1. Supporting Your Child’s Learning at GCSE
Welcome
KS4 Parent Forum
Supporting Your Child’s Learning at GCSE

2. GCSE Grading System
June 2018

3. Why and how have GCSE’s changed?

4. When do these reforms affect GCSE students?

5. Reformed GCSE

6. New GCSE Grading Structure

7. GCSE 9-1 grading – standard and strong pass

8. Key stage 4 measures

9. The English Baccalaureate measure

10. How to support your child Ian Turner
GCSE Mathematics
How to support your child
Ian Turner

11. Department Changes
Increase in Number of Teachers Increase in Number of Classes Decrease in class size Enhanced pupil Learning

12. Syllabus Changes
We study for AQA 8300 Sit 3 Papers in total All 90 minutes, All 80 marks 1 is NON calculator, 2 calculator New grades 1-9 and Harder

13. How you can help Involve your child in everyday calculations
Ask them to explain what they have been doing in lessons
Review exercise book, is it neat, clear accurate, logical & methodical? Again get them to explain.
Set them of find similar questions to practise.
Help them in discussions to make links with other subjects

15. Warning Grade Boundaries

16. What can you do now?
Little and often is best – encourage bite sized moments of maths
Don’t give answers, ask questions instead
Ask your child to explain/teach you a topic – you learn 95% of what you teach to someone else
Don’t undermine the subject
The only way to learn mathematics is to DO mathematics

17. End

18. KS4 Parent Forum Science

19. New GCSE Curriculum Structure
Students have been studying the new terminally assessed GCSE course since the beginning of Y9. (Students should have kept their books from previous years to help with revision).
There is only one set taking the Triple Science course which includes GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
All other sets are taking the Combined Science (Trilogy) course.
Students in class 7 and 8 will also be taking the Entry Level Certificate(Double Award) in Science.

20. Grading
Students taking the Triple Science route will obtain 3 grades ranging from 9 to 1. Grade 9 is the highest.
Students taking the Combined Science route will get a grade consisting of 2 numbers ranging from 9-9 all the way to 1-1.
Students taking the Entry Level Certificate, in addition to the Combined Science course, will also obtain a grade Entry 1 to Entry 3 with 3 being the highest.
Foundation paper gives access to grades 1 to 5.
Higher paper gives access to grades 4 to 9.

21. Y11 Examination Dates Triple and Combined Science Examinations
Biology Paper 1 (15th May), Biology Paper 2 (11th June)
Chemistry Paper 1 (17th May), Chemistry Paper 2 (13th June)
Physics Paper 1 (23rd May), Physics Paper 2 (15th June)
For Triple Science each paper is worth 50% and 1hr 45mins in length- no coursework
For Combined Science each paper is worth 16.7% and is 1hr 15mins long- no coursework

22. Y11 Examination Dates
The Entry Level Certificate course is assessed continually using 6 Externally-set Assignments(ESA) and 6 Teacher-devised Assignments(TDA). In total the ESAs are worth 57% and the TDAs are worth 43%.

23. What can you do to help?
All students have given the opportunity to buy revision guides appropriate for their course in either Y9 or Y10. (If you do not have them please leave your name with me after the forum and I will add them to the next order).
Encourage students to attend revision sessions which commence soon after Christmas.
All students have been given access to Kerboodle, an on-line resource, for free. This resource contains a digital version of the textbook and many additional learning resources.

24. What can you do to help?
Make sure that students have an understanding of the command words for questions. (PowerPoint made available).
Encourage students to revise effectively using a variety of techniques e.g. mind mapping, mnemonics, flash cards or any other technique that involves active learning.
If possible, make a place available at home specifically for revision purposes.

25. Strategies for Learning and Revision
Both revision (before exam) and learning as go through the course – should not be done at the end but throughout! – going back over lessons/material from last week/month/at start of the course.

26. Tough Love
Mobile phones

27. “I’m revising”
Passive/inactive revision is almost pointless “I’m reading my notes……” Ineffective but requires little if any energy/effort so often liked by teenagers As teachers we have to battle against this ‘preferred’ technique regularly.

28. There is a place for reading through notes
Reading through notes is a precursor to revision. Do you understand? Yes – good – start revising No – find your teacher and ask for help It is REALLY difficult to effectively revise something you don’t understand especially as many exam questions are not simply ‘recall’ but examine understanding and application

29. Effective technique 1: Go over topics multiple times
Go over topics multiple times rather than cramming all of your revision for each subject into one block.
Revise one topic and then revisit it again a couple of days later and again a week later.
This will feel harder than revising the topic once but you will forget less.
This does mean that you will need to start your revision earlier but you are much less likely to forget it for the exam!

30. Effective technique 2: Test yourself
You should do regular tests of the material you are revising. Methods to do this can include:
Flash cards which have a question on the front and an answer on the back.
Work through past exam papers – many can be acquired through exam board websites.
Simply quiz yourself on key bits of information. You can do this yourself or work with a friend.
Create ‘fill the gap’ exercises to complete. For example: _________ is when customers buy a product again from the same business.
Create multiple choice quizzes to complete.
Put away your notes and write/sketch everything you know about the topic.
Make sure you go back over your work/answers to identify areas of weaknesses/mistakes and concentrate on these in future study.

31. Effective technique 3: Transforming revision notes into another format
This can include flash cards, a mind map, a timeline or a diagram.
This helps to make sure you have processed the information which means you will be able to remember it and understand it.
Turn visuals into text/explain them verbally
Work your way up to being able to draw from memory

32. Thinking about a different way to represent your work makes you think about the work
Most teenagers will say this doesn’t work for them. It does! They find it hard so look for an excuse not to do it

33. Effective technique 4: Diagrams
Images/pictures stick in our minds more easily
Draw a diagram to explain/represent a topic and write a sentence to explain each of the key points.
Tips:
Keep pictures simples - use single words/symbols/letters not sentences or paragraphs
Re-draw the diagram over coming weeks to ensure you remember it

34. Effective technique 5: Be the teacher
Teach the topic you have been revising to another pupil or your parents.
This makes sure that you can explain it fully and also helps to identify any areas that you are not sure of.
Most teachers in the room tonight will tell you that they really understood their subject properly after they started teaching it

35. Effective technique 6: Asking yourself why
Ask yourself why answers are true
For example;
In science, increasing the temperature can increase the rate of a chemical reaction….why?
In geography, the leisure industry in British seaside towns like Porthcawl in South Wales has deteriorated in the last 4 decades….why?
In history, the 1929 American stock exchange collapsed. This supported Hitler’s rise to power….why?
Exams always award more marks to students that know ‘why’

36. Effective technique 7: Annotate an exam paper
Annotate an exam paper to show the thinking that would go into answering each question (the exam skills rather than the content).

37. Other effective techniques
Completing past exam questions – including individual questions and whole papers
Videos – film yourself talking through answering an exam question or explaining a difficult topic. You can then watch this again.
Come up with concrete examples of ideas to help you understand and remember them.
Summarise a topic into 5 ‘trigger’ words. These will trigger memories of the key points for that topic. Use these to create more detailed notes or a mind map.
Use rhymes or anagrams for information that is difficult to remember. For example ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain’ to remember the colours of the spectrum

38. The importance of an exam question
Where possible use exam questions (may be a limited number on new courses) They show the required standard. The final grade awarded is not based on the number of hours spent revising but on how many of the questions are answered correctly.
Would you expect to win a Wimbledon final if you have never played tennis but you had read lots of facts about tennis? Same applied to exams

39. Ineffective revision techniques
Re-writing notes
Highlighting notes
Re-reading
This is because they make you feel like you know the material and may help you to remember the information in the short-term (e.g. just after re-reading your notes) but this will not last so you are more likely to forget the information for the exam.
These techniques should be used to highlight important information and make your revision notes but not as ways to help you remember that material.