Year 11 Mocks Emergency Revision Calendar

If Year 11s need to structure their revision between now and the end of the exam period, they might find this calendar useful. Once students have filled in their exam dates (using the information at the back of the booklet), they should work out which topics they are going to revise and how they are going to revise them. We recommend they use our "Pass It!" revision system which students have been introduced to in ViP lessons. This involves breaking each revision session into three phases "Prepare It!", "Learn It!" and "Test It!" - essentially, working out what they will learn, then learning it and then testing to see what they have remembered. Each, of the three phases will take around half an hour meaning that a revision session should take around 1 and a half hours. On holidays and during study leave, I think it is a reasonable expectation for students to complete three revision sessions (i.e. a total of 4 and half hours). It makes sense for students to vary which subjects they revise in their plan so that in a single day they might study a topic each in, for example: History, Maths and Science. Planning the revision period is a great way to make sure that students cover everything they need to in a way that manages potential stress.

Please note that the exam information in the calendar in a summary and does not include some access arrangements - students MUST refer to their own copy of the exam timetable that has been distributed this week.

Revising for the Mock Exams

At the assembly with the Leadership Team on Monday, Mr Taylor talked about how students should revise and distributed this handout which gives some useful guidance on how best to prepare for the mocks.

Follow SMRT Revision on Twitter

If you want to be kept even more up to date with revision matters,then follow us on Twitter. You can do this by clicking the "Follow" button at the top of the Twitter feed on this page.

Supporting Year 11 students

Over the past week, Mr Taylor has held a series of assemblies for Year 11 students designed to remind them of some of the things they will need to do in order to achieve their potential in their exams next summer. The following is a summary of what was said to students:

1) Arrive on time – set the alarm on your phone so you get up early enough to get to school on time. Go straight to each lesson on the bell. Save your conversations with your friends for lunchtime and breaktime. 5 minutes lost each lesson = 2 days lost each month

2) Have the correct equipment – leave any distractions (iPod, phone etc.) in your locker. Pack your bag the night before with the correct equipment. Make a few of copies of your timetable: leave one in your bag, one at home, one with your tutor (they won’t mind), and one in your locker.

3) Try your best –Answer questions in class. Make sure you focus on getting as much work done as possible. Don’t distract other people. Ask for help if you need it.

4) Check your work for Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar – Read back through any completed piece of work. At the very least, check for the following: key word spellings (look on the walls of your classroom); full stops (at the end of sentences) and capital letters (at the start of sentences and for people and places); commas (read the sentence back in your head, when you pause, put a comma) and common spelling errors (“who’s” and “whose”, “their”, ”there” and“they’re” etc.).

5) Complete your homework on time – Bring your planner with you to each lesson and write down the homework. Ask your teacher if you are not sure exactly what to do. If you find the homework difficult, see your teacher before the lesson for help. If you are struggling to find a place to work or you need a set time to do the work and want someone to check up on you, then see Mr Taylor and I will sign you up for lunchtime or afterschool homework club.

6) Attend boosters and catch ups – There are lots of boosters running in lots of subjects, your teachers are going out of their way to help you – do not waste the opportunity. See your class teachers for more details.

7) Revise effectively – you will be having a VIP lesson on revision and there are hints and resources on Fronter (KS4 revision room). If you want any help with revision –see Mr Taylor.

Any opportunity that you get to reinforce or discuss the above with your son/daughter would be greatly appreciated.

Boosters and Catch Up Sessions

There are loads of opportunities for students to either catch up or get ahead in their GCSE subjects, check out the table below for just some of the things which students can access:

Who	What	Where	When	Who
Maths with RKi	Set 4 homework help	D11	Tuesdays 12.15	Set 4 Maths
History with MLa and JDe	Revision of all topics in Medicine and Germany	TC4	Tuesdays 3.20	All GCSE History students
French and German with AMc	Drop in session for all aspects of languages	T11	Fridays 2.25	All MFL students
Key Stage 4 lunchtime h/w club with APa	A chance to do a quick blast of hw or revision in a supervised environment	TC5	Thursdays 12.15	Everyone – some of you will be required to attend.
French with HCL	Lunchtime drop in	TC11	Wednesdays 12.15	All MFL students
Product Design with SNE	Catch up or get ahead	DT area	Any lunchtime except Fridays	All Product Design students
DT with VJa	Catch up sessions	DT area	Wednesday 3.15	DT students
Music with PDi	Composition	B4	Wednesday 12.15	All GCSE Music students
Geography	Revision on various topics – see your teacher for details	TC	10th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 22nd and 23rd October	All GCSE Geography students.
Extra 5 Literacy programme with ITa and PBo	How to get 5% extra in your GCSEs by improving your spelling, punctuation and grammar.	TC6 and B10	Monday and Wednesday lunchtimes	By invite but see Mr Taylor if you want to sign up.

Preparing for the Mocks - November 2013

In the next two weeks, the VIP team will be devoting two lessons to teaching Year 11 students how to revise. The first lesson focuses on the "Prepare It!", "Learn It!", "Test It!" method that we encourage the students to use. You can download a copy of the lesson plan that is used here. In the second lesson the students focus on memory techniques. In the video clip below, one strategy which students may find useful is discussed: