The Year ahead Year 10 13 th September 2016
The start of GCSEs A two year journey The first phase of your child s education where the outcomes will be used to form a judgement about your child The first time that the outcomes of the course of study will open up or restrict opportunity. A set of qualifications that will be used to apply for college courses, apprenticeships, university courses and jobs
Changes ahead Why the change? 1. provide a stronger foundation for further study and employment, keeping pace with the demands of universities and employers. 2. support students in developing the knowledge, skills and values they need for life in modern Britain. 3. match the standards of the best education systems in the world.
The changes The Government are rolling out new GCSEs over three years. Your children, our current Year 10 will face new examinations in the majority of their courses. Last year we saw the first delivery of: English Language English Literature Mathematics
New subjects this year All other GCSEs delivered this year will be the new specifications and the new grading system, with the exception of: Italian Media Resistant Materials Graphics Product Design Textiles ICT
New Maths GCSEs The New Maths GCSE More content to study and more stretching maths at the higher grades. Supports a deeper and broader understanding of the subject. Due to the specification becoming more challenging, some pupils who would have sat the higher tier under the old system will now be sitting the foundation tier under the new system the benchmark grade 5 can be achieved on either tier.
New Maths GCSE Maths will continue to be 100% examination with no coursework element completed prior to the exam. Maths will continue to be examined on either a higher or foundation tier paper. Maths will be examined at the end of Year 11 with one non-calculator and two calculator papers. Memorising equations and formulae will be important, no longer will equation sheets be given out. This is a change to the learning styles of our pupils.
New English GCSEs The new English language GCSE Robust foundation in reading and writing good English. Greater weighting of marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar. The new English literature GCSE Encourages students to read, write and think critically. Range of challenging and substantial whole texts and unseen texts
New English GCSEs English will now be 100% examination with no coursework element completed prior to the exam (formerly 40% controlled assessment). English will be one single tier paper for all pupils nationally. Two English Literature papers and two English Language papers. English exams will be closed text and have more unseen work. Pupils will need to know the four texts they have been taught and to be able to reference quotations. The exam board will accept paraphrasing getting the odd word wrong under the stress of the exam but pupils need to know their key quotations A greater volume of poems and novels are also studied.
English The text they do in term 1 of Year 10 (Christmas Carol, Jekyll & Hyde, Frankenstein) will be examined at the end of Year 11. From the start, revision must be central to the way pupils approach English.
What does 1 9 mean? These new GCSEs will be examined using results from 1 9 replacing the existing G A*. 9 Will be the highest grade This is reported to be beyond the existing A* grade and will be achieved by the top 3 % of the national cohort. The current C grade will likely be seen as the new grade 5, in actual terms this equates to a low B grade on the current system.
NEW GCSE GRADING BTEC & VCERT Old GCSE Grading
Science Assessments will be more synoptic (for triple) and longer, instead of 6 or 9 (for triple) clearly defined 1 hour papers. There will now be For double 6 x 1:15 min papers (2 for each subject) For triple 6 x 1:45 min papers (2 for each subject but with each paper covering more content) Practical work now examined in the terminal assessments older brothers or sisters did not have to do this so this is a shift in emphasis. Do not discard practical work/knowledge as being irrelevant. With terminal exams pupils must be revising/consolidating constantly not just for tests? Due to the terminal exams there will be more surprise mini recall tests?
Beyond English and Maths MFL French/German/Spanish new GCSEs (linear exams). All exams take place in Summer Term of Year 11. Italian/Chinese legacy GCSE (controlled assessment 30% Speaking, 30% Writing), Listening 20%, Reading 20%. First controlled assessment to take place shortly after half term. You can re-take this & should if you are below your target grade. French/German/Spanish all students to be given access online textbook with lots of support and advice. Italian & Chinese Each controlled assessment is worth 15% of their final mark Preparation is crucial. We would expect students to practise independently at home Use Language Perfect Read carefully any coursework booklet handed out Prepare answers to questions on a regular basis which will be marked by their classroom teacher. Speaking = 4-6 minutes (3 types of task). No dictionaries allowed, but 30 word sheet is allowed. Writing = 200 words. Dictionaries are allowed. 30 word sheet is allowed.
Beyond English and Maths All subjects will have a greater weighting of marks available for literacy. Practical Subjects Subjects with long deadlines are dangerous. Monitor progress, stay on top of the work, don t let the work build up Design based subjects & Art particularly. Drama Rehearsals Responsibility to the group your child is in Being accommodating to everyone s needs when arranging rehearsals and ensuring flexibility and compromise.
Terminal exams All exams will now be sat at the end of the two year course. The days of re-sits and modular exams are now gone at GCSE and A level. This brings with it a need to ensure that pupils get it right. Assessment Mock Exams (Week Commencing 24 th April 2017) Monitoring
Memory Pupils will be tested more on their recall of facts, quotes and formulae Modern day children do not practice memory skills very well - they don t need to when they can google it or store numbers in their phone. We have to support them practicing this. Think of ways to support this
Supporting our children Supporting school ethos and culture Working with school Communication Encouraging to attend revision, ensuring that past papers are completed Accessing past papers and mark schemes Keep up to date as we continue to update you Promote good attendance Keep them Calm! Maintain balance in their lives
Homework and Revision Homework plays a central part in a pupils learning. Please support homework - keep in touch with our tutors via the diary Homework looks different in different subjects - revision, research, exam questions, flipped learning. As we move through the year we will have more support about revision and how to support revision. Structure Finding what works for each pupil
We need your help & support High standards & expectations Uniform Punctuality Behaviour Communication
Punctuality Being just three minutes late for every lesson each day is 15 minutes lost learning. Over a week that s 1:15mins Over a school year approximately 48 hours of learning time. 9 ½ school days
Percentage Attendance Weekly
Design & Art subjects Coursework deadlines Organisation Practical side to projects
Intervention Miss Duffy Turner, Mr Hook and Miss Battle Support pupils best they can with keeping on top of things They run a before school, lunchtime and afterschool in N3
Thank you for attending last night s information evening about the Year ahead for Year 10. We hope you found it informative and it will be helpful in supporting your child as we move through the next two years. The Mock exams for Year 10 are scheduled for the week beginning 24 April 2017. We received several requests for clarification of which exam boards will be followed for each subject. I will arrange for this information to be sent out to you and displayed on the website as soon as possible. In addition to this we are also trying to collate a table of suggested text books or revision guides which will also be published and sent out via school comms. With regard to text books, there are some challenges that we face in regard to this given the fact that in many cases text books have only just been published. However again we will collate this information and distribute to you as soon possible.