Transcript Document

How do you support children
through the exam period?
[email protected]
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Aims of this evening
1. To enable parents to understand how
children revise and to guide how best to
support this process
2. To demonstrate revision techniques and tools
children can use
3. To explain the examination process
Context of 2015 can encourage fear
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Tuition fees and the changing nature of University
Importance of ‘C grades’ in Maths and English Language
Rising numbers of NEETS and youth unemployment
Apprenticeships on rise
Cuts- EMA, mental health, connexions
The ‘Ashcombe Safety Net’
“If you mess these up I don’t know what you will do”
• Parental anxiety- cost of University
• Fear of failure. “I’m only here because I have to”. “If I don’t
try, I cannot fail!...”
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Key to success
• Clear sense of what you want to achieve
• Thorough preparation- planning, health,
environment
• Correct materials
• Effective revision techniques
• Management of stress
• “Structure and Support”
• Parents can play a major role in this process
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But….How do you help to motivate students?
• Major concern• Should you interfere and tell children to work
yet run the risk of confrontation?
• In 2015, how do you ensure your children are
informed of the current situation yet avoid
triggering panic?
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What motivates your children?
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Key issues
1) All pupils want to do well- some find it more
difficult than others to start
2) Stress is a major factor surrounding young
people and many will go into defence mode
when confronted with threats
3) Success breeds success
4) Pupils need a sense that they are doing this
for themselves
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They are more child than adult
• Do we overestimate their maturity?
Intellectual
Moral
Physical
Emotional &
Psychological
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Adolescence
Intellectual Development
Moral Development
•Are in transition from concrete to abstract
thinking.
•Are intensely curious and dabble in a wide range
of pursuits, few of which are sustained.
•Prefer active over passive learning activities.
•Prefer interaction with peers during learning
activities.
•Respond positively to opportunities to
participate in real life situations.
•Are often preoccupied with self.
•Have a strong need for approval and may be
easily discouraged.
•Develop an increased understanding of personal
abilities.
•Are inquisitive about adults, often challenging
their authority, and always observing them.
•May show disinterest in conventional academic
subjects but are intellectually curious about the
world and themselves.
•Often show compassion for those who are
downtrodden or suffering and have a
special concern for animals and
environmental problems.
•Are moving from acceptance of adult
moral judgments to development of their
own personal values. (Nevertheless, they
tend to embrace values consistent with
those of their parents.)
•Are capable of and value direct
experience in participatory democracy.
•Greatly need and are influenced by adult
role models who will listen to them and
affirm their moral consciousness and
actions as being trustworthy role models.
•Are increasingly aware of and concerned
about inconsistencies between values
exhibited by adults and the conditions they
see in society.
Adolescence
Physical Development
•Experience rapid, irregular growth.
•Undergo body changes that might cause
awkward, uncoordinated movements.
•Have varying maturity rates, with girls tending
to mature one-and-a-half to two years earlier
than boys.
•May be at a disadvantage because of the varied
rates of maturity that require the understanding
of caring adults.
•Experience restlessness and fatigue due to
hormonal changes.
•Need daily physical activity because of
increased energy.
•Develop sexual awareness that increases as
secondary sex characteristics appear.
•Are concerned with body changes that
accompany sexual maturation
•Prefer junk food but need good nutrition.
•Are physically vulnerable because they may
adopt poor health habits or engage in risky
experimentation with drugs and sex.
Emotional and Psychological
Development
•Experience mood swings often with peaks of
intensity and unpredictability.
•Need to release energy, often in sudden,
apparently meaningless outbursts of activity.
•Seek to become increasingly independent,
searching for adult identity and acceptance.
•Are increasingly concerned about peer
acceptance.
•Tend to be self-conscious, lacking in selfesteem, and highly sensitive to criticism.
•Exhibit intense concern about physical growth
and maturity as profound physical changes occur.
•Increasingly behave in ways associated with
their gender as gender role identification
strengthens.
•Are concerned with many major societal issues
as personal value systems develop.
•Believe that their personal problems, feelings,
and experiences are unique to them.
The complexity of being an adolescent
• Stress and mental health issues are bigger
issues than apathy
• In an average secondary school with 1000
students- 100 mental health problems
including depression, self harm and eating
disorders
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Mental Health
• 1 in 10 children and young people aged 5 - 16 suffer from a diagnosable
mental health disorder - that is around three children in every class
• More than half of all adults with mental health problems were diagnosed
in childhood. Less than half were treated appropriately at the time
• Between 1 in every 12 and 1 in 15 children and young people deliberately
self-harm
• There has been a big increase in the number of young people being
admitted to hospital because of self harm. Over the last ten years this
figure has increased by 68%
• Nearly 80,000 children and young people suffer from severe depression
(Over 8,000 children aged under 10 years old suffer from severe
depression)
• The number of young people aged 15-16 with depression nearly doubled
between the 1980s and the 2000s
How can we support our children to
manage stress?
Need to balance
Some stress to get on with revision (results
do matter; future education and
employment may depend on exam results)
Not too much stress which may make them
give up! (Sense of perspective; realistic
expectations)
Key Issue- mental health is a major issue
with today's young people
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Two key messages
“What would you be happy with when you look
at your results in August?”
&
“Make sure you can tell yourself that you have
done your best”
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The Social Discipline Window
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What is a solution focussed approach?
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Introduced to the school by Henry Kiernan
All pupils want to do well
All children have strengths
All children can achieve with the appropriate support,
nurture and understanding
• Working together we can achieve much more
• Expectations of success by all is critical to achieving it
• How do we get there?
• Look to the future rather than the past
• 1-10 approach
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Pupil ownership
• Without pupils being involved conflict can develop
• “You must do some work?”
• School and work can become the way young people
choose to hurt parents when troubles arise
• By all working together with an expectation of
success the school becomes a shared aspiration
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Do Nothing
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“They’ve never worked and never will”
“The only way they will learn is by messing up”
“He’s always been poor at school”
“She’s always worked extremely well at school”
• Feeling that you can’t influence
• Have people given up on the individual?
• Is doing nothing sometimes the easiest option?
RESULT = No support and no control. Children do not work
and will not achieve
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Do To
• “You’ve got to do at least 8 hours a day”
• “The thing that upsets me so much is that you are capable of getting so
much better”
• “This is your final chance to make something of yourself”
Did this work when you where revising?
• “I will confiscate your Xbox if you don’t work”
• How does the child react?
• Does the child work as a result?
• Does the child have ownership of the solutions?
RESULT = No support and high control. Increase in tension amongst children
and adults. Adults own the revision process. A student MIGHT work
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Do For
• “I’ve produced a revision timetable for you”
• “I’ve bought him an iPad to try and get him to do some work”
• “What do you need? What can I do for you?”
• Are we excusing?
• Is our unconditional support hindering effort?
• Does it engender a lack of responsibility on the child's part?
• RESULT = High support and no control. Pupils may work but
do not own the revision process, therefore, are they
motivated?
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Do with
Most effective
How do we develop this approach?
• Encourage, do not pressurise
• Dialogue
• Support
• Rewards children earn
• Sense of student responsibility
• Revision that is shared
• Role models
• “Where are you? Where do you want to be this time next week? What do
you want as a final grade? How can we help?”
• RESULT – High support and control. Pupils own the process and parents
support
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Pastoral Intervention Meetings
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Where do you want to be next year?
What do you need?
How do we get there?
What do you need to do?
What can we do?
• Grade yourself (1-10). How do we get to a ???
by next week?
Role Models
• Education in South East often seen as a female
occupation
• Dad?
• Aunties/uncles?
• Cousins?
• Grandparents?
• Friends?
• Siblings?
• Sitting down and doing work together
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How can role models help?
• Encourage a sense of ambition- visits to
colleges, university, workplaces, etc.
• Some courses increasingly looking at GCSE
results- medicine, some graduate schemes
• Changes to A Levels
• Ensure college applications are completed
• Discussion about future
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What should we say?
• Identify things that are going well
• Praise effort and the 5 R’s of Learning
(Resilience, Responsibility, Reasoning,
Reflective, Resourcefulness)
• Avoid praising ability
• Ask- how can I help?
• Listen
• Interesting writers- Dweck, Atkinson, Smith
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Successful revision, techniques and
tools…
Learning information so that students can use it to answer questions.
Learning means that students have to understand something completely,
remember it and eventually use it (remember your driving test!!)
Some just
cannot start!
Depends how long it takes you to learn something everyone is different.
BUT they have a lot to learn:
 8-11 GCSEs;
 10-16 exams;
 2 years’ worth of work.
SO:
 Start early - don’t cram!
 Store knowledge in the long term memory;
 Avoid panicking, stressing out, having a melt down
and giving up!
NB Everyone
is an
individual!
Have they produced a plan?
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Have they produced a plan?
• Do they know what they need to know for
every subject? (get the specification from the
exam boards). Use highlighted pens monthly
to base revision around and increase
confidence
• http://getrevising.co.uk/planner
• App’s?
• Blank templates are available
• The family calendar!
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What should be on a plan?
Timing:
Draw up plan / timeline
Puts children
in control .. Not
a waste of
time!
Dates of exam in red
Blank out time you can’t revise in black
Allocate sessions
KEY SUPPORT- help to plan- put plan up in public part
of house
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Creating a plan
Get some paper and some
different coloured pens
Mix your subjects up
List all the subjects you do and make sure you
have broken them down into sub-categories
Decide which tasks you should only spend short bursts of
time on and which you should maybe spend a whole day on
to get out of the way
Make sure you write down any other commitments you have e.g. a
job, lessons, meeting, or social events
Decide what times you work best and put the tasks that require
more energy or concentration during your optimum times
Start your day off with something you
know you can accomplish
Give yourself regular
breaks
Have they produced a plan?
Timing for revision:
As a general rule, most effective
if knowledge is 'reinforced'
Short bursts
40 minutes maximum with 20 minute
breaks. However, 20-30 minute sessions
are better
Consider how best to ‘rest’
Weekends? Easter?
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How do they start?
Give 'the big picture’
What do you need to know
Look at past papers & examiner comments
Get the syllabuses and highlight monthly
Know what the exam ‘types’ are (essay, multi-choice,
practical, oral)
Start now
KEY SUPPORT- print off materials- read and summarise
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Turn classwork and information from textbooks into some form of
revision notes and then learn them.
This means the following:
 Revision needs to be active not passive; students actually have to engage with the
process.
 Reading through the folder and the textbook a few times will not do!
 Reading revision guides will not do either; pupils are taught specifically for each
exam board; revision guides tend to be quite general and so either contain too
much information or too little. Only use guides that departments suggest.
Exams require students to write, so they will probably need to do
quite a bit of writing to revise for your exams.
Linear notes on paper:
• Reduce what is in folder/exercise
book/textbook;
• Read through what you need to summarise
before you actually summarise it;
• Use headings and subheadings
• Keep notes brief;
• Write everything in a way that you understand;
• Do not copy huge chunks out;
• Add detail
• Underline key words; highlight; write in
different coloured pens;
• Use bullet points, arrows or numbers to keep it
clear and organised;
• Leave spaces to add points;
• Use arrows or dotted lines to link points.
Mind maps or spider diagrams:
• Key question, exam question or a
key topic in the centre;
• Subtopics or subheadings;
• Add key pieces of information;
• Develop some of your points;
• Add symbols or images;
• Use different coloured pens or
highlight different points;
• Use different sized pieces of
paper.
Revision cards:
• A5 or A6;
• Key questions, headings or subheadings on each one and key
information;
• Lots of cards with different information, answering one question;
• Move them around or stick them down on larger pieces or paper or
around your room with blue tack.
Post it notes:
 Definitions;
 Bullet point the answer
to key questions;
 Different post it notes,
each containing different
parts of an answer to
one question;
 Can be moved around,
linked or prioritised.
Drawing memory anchors or picture based notes:
 Combination of key words, numbers and
pictures;
 Create a key;
 Use a combination of notes and pictures.
Flow charts or timelines:
 Large pieces of paper (rolls of
wall paper or pieces stuck
together);
 Key dates, ideas, processes or
stages;
 Add the information as you go
along;
 Use different coloured pens or
highlighters;
 Add images or diagrams.
Plenty or exam papers and questions:
 Revise a topic and attempt an exam
paper;
 Use the questions as headings and
subheadings for revision notes,
mind maps and cards;
 Get your head round the skills
needed for each question;
 Recognise the question types;
 Apply formulas you have learnt
(especially for science and maths);
 Make a note of the question you
have no idea about.
Other techniques:
 Songs; poems or raps!
 Mnemonics (devices to help you
remember numbers and words);
 Quizzes;
 Question and answers;
 Read, cover, up, say, write, check;
 Role play;
 Teach somebody else;
 Read, summarise (write), record
(speak) on recording devise and
play back (listen).
 Colour code text picking out
different points each time;
 Create Venn diagrams or diamond 9
shapes.
Other resources:
• If you have worked throughout the
course of your GCSEs your
folder/exercise book and any
textbook your teacher recommends
should be more than enough to
revise and get top marks. You can
however also use additional
resources:
• Getrevising.co.uk (you can make
flashcards and revision notes and it
tests you interactively);
• U2learn.com (gives you links to all
the key subject based websites that
have handy revision material, like
GCSE bite size).
Where will revision take place?
• School exam timetable (published today)
• School revision periods
• Home? – test each other. Do mock papers
yourself and challenge/bet with your child
• What days will you work?
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How can we help to create a positive
environment?
Is the room
well oxygenated?
tidy?
bright and light?
pleasant to work in?
quiet?
is it where they sleep?
can they leave books out?
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Is it a pleasant environment?
Basic preparation:
Filed notes – parents are brilliant at this!
No TV
Sound?
Organisation helps relieve stress
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Have they got the right equipment?
Students feel better about revising if you they the right equipment
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Pens and pencils; different colours;
Highlighters, felt pens;
A4 or A3 folders to store your class notes and revision notes;
Document or cardboard wallets;
Plastic wallets;
Exercise books or notepads;
File paper;
A5 or A6 Revision cards;
A3 or A4 plain or coloured paper;
Wall paper for timelines;
Post It notes;
Recording device (to play back)
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Gobble up good grades
Why it's important to maintain a balanced diet throughout the
exam period
• Although weighing only 2% of total body weight, the brain uses
approximately 20% of the body's energy at rest. This is why
regular, nutritious meals are important during exam time.
• The brain is powered by energy which comes from broken down
food. The primary source of energy for the brain is glucose
which comes from carbohydrate rich foods like breads and
pasta.
• Food influences mood, but mood also influences food choice.
There is no magic food to relieve stress, but we would
recommend that you avoid skipping meals at all costs.
• There is no such thing as good or bad foods for exams, or any
other time of the year. There are however bad habits!
Are they eating a healthy diet?
protein for the brain (fish, eggs, milk);
carbohydrate + bananas for energy (chocolate effects
don’t last as long!!)
Water
How much caffeine?
Breakfast?
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Could you help in bringing notes
together?
Look at the text books
Look at exercise books
Look at teacher support notes
Look at any other revision guides / web sites
etc.
Produce clear exam notes- ideally typed so
you can add to them
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Visual
Learning
Styles
Auditory
Kinaesthetic
What methods can be used to help revision?
Visual Learner
flashcards
posters
spider diagrams / mind maps
PowerPoint
TV programmes
Bitesize videos
YouTube
Film
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What methods can be used to revise?
Auditory Learner
Say/record list aloud- ipod
Say spellings aloud
Teach your friends and family
Word link
Quizzes/ mini tests from family members
Podcasts
Group revision
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I-tunes
• Podcasts
• Apps
• I-tunes U
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What methods can be used to revise?
Kinesthetic Learner
 mini whiteboards / frames
 rhythmic action
 verbalise
 match flashcards
 Computer games
 Bitesize tests and other similar exercises
 Interactive tests
 write out (notes - summary -summary again - key words on cards - carry round and test yourself)
 get someone to test aloud (friend, family) - if you can explain it to someone else, you can explain it in
an exam!)
 ask questions
 create poster/PowerPoint
 do practice papers under ‘timed’ conditions
 Discussion
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If you don’t
know your
username and
password ask
now…
How do they prepare?
• Fronter
• Go to Exams Index
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Sam Learning
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Internet
• MyMaths.co.uk
• Username- ashcombe
• Password- volume
• www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
• www.s-cool.co.uk
• Past papers now widely available on net from the
exam boards
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What can I do to help aid revision?
• Sit down and discuss key content from syllabuses
• Help organise, including downloading syllabuses
and past questions
• Purchase new equipment
• Help tidy
• Be involved in the ‘active revision’ process
• Help manage stress
• Reward effort, bravery, reflection and maturity
• Consider who is the best ‘role model’
The exam period
What are the exam boards called?
1) AQA
• www.aqa.org.uk
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Public Examinations:
2) Edexcel
• www.edexcel.org.uk
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Public Examinations:
3) OCR
• www.ocr.org.uk
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Public Examinations:
3) WJEC
• www.wjec.co.uk
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Public Examinations:
The morning?
Mobile Phones and technology?
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Frequently asked questions
What happens if the pupils miss / are late
/ clash for a Public Examination?
Clash: tell us as soon as possible (although we
have tried and identify them);
specific arrangements will be made on an
individual basis
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Frequently asked questions
What happens if the pupils miss / are late /
clash for a Public Examination?
There are strict regulations about what we can do for
pupils who are late; if problem ring school immediately
and get into school as quickly as possible
If pupils do not sit exam, no marks unless there is a
doctor’s note given to us
If pupil is unwell, the best approach is to come in and
sit the exam, and then we can put in Special
Consideration report
(v. helpful if this is supported by doctor’s note - can be
obtained after the exam)
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Frequently asked questions
What happens on results day?
Thursday 20th August, 10 o’clock
What if I’m on holiday?
Enrolment for Sixth Form
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Main points
 Find balance between working hard and working too much
 Devise revision timetable for outside lessons
 "You can only do your best!“
 Handouts on your chair and will be on website
 For concerns contact [email protected]
or [email protected]
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