Parents and Carers of Year 11 students

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

I am writing to share with you the plans that we have for Year 11 as we approach the exam phase of their secondary education at Falmouth School.

We have been keeping in touch with you regarding the exam preparations through the Family Learning, my past letters; Mrs Miller and Mr Mitchell have also sent a number of communications since December about the Trial Exams and other exam related aspects. 

We have further specific updates for you leading up to the exams that the students will be informed about and we want you, likewise, to be fully aware of all the information disseminated. Your knowledge and understanding of what we do and why we do it will enable us all to support your son/daughter in their exam journey and maximise their achievements whilst attending their school days fully until their last exam. We expect all students to positively engage in all the learning activities every day, from the time they walk onto the school site, until they leave. Every minute counts and every student has a lot to gain. 

Targeted support has been taking place and many students have been asked to attend these sessions for specific reasons to reduce existing gaps in knowledge or understanding. It has been great to see a number of students really engage with this and benefit. The students are emotionally preparing for the exam season and many are really willingly committing to their after-school sessions and showing dedication. It has been admirable to see them attending a number of subject specific sessions during a busy week and still walk out at 4pm happy. However, there are some students who we have been trying to reach for our targeted support sessions without much success. Our teachers have been in touch with you where this has been the case. We offer a rich and varied curriculum, thus we expect all students to conclude their qualifications in all their subjects. All subjects are incredibly important whilst each has its own value and content; a person can transfer a lot of knowledge from one subject to another and make multiple links. Significant gains can be made even in this current time frame and every student can still improve significantly to benefit everywhere.

Leadership Team members support after-school revision each day in the library and many students have accessed this provision. These after-school study sessions enable students to work in a quiet, calm and focused environment and all students who attend maintain this beneficial atmosphere by demonstrating the same high standards of conduct as we expect of them during lessons.

Full attendance in school uniform, always being ready to learn with the correct equipment and adherence to the school expectations are simply essential tools for success and it is an expectation that has not changed. We want all our students to pursue these highest standards throughout the school day, throughout all the revision sessions and targeted support that we offer. Leading up to the exams, all our staff continue working exceptionally hard, together, with our students, and they will be providing sessions after school and even on weekends; and in some cases the exam preparation activities will take place almost daily. All students are exceptionally important; they deserve our undivided attention for the most positive reasons.

I thank you in advance for your continued support and for promoting the importance of school expectations everywhere all the time. It is essential for all of us that all our students enjoy being part of the Falmouth Family whilst concluding their exam season with pride with that important sense of belonging, and feeling that they truly did their best to accomplish the highest achievements possible. 

 

Walking Talking Mocks

Walking-Talking mocks are taking place in the library. Science and maths took place this week, and these continue, including English, next week. The purpose of a Walking-Talking mock is for students to be sat in exam-style conditions, but with the metacognitive process of how to complete an exam question explained and demonstrated by the teacher. We are really pleased with the students engaging with the walking talking mocks and their curiosity to find out what else is on and what other sessions are taking place so that they can access the revision opportunities. This is exactly what we all want. 

Here is the schedule for the Walking-Talking mocks for next week:

 

	Tutor	P1	P2	Break	P3	P4	Lunch	P5
Note: GCSE Art and Photography exams all day Monday and Tuesday (24th/25th), and MFL speaking exams Monday-Wednesday (24th-26th)
Monday 24th		11A Trilogy Physics			11 Triple Chemistry (KW) and GCSE DT	11B Maths Higher		11Q DT (RCC)
Tuesday 25th			English Language 11aE1 and 11aE2		11B Maths Higher	English language 11aE3 and 11bE3
Wednesday 26th		11B Trilogy Physics	English Language 11bE2			English Language 11bE1
Thursday 27th
Friday 28th			11 Aspire Biology (BT)		11 Triple Physics (FA)	11A Maths Higher		11 Aspire Physics (FA)

 

Practical Exams / Foreign Languages Speaking Exams

Next week some of our Year 11 students are undertaking their real exams. Practical exams in Art and Photography take place next week. Also, Music students are going to demonstrate their performing skills as part of their qualification. Finally, the Spanish, French and Portuguese speaking exams, forming a notable proportion of the qualification, are scheduled early next week. We wish all the students the very best of luck and hope they have the highest ambitions and will to succeed. Please note that the MFL speaking exam-final rehearsal for all GCSE and A-level exams is this Saturday, as per Mrs Clark’s communications. 

BTECs

Some students have now completed their BTEC coursework and are utilising the time for revision of other subjects. We created a Google Classroom for them, called Independent Study, where they can locate a range of resources from other subjects so that their entire lesson time is dedicated to relevant and productive learning. Some students are completing their coursework and their commitment to this is absolutely crucial. Where students have been identified that they need to undertake a take a particular BTEC exam again, this has been considered thoughtfully to maximise their overall outcome. 

 

Academia Tutor Time

In order to best support the progress of students in the core subjects of English and maths, students have been placed into new groups during registration time. This will commence on Monday 24 April. On Monday Year 11s will register in their current, existing tutor groups then go to assembly and then from Tuesday, they will register in the new academic tutor groups. Groups have been thoughtfully constructed so that students can be best supported in their English, maths and science revision. Resources have been carefully selected by our Teaching Team Leaders of the three core subjects to ensure that diagnosed weaknesses that have been identified through recent lessons and assessments are addressed. Current Year 11 form tutors, as well as some additional English and maths teachers, will form the team supporting, encouraging and inspiring Year 11 during morning registration. 

Year 11 will continue to have an assembly every Monday to enable key messages to be conveyed. During the rest of the week, the subjects will rotate and centrally deployed revision will take place as explained above. 

We understand that most families have built up excellent relationships with their child’s form tutor over the last five years and this continues in the same vein and through the same, already well-established communication channels.  Even if your child’s form tutor may not currently see your child in the morning at the tutor time, they will continue to take an active interest in your child’s wellbeing and progress. The tutors will continue interacting with their tutees during the school day through other interactions. 

Ms Macrae continues to work as the Welfare staff for Year 11, as well as Miss Coles via the Base facility. 

This week, your child will have taken an English Literature Paper 2 trial exam in a classroom and the results will be fed back in class shortly to help students and staff prioritise areas for revision.

Revision sessions leading up to the exams and morning warm ups

Throughout the exam season we will be providing additional sessions, either before school or after school, as final preparation for imminent exams. We will be posting this information weekby-week on the school Facebook page, for each exam group. This means that typically on a Thursday, everyone can be reminded on the Facebook page which sessions are running for which exams, when, and where. This way there is complete transparency and you can ensure that your child attends everything there is on offer as the school supports all the exam groups.

Timetable

As we proceed through the exam season, Mr George is going to be making adaptions to the Year 11 timetable to ensure the subject teachers are able to teach the students prior to their exams where logistically possible. This is a very complex process which involves a lot of planning and we will update students on these aspects gradually as soon as they are finalised.

I would like to thank Mrs Miller and Mr Mitchell for contributing to this particular letter and for all their planning that has undergone so far as they have been crucial liaising with tutors, the teachers and leaders in order to continue supporting the students throughout Year 11. 

In conclusion, as you can see we have been trying to leave ‘no stone unturned’ in the next chapter of your son’s / daughter’s education and the success of it will depend on the positive engagement of all of us: staff, students and yourselves as the parents and carers. But it goes beyond. All the members of the families and all students are crucial in supporting the exam season in our school. We can do this together, by being kind, respectful, supportive and maintaining the communications open so that the students can embrace their exams with positive determination and knowing that they can succeed.

Thank you in advance for all your support and engagement with us. 

Kind regards,

 

 

Lenka Chanter

Headteacher