Resources for Year 11 parents

As your son/daughter has now moved into their final year at Vale of York Academy, we’ve put together some key information to help students prepare for revision, examinations and make informed choices about their post-16 education. We will be adding to these resources throughout the academic year so please keep checking back. If you have any specific queries relating to your son or daughter’s final year at Vale of York Academy you can drop us a line via contact@voy.hlt.academy

At Vale of York Academy we recognise that exams are a stressful but very important time. We believe by following some simple rules anyone can be successful in their exams

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
Allen Lakein

In simple terms students need to:

• Plan their time
• Create a suitable place to work
• Plan WHAT to learn
• Plan HOW they will learn
• Make sure they build time for rest into their exam planners and revision timetables

Planning time and useful hints

We ensure that all Year 11 students have the tools they need to succeed with revision through our Year 11 revision skills day, ‘walking, talking mocks’ and our weekly exam preparation sessions that are built into the Year 11 tutor programme. Useful hints include:

• When creating a revision timetable the key is to be honest and realistic. Build in time to rest, in addition to mapping out the time that will be spent on subject content.
• Start early. Revision is reinforcing old knowledge, not learning anything new.
• Throughout your time at Vale of York get into best practise. Do homework at set times, met all deadlines.
• Plan from your exams and work backwards, build in birthdays etc. Be realistic.
• Somewhere to work – ensure that you have a quiet, calm place to work. If you struggle with this at home, see your Head of Year for help and support.
• Everyone needs a flat surface. Beds just do not work!
• Good lighting. You need to be able to see!
• Start early – all homework needs to be completed in these conditions. Get into best routines.

Plan what you will learn

• There is no point revising what you already know really well and can apply. Work out what you need to know, and what you don’t know. This is what you must concentrate on.
• Test yourself to establish how well you know something. Traffic light it:
• Green – I know it and can apply it
• Amber – I mostly know it but struggles to explain it
• Red – No-idea!

Plan how you will learn

Everyone learns in different ways, some of the following everyone MUST do but some suit only some people and subjects. Try different methods but remember you need to learn a topic but then you really want to be able to explain and teach it.

• Making notes and summarising
• Flash cards
• Mindmaps
• Quizzes
• Past exam papers
• Testing yourself with your friends

We are very proud of the academic achievement and believe this is in no small part to teaching students how to learn and work independently.

Year 11 study and revision skills presentation – October 2019