Raising your raising standards…

Here are some suggestions on ways you can help raise standards with a particular focus on Year 11s…

Assuming you are at the stage of the year where your Year 11 have sat their first mocks, have received their results and completed their post mock lessons with DIRT tasks and they may also have completed their Exam Wrappers too.

P.S- DO NOT forget these crucial points when organising your mock exams-

During mocks – leaders need to be aware of the heavy/heavier marking & feedback load.
Number of papers. Length of paper. Subject. All of this needs to be taken into consideration rather than a one size fits model.
There’s lots of ways we can help… 🧵

— Amjad Ali (@TeachLeadAAli) March 9, 2022

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So what now? What else should/could/might we do to help raise standards?

• Firstly, get your students to complete a Post Mock Action Plan– HERE IS A REVISED VERSION AFTER SECOND SET OF MOCKS. this is a document assigned to all students in Year via their Google Classroom. (I have set up a whole year group Google Classroom with every student in Year 11, the Careers Advisor, every tutor, Head of Year, and subject leads- they can all post whole year group messages, revision posts and so on.)
• The Post Mock Action Plan is designed to ensure that ALL students know what grades they scored, what effort they THINK they put in, and what attitude to learning score their teachers actually awarded them. The document also gets students to reflect on whether they have used the vast array of support mechanisms that are available to students. Special shout out to @Lamb_Heart_Tea for her Exam Wrapper document, which I tweaked to create this Plan.
• Download a version of the document here.

• After this has been completed analyse your data according to your students effort scores; Who are your High Effort Low Attainers, your Low Effort High Attainers, or your High Effort High Attainers and Low Effort High Attainers? (This is based on PIXL’s Horsforth Quadrant work.) You set your parameters,;what constitutes high effort or high attainment? Current against predicted grades? Or Current against FFT20 or FFT50 grades… I will leave that to you.
• Once you have assigned your students into a particular quadrant then use specific strategies to work with those students. Here I have collated over 40 different intervention strategies to help you and your students…
• So, what else… After the Post Mock Action Plan, I arrange to meet every single student to run through it. These are 1:1 meetings. I do these before school, break, lunch, in my non-teaching time and after school. This takes time and effort!
• Overwhelmingly students tell me they think they have put more effort than their teachers think, and that they think they have revised lots, but can’t really quantify how much or HOW they have revised.
• So, teach them. Teach them specifically how to revise. To enable this we run a bespoke Tutor Time programme. This includes a day in the week for students to go to a computer room; they will access the Year 11 Google Classroom here. There will also be a day of the week where students are mentored by their tuttees. They will also work on PIXL Catch Up Booklets or specific revision two days a week. Some subjects also run Period 0 here.
• Here is a revision stategy that every teacher should teach their students- the Leitner Model. Click here for resources.
• Other strategies you can use- run a Period 6 timetable– after school for bespoke revision.
• How are your utilising your careers advisor? Are you aware of the students NEET scores? Are you organising next step trips and guidance?
• Provide Templates for Revision Timetables
• Provide How to Revise CGP Revision Guides
• Coordinate Revision Guides purchase to centralise and streamline the purpose.
• Have you thought about how you reach parents/Carers? How do you access them? Click here for some ideas!
• Things to consider; when are your parents/carers evenings? Is data available?
• What is your assembly schedule – who delivers the assemblies? Why? What messages are being given?
• When sharing how longs left? Will countdowns be useful? Click here.
• Here is a PowerPoint on Revision techniques!

As RSL I get EVERY single year 11 to complete a Post Mock Action Plan.
I then meet EVERY single one of them to go through it.
I then signpost more efficient/effective methods to revise.
The best one I share for memorisation is…

— Amjad Ali (@TeachLeadAAli) January 23, 2023

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I will add some more ideas…

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