to a question, make a note and review it later. Answer practice questions to continually practice how you’ll apply your knowledge in an exam. You can find revision questions for any subject online. There are also handy revision apps such as Gojimo. But, remember that practice questions may not be a good representation of the questions you’ll face in the exam. Do past papers, under timed conditions, without your notes! There are only a limited number of past papers available online for your subject and exam board, so you should only attempt past papers when you think you’re ready to do so. But, when you do, this is the best possible way of testing yourself and preparing yourself for the exam.
Concentration curve - The Pomodoro technique When you begin to work the level of concentration is high
After a while your concentration beings to reduce
It improves a little when you think the end is near
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The Pomodoro technique: revise for 25 minutes, take a five-minute break. After 2 hours, take a 30-minute break. Start over. The reason for this is that your brain will retain a certain amount of information input. After 25 minutes, your information retention (your ability to remember stuff) decreases. Taking a break and doing something else for five minutes gives your brain a chance to “reset” and take in more information once again. Cramming is for fools!
Chunk learning Break work into chunks of time
How long? 25 mins
5 – 10 min breaks between 25 min study periods keeps your concentration at a higher level throughout
We need to change our focus to remain interested
Chunk learning
MSWVCABUR
RAC BMW SUV
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Chunking: group similar information into chunks, then group the chunks into bigger chunks! Try putting information into groups of threes, you’ll remember it better.
Regular review (revision) Take three minutes to review something you’ve learned recently. review after one hour, then that evening, then after one day, then one week, then one month. That’s only 15 minutes in a month you’ll end up remembering much more than if you dedicated 15
minutes to a single block of review.
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Repeat, repeat, repeat - repetition is how you create long term memories. By testing and re-testing yourself, you will continually identify areas that you need to improve on. Focus on those areas and repeat your revision for those tricky topics, this time using different strategies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVf38y07cfk
Here it is as a picture
Why do you need study breaks?
Short breaks between study sessions are scientifically proven to improve our levels of focus. “The brain is built to detect and respond to change”, according to the leader of that research. When we change task, we re-engage our brain. When we return to the same task again, we have improved levels of concentration.
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Here are some suggestions: Chat to your family or friends Try an exercise video Go for a walk in a garden or park Play with your pet Practice an instrument Play some sport Doodle something Whatever you do, the important thing is that you don’t take too long. That’s why it’s not advisable to watch TV or play games. It’s far too easy to get sucked in by these activities. Before you know it, you’ll have spent far too much time on break, and you’ll have to make up for it by working late into the evening.
7 Tips 1.Recognise stress symptoms2.Watch what you eat3.Stay physically active 4.Get enough sleep 5.Talk to someone 6.Organise your study environment7.Be your own person
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More often than not, students find themselves in great distress around the examination period. Over the years, research has revealed that there are various ways in which you can cope with exam associated stress. Some of these ideas may sound very ordinary but have been proven to help students stay calm and prepare better. Recognise stress symptoms It is crucial that you recognise the signs of being under stress in order to take action. The symptoms to look out for range from loss of appetite, not sleeping well, forgetfulness, increased stomach pains and headaches among others. If you experience any of these, it may be time to be proactive about managing the situation. Watch what you eat Your diet plays an important role in stress management and this is no exception during exam preparation. Eating a balanced diet gets you in a good mood for studying and helps recover the energy lost during the period. Further, you should steer clear of foods that contain excess sugar as they may create mood imbalances. The brain loves good fat! Eat lots of omega-3 rich fish such as salmon and mackerel and dark leafy greens and avocados. Stay physically active Taking part in physical activities is a tried and tested way for students to survive exams. Exercise helps clear the mind and boosts energy levels. Therefore, make the the time to go jogging or for a kickabout with your mates when preparing for their exams. Get enough sleep Sleeping habits tend to go hand in hand with the level of exam stress a student experiences. It is crucial to get enough sleep to rest your brain and wake up ready to tackle the exams of the day. Make an effort to finish studying early enough so you can get at least 8 hours of sleep before waking up the following morning. Talk to someone Find someone to talk to concerning the fear you have and the pressure you are facing during the examination period. You should avoid keeping stress locked up inside. Instead, share your thoughts with your parents, tutors or study partner. This is guaranteed to get that heavy load off your back and will make you feel less anxious. Organise your study environment Look for a place that is free from distractions and choose it as your designated study spot. The LRC is a popular option as it sets the mood for serious studying. Be your own person It is important to realise that you have different abilities to those of other students. You should create a study plan that suits you and your unique way of doing things. Don't be tempted to compare yourself with others who may seem to know it all as this may increase your anxiety. You are your only competition, try and improve on your personal results each time.
Parental revision kit
Make it active and interesting when possible
Test them on their homemade postcards
Get them to explain their posters to you
Let them teach you what they are trying to learn
OurPact
Thank you
Any questions applicable to everyone?
We will stay to answer individual questions Presentation will be available on the school website
