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To ensure there are clear and consistent links between our curriculum offer in school and pupil engagement at home, Saint Paul’s has a comprehensive Home Learning policy supported by strategies and tools designed to make it easier for students to access learning no matter where they are or what tools they have available. This section of the website brings all these strategies and tools together in one easy to access location, as well as providing an introduction as to how they will be used.

As well as our heavily used Remote Learning Portal and Office 365 access, each student has access to a ‘Knowledge Book’ which will contain Knowledge Organisers for every subject they study. They will also be given a homework exercise book where they will record all homework for every subject. This will be provided each half term and will link directly to the curriculum journey for each year group.

During Red Week, students will be asked by their subject teachers, to focus on a specific section of the knowledge organiser at home: Each child will then read that section, cover it up and attempt to write out the information from memory. They will then check they have done this correctly against the knowledge organiser, self-correcting any mistakes using a green pen that will also be provided.

This process may be repeated a couple of times for that piece of homework and we will refer to this method as ‘cover, write- check’. There will be three/ four subjects a night to complete each one taking approximately 15/20 minutes.

On Friday of Red Week, form tutors will check that the homework has been completed and reward all students who have done so with a positive homework point. Any student who does not complete their homework, without good reason, will firstly be issued a negative achievement point, secondly, a phone call home will be made by a member of the pastoral team and finally an hour detention will be issued to be served on the third occasion that homework is not submitted. This cycle will be repeated with those pupils failing to engage with homework closely monitored by the Teaching and Learning team.

In Blue Week, all students will have a short in-class home learning recall activity/ test to check that the knowledge they have learned has not forgotten. All the content within the knowledge organisers has been designed to ensure that Saint Paul’s students will be exposed to some of the greatest ideas, art and information that has ever been written, spoken, performed or presented. This accumulation of knowledge will form part of their final assessments at the end of each of our curriculum topics.

Home Learning Policy

Home Learning Policy

Blended Learning Policy

Parent Policy - 21-1-21

Individual, Small group & Year group Policy - 21-1-21

Home Learning Timetable for Year 7 – 9

Home Learning Timetable for Year 10 – 11

In Years 10 and 11 the demands of qualification courses means that the pattern of homework set may well vary from any published timetables. This is particularly relevant with regard to coursework where increased demands will be placed on pupils at certain times of the year

At Saint Paul’s, we have created a five year curriculum plan that builds effective revision strategies into homework and lesson tasks. Research around memory suggests that if knowledge is studied once and not revisited or revised, it is not stored in the long-term memory. This means that after one lesson, or revising for one test, the knowledge will not be retained unless it is studied again and again. It won’t be recalled unless it is revisited frequently, which will embed it in the long term memory. This is often referred to as ‘Spiral Learning’ or ‘Retrieval Practice’.

The research shows that  if our students engage in this style of learning and revision, it will work! To do this well, students should be revising what they have been taught in recent lessons as well as content they have been taught previously. We have created a bank of Knowledge Organisers for every year group and every subject that relate specifically to content being covered in lessons each term.  These will show the exact facts, dates, events, characters, concepts and precise definitions that students need to remember for each topic.  Some examples of how best to use these Knowledge Organisers and improve students’ independent learning skills are detailed below. These Independent learning strategies will not only help students to retain and recall knowledge but start to equip them with revision skills for examinations. In additional we hope that parents and carers will find these an easy way to support students.

As the year develops and the bank of  Knowledge Organisers is developed, students will be able to use them to pre-learn and re-learn information, a vital part of processing all the information required to be successful in the new style GCSE’s.

Mind maps: Mind maps are a great way of getting lots of key information on one page. ‘A topic on a page’ which the students can revise from. It’s a good way of getting them to make links between events.

Knowledge Drop: This could be a great task for knowledge recall from a previous lesson or a topic studied some weeks ago. Simply write down all the points you can remember about a topic, it could be a spider diagram or a bullet pointed list. You can them check what you have remembered by using the Knowledge Organiser.

Flash Cards: These are great for examination preparation and especially good for people at home to support with homework. On one side write a question from your subject. This can be an examination style question or facts on a topic from the Knowledge Organiser. On the other side bullet point the answer.

Condense it: Students can read detailed pieces of information on a topic or from a Knowledge Organiser and find the key points. This can be done by highlighting the information or taking it further by condensing the information into 4 or 5 points or even some trigger words which will spark memory.

Give a lecture: This simple by effective task can be done in class or at home. Ask the student to talk about a topic without repetition for 1 minute. The aim is to get the student to verbalise their understanding of a topic and hopeful recall lots of information.

Mnemonic: The aim of a mnemonic is to remember important points, which may otherwise tricky to achieve. The time spent making the mnemonic is a great memory aid itself! An example used in history classes to remember the terms of a World War One treaty can be seen below:

B- Blame
R- Reparations
A- Army
T – Territory

In remembering the word BRAT will help recall these key points.

Sketch it: A creative way of committing information to memory, students can use symbols, storyboards and even actions to remember the sequence of events or formula. We all learning in different ways, this a great way to help with visual memory. A creative way of committing information to memory, students can use symbols, storyboards and even actions to remember the sequence of events or formula. We all learning in different ways, this a great way to help with visual memory.

 

Before you get started, click the Flipbook to read the
Students Guide on how to get the best from Knowledge Organisers

 

 

3D Flipbooks are fully interactive and can be rotated by disabling SmartPan.
Click on the cog menu at the bottom of the Flipbook, click on SmartPan to disable it and the drag the book using the Right Mouse Button

These Knowledge Books are a collection of all the Knowledge Organisers specific to a particular term. From here they can be viewed online as an interactive Flipbook, downloaded and even printed.

Autumn Knowledge Books

Year 7 knowledge book
Download

Year 8 knowledge book
Download

Year 9 knowledge book
Download

Summer Knowledge Books

Year 7 knowledge book
Download

Year 8 knowledge book
Download

Year 9 knowledge book
Download

Spring Knowledge Books

Year 7 knowledge book
Download

Year 8 knowledge book
Download

Year 9 knowledge book
Download

Personal Development Passport

Exams & Revision

The ability to perform well under examination conditions is pivotal to our pupils fulfilling their academic potential. This is best achieved by pupils attending school every day, on time, in the correct uniform, with the correct equipment and with desire to do themselves justice.

With regard to exam preparation, pupils are given clear guidance by their subject teachers on revision techniques. Subject content is broken down into manageable topics and tested at regular intervals to monitor progress and to inform further revision needs.

All subjects offer revision, intervention and support sessions outside of the normal school day for pupils. The vast majority of our students are keen to take advantage of these sessions and make the most of these opportunities to maximise their chances of doing well.

On occasion, parental support is required to ensure that a student attends particular sessions. As a school we are very clear that it is staff, students and parents working together that delivers the best results for our young people and would take this opportunity to thank our pupils’ parents and carers in helping achieve this.

The GCSE grading system changed from A-G to 9-1 in 2017.