By Rory Edwards
Rory Edwards is a local parent, teacher of 28 years and a school governor. He offers us an insight into certain dilemmas parents might face throughout the school year.
The Christmas season may be over but for students in years 11 and 13, they now have to deal with the fact that 2022 will be THE year, the year that they sit their A levels or GCSEs. They will have many thoughts about this in the forthcoming months and in my experi-ence, most of these will be negative. Between the ages of 15 to 18, the years that they will be sitting these exams, children don’t yet have the life experience to know that doing well or badly won’t define their future lives.
So what’s the secret to success? In an ideal world, the students would learn all the subject content first time round, they would then re-vise as the exams draw nearer and then, in August, pass the exams with flying colours. If only it were that simple. Seeing as the tim-ing of this article leaves just 5 to 6 months before their exams, let’s concentrate on the revision part. Let’s look first at what could go wrong with revision: not having a revision timetable; not knowing where to start; only revising the parts that they know; leaving things to the last minute; not even revising at all; How many of these ring a bell? Hopeful-ly you’re not having any flashbacks to your own school days.
What can we do to make a difference? Many parents feel lost during the exam year because their children’s experience is so dif-ferent to their own experience. Is it easier to leave it to the “experts” at school rather than trying to help? Yes and no, but that clearly is not the right thing to do!! Almost every study that has been done shows that students whose parents who are engaged in their education are much more likely to succeed. Parental engagement (as we like to call it in schools) is a key factor for a student to move to further or higher education. The good news is that you don’t have to be an expert in the subject to help your children, after all, and I mean this in a nice way, they’ve been doing the subject for a while without your subject knowledge.
The revision timetable: Work with them to get a balanced revision timetable that includes both work and a social life. During the forth-coming months, something will get in the way, for example a birthday or sickness. Be flexible with the special events and agree when the work can be made up. Support them if something like an illness gets in the way and tell them not to worry, they CAN catch up.
Not knowing where to start: Get your children to list the topics that they need to revise from hardest to easiest (or least hardest!!) It really is as simple as that. Revise the harder topics first as these will take the longest time to fully understand and also the reason why leaving things to the last minute is not a good idea….
Leaving things to the last minute: At this point, students won’t be able to effectively revise the harder or the easier topics. There is very clear research that shows that the more often people recap a topic, the more likely they are to remember it. This means that starting earlier and revising topics regularly will lead to the ability to recap items long term.
I hope this has been useful and I will continue this in next month’s article.