Helping your son/daughter to make the best of their final year at Scalby School. November 28th 2017

Why are the Pre-Public examinations important? They provide information for college and apprenticeship references. They provide information to teachers that may decide on the tier of paper students sit in the Summer. They provide information for parents. They will provide students with examination experience and practice. If revision is undertaken properly, it will provide a good basis of knowledge for the Summer examinations.

Learning time after the January PPE exams until the GCSEs begin in May. 13 weeks 54 days

How much revision time? A minimum one hour a night on school nights, homework permitting. At least three 2/3 hour sessions at weekends. Revision throughout the Christmas break apart from: First weekend Christmas Day and Boxing day New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

Scalby School Pre Public Examination programme December and January 2017

When do the PPEs take place? GCSE Maths PPEs GCSE French Speaking 1st , 4th and 5th December Week commencing 11th December

When do the PPEs take place? All other subjects 8th January to 19th January 2018

Do all subjects have a PPE? There is no PPE in these subjects GCSE Art and Design GCSE Textiles GCSE Resistant Materials

When do students receive their results? PPE Results Celebration – 31st January 2018 Copies of results posted to parents Year 11 Parents Evening – 1st February 2018 Appointment sheets sent to parents 8th January 2018 Parents can make appointments up to noon on 1st February

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s Parental support is 8 times more important in determining a child’s academic success than social class. You are here

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s To make a real difference: You don’t need to be an expert in all their subjects You don’t need to give up your life and responsibilities You just need to spend the time you have in the best way

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s Attendance is key If they are at school, they are in lessons They can attend intervention after school They can be given homework – which they need to do! ½ a day a week off = 1 GCSE grade Last week 37 Year 11 students had ½ a day off or more

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s All students are different Some are better at organising themselves than others That is where you come in – Support Encouragement Interest

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s Agree a balance Stick to the agreement but be flexible They can fall behind or lose motivation – don’t berate or threaten them Talk through the issues, acknowledge their feelings Use the 80/20 rule Teenagers are often all or nothing ‘catastrophic’ approach

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s Revision should already be underway – the sooner they start the less they will have to do each day, the less they will be Stick to start and finish times Provide plenty of breaks and healthy snacks Provide plenty of water

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s Shelve the battles that don’t need winning just yet Help prepare you child for the exam – talk with them about when it starts, how long it lasts for, what are the main topics that might come up. Don’t ‘over egg’ this – they may have worked all day and have come down stairs to relax

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s The BIGGEST mistake students make is not allowing enough time for revision. They then get demotivated as the task seems too big If they tell you they have left it too late – It is never too late – until they enter the exam room

Parent/carer guide to surviving GCSE’s Before the exams

GCSE Mathematics Pearson-Edexcel Specification 1MA1 3 exams, each 1 hour 30 minutes Paper 1 – Non calculator - May 24th Paper 2 – Calculator – June 7th Paper 3 – Calculator – June 12th

Key Points to successfully passing at grade 4 or higher Plan regular times across the week to revise by completing as many exam questions as possible (PPE’s this Friday so should be seeing this happening already!) Use a memory aid technique to learn all the facts and formulae needed for the exams e.g. Leitner card system Learn your calculator keys well Attend regular revision with your class teacher (Starts again w/c 29th January 2018)

An examiner’s experience Check answers are reasonable Show working e.g. if a question requires a formula write it down first Recognise key words e.g. show that, explain, compare, is David right? On calculator papers use them even for what seems the simplest of calculations e.g. time question adding 102 minutes to 6.45 p.m. and getting 8.28 p.m.

The exams Language Literature Paper ONE (2 hours) Macbeth Poetry Anthology Paper TWO(2 hours 30 mins) mins A Christmas Carol ‘Modern’ prose or play Unseen Poetry Paper ONE (1 hour 45 mins) Extract from a 20th C novel Narrative Writing Paper TWO (2 hours) TWO non-fiction articles (one 19th C and on 21st) Two pieces of ‘writing for purpose.’ PPEs in January and March

Help! Every lesson counts! Revision guides for English Language Revision guides for English Literature Snow Day booklets! (‘Snooklets’) Weekly homework. This IS revision. Intervention on Tuesdays Nearer to the examinations, we will also provide extra sample past papers as soon as they become available. Remember, your teacher wants to help! E. Granger … S. Dowey … E. Vickers … C. Jones … H.Pegg Help! e.stockill@scalbyschool.org.uk

Writing ideas… Write a letter to Father Christmas. Write a short story. Why not write to granny thanking her, at last, for that super jumper she gave you at Christmas or to the local council complaining about the two weekly bin collection? Write to Theresa May to persuade her to change the voting system so that 16 year olds can vote. Show off by using sophisticated punctuation. What about challenging yourself to use a semi-colon on Facebook, ellipses on Instagram and embedded clauses in your texts? Get yourself a dictionary. Spike Milligan read a page from his dictionary everyday; he was a superb writer. This is a great way to improve your vocabulary.

Reading ideas… READ – anything! Remember, Paper TWO uses non-fiction and media texts so READ newspapers, magazines, autobiographies, film reviews… Test yourself- you could even find your own articles and write your own questions. Re-read those Literature texts. Get yourself some Post-It-Notes and mark important chapters, quotes and extracts. Did I say READ?

AQA Science GCSEs Three things to do: Revision Guides – from the prep room (£2.75 or £5.50) learn the key facts and ideas. The AQA exam board website for specimen papers http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/exams-guidance/find-past-papers-and-mark-schemes Proper exam technique: read carefully – answer as much as you can. Think – What is this like?

The first part of the question said: “ Fish live in water. They have gills to take in oxygen from the water. The gills have a large surface area.”

GCSE Specification Code Biology Paper 1/2 Chemistry Physics Combined Science 8464 1 h 15m each 8461 1 h 45 m each 8462 8463

GCSE Combined Science Biology topics Chemistry topics Physics topics Paper 1 1-4 1-5 Paper 2 5-7 6-10

GCSE Triple Science Biology GCSE topics Chemistry GCSE topics Physics GCSE topics Paper 1 1-4 1-5 Paper 2 5-7 6-10 5-8