Straightaway, please consider: Would it be helpful for parents to: Leave you to it, warning about living in a cardboard box if you don’t revise? Confiscate your phone to stop you contacting their friends on Instagram? Be around– not in the room, but pottering about nearby to provide a kind of non-intrusive monitoring? Show an interest when they return from work and offer to test you or simply make you cups of tea? Empathise rather than go on the attack? Even small remarks can aggravate fear, such as saying, “Have you looked at your timetable?” or, “Do you know what you need to revise?”  Offer to help drafting a revision timetable? Take charge of back room operations: Make sure you have a well-ordered, quiet workspace with all the Post-it notes and fluorescent pens you need? Discuss removing your games console from your bedroom until exams are over? Ask you what you want from them? Ask “If I think you are not doing enough work, am I allowed to say anything and what’s a good time to say it?” Check you know how to revise?

What is the significance of this number? 138 This is the number of hours revision possible if you did – 1 hour Mon-Thurs; 2 hours at weekend; 10 hours half term; 50 hours Easter.

138 hours 1 hour each night Monday-Thursday (56) 2 hours each weekend (22) 10 hours February half term (10) 50 hours Easter holiday (50)

Easter Revision I suggest that for at least 5 days a week over the Easter holiday, you work a school day: Session 1 – 9:00-9:50 Session 2 – 10:15-11:05 Session 3 – 11:30 – 12:20 Session 4 – 1:15 – 2:05 Session 5 – 2:30 – 3:20

Timescales First exam is on 14th May 24 out of 54 exams before May half term – implications for revision Study leave likely to begin Monday 21st May Lessons and in-school revision optional thereafter.

Making the revision timetable Revision Planning Making the revision timetable

Principle 1: SPACED RETRIEVAL PRACTICE When we learn something, we forget it When we revisit something we’ve learned repeatedly, we remember it better This is shown in the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

Principle 2: Interleaving vs blocking “Blocking” your revision – focusing on one topic for a long time then moving on to the next topic – is inefficient. “Interleaving” your revision is far more effective as reducing the accessibility of information in memory fosters additional learning of that information.

Principle 3: Interleaving and chunking For interleaving to work, you have to break down your revision into “chunks” It’s no good putting “Biology” into your revision calendar – you need to be specific GCSE Biology includes: Health Responses to the environment Evolution Ecology Cells Photosynthesis Organisms and their environments Protein functions and uses Respiration Genetics Speciation

Revision timetable Date/Session Revision GCSE Exams Mon 8th April 1 Geog: Coasts 2 RE: Christian marriage 3 Maths: quadratic equations 4 Eng Lit: Macbeth 5 Science: Forces

The importance of study breaks: Study time periods should be broken down into 20-25 minute sections with small rests in between. We tend to remember first things and last things rather than the things in between. So the more well-spaced and short breaks we have, the more beginnings and endings we have, and the better our brain will be able to remember. Brief breaks are also essential for relaxation: they relieve the muscular and mental tension that inevitably builds up during periods of intense concentration.

So… Chunking Planning Break down the subjects you study into “chunks” you can revise Plan an interleaved revision schedule to cover the chunks you have created Build in rest breaks Spaced retrieval

Revision planner apps: My Study Plan (iOS) and Study Plan (Google Play). With My Study Plan, all you have to do is put in how many hours you want to spend on each subject, the date of your exam and how many hours you will revise for each day. The app will even work out how many hours you’ve worked for and how many you’ve got left to go. Timetable is one way to manage school life across your devices. The app even mutes your phone during revision sessions, in case you forget... Available on: Play Store https://getrevising.co.uk/planner

Why reinvent the wheel? Half-term Week 2 22-2 Unseen poetry LOTF   Week 2 22-2 Unseen poetry LOTF Week 1 29-2 OMM CP out 7-3 Writing - Leaflets DDD? Writing - Reports Writing - Reports 14-3 Reading Q1 DDD? Reading Q2 Reading Q3 21-3 Reading Q4 Bank Holiday Easter 11-4 18-4 VFTB Lit mock: LOTF/VFTB 25-4 Mock feedback Writing - articles Writing – speeches/talks Writing - reviews 2-5 Writing - letters Reading recap 9-5 Lit recap NOT IN 16-5 RE exam? Biology exam? Chemistry exam? TBC w/b 23-5 Lit Paper 1 Lit Paper 2

Day Date   T 28/2 French Art Vocational W 1/3 English Th 2/3 HSC Geog Drama 7/3 Maths 8/3 DT Music Spanish 9/3 Science 14/3 15/3 16/3 21/3 22/3 24/3 28/3 29/3 30/3 4/4 5/4 6/4 25/4 26/4 27/4 2/5 3/5 4/5

Would it be helpful for parents to: Leave you to it, warning about living in a cardboard box if you don’t revise? Confiscate your phone to stop you contacting their friends on Instagram? Be around– not in the room, but pottering about nearby to provide a kind of non-intrusive monitoring? Show an interest when they return from work and offer to test you or simply make them cups of tea? Empathise rather than go on the attack? Even small remarks can aggravate fear, such as saying, “Have you looked at your timetable?” or, “Do you know what you need to revise?”  Offer to help drafting a revision timetable? Take charge of back room operations: Make sure you have a well-ordered, quiet workspace with all the Post-it notes and fluorescent pens you need? Discuss removing your games console from your bedroom until exams are over? Ask you what you want from them? Ask “If I think you are not doing enough work, am I allowed to say anything and what’s a good time to say it?” Check you know how to revise?