Before the Easter holiday we wanted to do something with the students that would reassure them that they ‘have got this’ and that they still have time to prepare for the exams. We had previously run tutorial sessions (see attached) on learning styles, memory, and revision techniques, so were confident that students know how to revise and how to maximise retrieval. But we were less confident that students were making the most of their time and wanted to motivate them to make best use of the holidays and run up to the exam period.
We have had college assemblies and guest speakers in before that have given important information to students, but we wanted this to be a little bit different so decided to invest in getting the ‘Fix-up Team’ in. I have seen Action Jackson a couple of times delivering assemblies to students and at a teach meet where he was motivating an audience of teachers (notoriously difficult to impress) and he was ‘amazing’, so thought that this is just what our students needed.
Junior ‘the Preacher’ Crawford gave three assemblies and a revision session to our second year L3 BTEC and A-Level learners and was exactly what I had hoped for. The students were totally engaged in his high energy, funny and inspiring sessions. He definitely lifted their mood, and he had students queuing at the end of the sessions to shake his hand and thank him. They were all commenting on how they were feeling more confident in their own ability to revise and felt motivated to make use of the time they had left. Some students confided in me afterwards that they had been reluctant to go at first as they thought it was going to be another ‘boring UCAS talk …’, but this was someone they could actually relate to and that they had really enjoyed it. Now they just wanted to get down to work and prove to themselves and their families exactly what they were capable of.
Our student voice survey gave very positive feedback on the event, so now we just have to wait to see if there is a positive impact on exam outcomes. However, as it is not all about exam achievement, and student experience and wellbeing is just as important, I’d therefore say it was a success.
revision guideRevision Session 1
Su's blog 
Su, lovely to see everything you and your team do reflected in print. It just shows how well you have made this a priority for us this year. I really liked the piece on exam stress linking it to effective revision strategies. You are entirely right – if we can combat that with teaching them how to revise first it is half the battle won. Well done – Josette
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Thanks Josette. Yes, they know more than they think they do and just need help retrieving it 🙂
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