Key information for a successful

Year 11

Ms Howell: Head of Year

Key DatesDay of Week Date Item

Thursday 05/09/19 Welcome to Year 11

Thursday 19/09/19 Post 16 Evening

Tuesday 13/11/19 Mock Exams start

Thursday 10/01/19 Mock results released

Thursday 16/01/19 Parents evening

Thursday 13/03/20 Prom Fashion show (provisional)

Mid June

tbc

Celebration day

Friday 19/06/20 Year 11 Prom

Opportunities for the students over the coming

year

Student Principals, Pixl Think Hard Programme, Post 16 Information,

Study/Revision Skills Sessions, Personal Statement & Support for Post16 Applications.

Rise to the Challenge Rise to the Challenge profile which leads on to the Prom – celebration of Year 11 will take place in June.

Key Aspects of Rise to the Challenge

Student ownership – linked to attendance and class charts points.

Mature conversations will be had on a regular basis with students on their progress throughout the year.

Mr Snape: Vice Principal

Exams•All exams at end of course – May/June 2020

•Watch out for letters/exam entry sheets from March onwards

•You will have to sign and confirm you are happy with the entries we are making

•Amendments have deadlines; missed deadlines incur costs

•Keep all paperwork and results sheets

•Keep exam information on display

Exam Preparation•Period 6 – staying until 4pm to complete work in

subjects; it helps to free up evening time when it is harder for students to get to work!

•Easter revision

•May half term revision

•Revision study skills sessions

•November and March mock exams

•Breakfast club – January to March

•A fluid revision/exam preparation timetable with extra sessions prior to each exam

Attendance

•Get them to school everyday, on time

• “My child has 95% attendance so that’s pretty good”

•95% attendance = half a day of missed lessons every two weeks

•95% attendance = two weeks of missed lessons each year

•Equivalent to half a years’ lessons missed for a GCSE option subject

Supporting revision•Find a quiet space to revise; in their room isn’t

always best…

•Get off social media; turn off devices

•Keep them fed and watered

•Monitor them so they have breaks

•Get them to plan their ‘rewards’ for revision – e.g. I want to watch the football later so I need to do an hour’s revision now

•Encourage them to ask for help testing their knowledge

•Make sure they have the resources

Supporting them during exams

•Have a separate exam pack of resources ready to pack specially for exams – make sure it includes and calculator, protractor and any specialist equipment too!

•Keep the timetable on the fridge, front door, back door… in fact as many places as possible

•Get them to put exams in their calendars and on yours to avoid morning/afternoon mix ups

•Don’t ring or text during an exam!

Mrs Bonner: Head of English

English Year 11

Be positive

Show them the GCSE Top Tips by Unjaded Jade on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c2u--KkoqI

How you can help

•Students should re-read texts, at least 3 times over the 2 years

•Watch the film versions of texts with them and get them to discuss the author’s key ideas with you.

•Ensure they read for pleasure – develops writing style and vocabulary.

•Try to get them to read news articles. Share your ideas with them.

How you can help

•Develop their vocabulary – family word of the week, perhaps.

•Make sure they have the set texts – Jane Eyre, Macbeth, Animal Farm.

•Think about investing in revision guides, if you haven’t already.

•Encourage them to watch Mr Bruff AQA GCSE revision videos or Mr Salles, or Mrs Whelan.

Little and oftenA set of tasks that should take no more than an hour. These are in addition to homework

Support

•P6 – An additional hour of input and practice.

• Instead of PE – for a few underachieving students we provide small group intervention. Please support this.

• Later in the year we offer breakfast sessions (7.45am for 8am start, bacon roll included).

•PIXL Lit. Soon to be relaunched. This is an app that helps students revise the literature texts.

Stay in touch

•Communicate with us – any concerns

Mr Ferrier: Head of Maths

Maths Year 11

2018-2019

What have we learnt from 3 years of results from the new GCSE?

More content and much harder!•A level material now in higher paper•Higher material now in foundation paper

Strong, Experienced Team

11x1 Mrs Allen (8) Miss Arbon (1)

11x2 Mrs McIver (9)

11x3 Mr Ferrier (8) Mrs Mawer (1)

11x4 Mrs Beaney (6) Mrs Mawer (3)

11y1 Miss Arbon (9)

11y2 Mrs Jones (9)

11y3 Mr Ferrier (9)

StructureClasses are based on ability.

We aim for higher tiers of entry for classes:

11x1, 11x2, 11y1, 11y2

(11x2 & 11y2 will be decided on mock results)

Approximately half the students in 11x1 will have one lesson a fortnight studying Additional Maths, which will help them access the grade 8 & 9 content of the GCSE

Also…The following classes will be entered into the foundation level:

11x3, 11x4, 11y3

11x4 will have 3 lessons a fortnight supporting their numeracy, looking at real-life situations, finance and supporting their basic numeracy. The remaining 5 lessons follow the usual GCSE syllabus.

Tier of Entry• Borderline students are more likely to achieve a grade 5 on

the foundation paper than on the higher

• To be entered into the higher tier for the final GCSEs in May/June students must achieve at least 25% in the November mock exam and this should rise to 30% in the March mock exam.

• To achieve this grade, students in all higher classes need to work hard from the very beginning.

Support…

•A small group of targeted students will spend 2 tutor sessions a week with Mr Ferrier

•There will also be some extra small group support offered by Ms Johnson

Support•Thursday Evening 17:30-19:00

• 16 students invited to the sessions that target a specific area students dropped significant marks in.

•Saturday Morning 9:30-11:30• Saturday morning sessions for up to 20 students in the weeks

leading up to the exams.

•Pre GCSE Evenings17:00-19:00• Invited students can bring a take away along and have a light

touch revision session the night before the exams, this has been very popular over the last three years.

Personalised targets

Example of Revision TimetableWeek Beginning Revision Time

5th August 2 x Corbett Maths 5-a-Day https://corbettmaths.com/5-a-day/ 20 mins

12th August 2 x Corbett Maths 5-a-Day 20 mins

19th August Personal Topic 1 + 2 x Corbett Maths 5-a-Day 45 mins

26th August Personal Topic 2 + 2 x Corbett Maths 5-a-Day 45 mins

2nd September Personal Topic 3 + 2 x Corbett Maths 5-a-Day 45 mins

9th September Personal Topic 1 + Angles and Averages 1 hour

16th September Personal Topic 2 + Area & Perimeter 1 hour

23rd September Personal Topic 3 + Fractions (+, -, x, ÷) 1 hour

30th September Personal Topic 1 + Percentages 1 hour

7th October Personal Topic 2 + Algebra (simplifying expressions and solving linear

equations)

1 hour

14th October Personal Topic 3 + Probability 1 hour

Revision MaterialsAll students have had the opportunity to buy revision materials from us. I will send a list out with the revision timetable by the end of September.

I would recommend, based on student feedback, the Corbett Maths Cards.

PotentialYear 10 Mock GCSE Results 4+ Increase

•2016 63.6% 76% +12.6%

•2017 68.4% 84% +15.5%

•2018 55.2% 74% +18.8%

•2019 65.3% ? ?

Finally…

We can offer all the support and enrichment/ revision opportunities we can. However, it comes down to the student engaging in the subject and the work, following classroom expectations, having the confidence and self-belief to push themselves in the understanding that their maths GCSE grade is one that colleges, universities and employers will look at.

Dr Scorgie: Head of Science

•We deliver 2 learning paths (exam board is AQA):•Trilogy – 2 GCSEs attained •Separate sciences – 3 GCSEs attained

•Taught by specialist teachers with extensive knowledge of the Biology, Chemistry and Physics content

•Exam dates in 2019:•B1 – May 12th B2 – June 1th

•C1 – May 14th C2 – June 10th

•P1 – May 20nd P2 – June 12th

•CGP revision guides available to purchase through online payment

•Seneca

•Tassomai

•BBC bitesize

•Doc Brown Chemistry

•Primrose Kitten

•Doodle Science

•Guided feedback will be provided on each assessment – personalised to each student’s attainment needs

•PiXL resources - regularly used in lessons and shared with students

•Walking Talking Mocks – throughout the school year

•Fix-IT Fridays

Dr K Scorgie Email: kscorgie@tbha.org.uk